Jason David Frank, Best Known As Tommy Oliver On 'Power Rangers' Passed Away At Age 49
Image source: Power Rangers/Hasbro
It’s a sad day for the Ranger Nation. Actor Jason David Frank, who starred as Tommy Oliver for over 200 episodes of Power Rangers as a regular across six seasons and two movies, has died at the age of 49, reportedly by suicide. Rumblings had begun overnight from social media posts by costars Blake Foster Selwyn Ward, Tracy Lynn Cruz, and Walter Jones by the morning, but his rep Justine Hunt confirmed on Sunday.
Born on September 4, 1973, in Covina, California, Frank as Tommy Oliver is the dominant component of his acting career. He debuted as the character in the seventeenth episode of the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, “Green With Evil” part 1, becoming Rita Repulsa’s evil Green Ranger before the spell is broken at the end of the five-part saga. He would lose his powers after 18 episodes in “The Green Candle” part 2 and be absent for the next 14 episodes bar a cameo in “Doomsday” part 2. He would receive a temporary power infusion in “Return of an Old Friend” which lasts 25 episodes until “Green No More” in season 2. The White Ranger powers come a few episodes later in “White Light”, and be named team leader. He remained the White Ranger until the end of Mighty Morphin’, including for the first movie. In season 4, Zeo, he became Zeo Ranger 5 Red and then the Red Turbo Ranger in the second movie, exiting about halfway through the season that the film kicked off.
RELATED:
From there, he would return for the 10th-anniversary special, Wild Force's “Forever Red”. For 2004’s Dino Thunder, he starred once again for 38 episodes, the character is now a high school teacher and becomes the Dino Thunder Black Ranger. He had done so for that season’s showrunners Ann Austen and Doug Sloan. Subsequent appearances included “Legendary Battle” in Super Megaforce in 2014 and a cameo in 2017’s reboot film as an onlooker. In 2018, he made several appearances for the 25th anniversary, including twice on the live-streamed tabletop role-playing game Power Rangers Hyperforce as both Tommy and Lord Drakkon, an alternate-timeline Tommy who relapsed back into evil in the comics. He also narrated a live-action trailer for the Shattered Grid storyline and returned to the TV series for Super Ninja Steel’s anniversary-commemorating episode “Dimensions in Danger”. There was also the “Power Rangers Legacy Wars - Street Fighter Showdown” live-action short. He voiced his characters for the Shattered Grid-inspired Power Rangers Battle for the Grid video game, and Silver Bear in a Power Rangers-homaging episode of Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears titled “Imaginary Friend”.
A fixture on the convention circuit for over a decade, Frank declared himself done with Power Rangers in May 2022 in favor of his own Legend of the White Dragon project, he was not part of the confirmed cast of the upcoming Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers 30th anniversary reunion coming to Netflix, reportedly premiering in April. He is survived by his estranged wife Tammie and children Jenna, Skye, Jacob, and Hunter.
READ NEXT:
Source: TMZ
Latest News
Featured
