What Brent Spiner Hated The Most About Playing Star Trek's Data

Performing in the "Star Trek" franchise can define an actor's career, as it did for "Trek" luminaries like Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, and Jeri Ryan. But "Trek" fame can have its downsides, too, from being typecast to frustrations with alien makeup. For actor Brent Spiner, who played the android Lieutenant Commander Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," his biggest gripe wasn't either of those. Nor was it working with his most challenging co-star, Spot . Instead, he was at his most annoyed when fans on the street would call him "Data," rather than "Brent" or "Mr. Spiner."

"Sometimes I think [playing Data] limited me in ways I wished it hadn't, but I realize I don't have any control over that," Spiner told Vice Magazine in a 2012 interview. "The only thing that bothers me — and it