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[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/PowerRangers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6840d5a7ce4d11ba76b3eaea94a8d319.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!'']]

Jason David Frank (September 4, 1973 – November 19, 2022) was an American actor and martial artist.

His claim to fame was portraying Tommy Oliver, the original [[SixthRanger Green Ranger]] of the famed ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' as well as several other colors in numerous Ranger series.

In addition to being an actor, Jason owned his own karate schools and practiced professional UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts, competing with a record of 5-0. He also held the [[Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords Guinness World Record]] for breaking the most pine boards in freefall at seven, before Ernie Torres surpassed it at twelve.

On November 19, 2022, Jason passed away from suicide after struggling with depression, leaving us far too soon at 49 years old. He leaves behind his wife, four children, and a legacy of being not just a hero on television, but a hero to millions around the world.

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!!Notable works he appeared in:

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': Tommy Oliver
** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' (Green and White Ranger)
** ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' (White Ranger)
** ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'' (Red Ranger)
** ''Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie'' (Red Ranger)
** ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'' (Red Ranger)
** ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'' (Red Ranger) (Guest)
** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' (Black Ranger)
** ''Series/PowerRangersSuperMegaforce'' (Green Ranger) (Guest)
** ''Film/PowerRangers2017'' (Cameo, ''not'' as Tommy Oliver)
** ''VideoGame/PowerRangersLegacyWars: Street Fighter Showdown'' (Green Ranger)
** ''WebVideo/PowerRangersHyperforce'' (Black Ranger) (Guest)
** ''[[Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel]]'' ([[ItMakesSenseInContext Green, White, Red, and Black Rangers]]) (Guest)
** ''ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersShatteredGrid: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIzhXFnhURQ Dark Prelude]]'' (Lord Drakkon)
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': Skull (Guest)
* ''Series/SweetValleyHigh'': A.J.
* ''Series/{{Undressed}}'': Carl (Guest)
* ''WebAnimation/TheTransformersTitansReturn'': Emissary
* ''Webvideo/SuperPowerBeatDown''
** White Ranger vs. [[Franchise/MortalKombat Scorpion]]
** Green Ranger vs. [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]]
** Franchise/{{Godzilla}} vs. Dragonzord
* ''WebVideo/UpUpDownDown''
* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': Silver Bear (Guest)
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!!Jason David Frank's works provide examples of:
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* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Tended to play this role to his daughter Jenna, due to his somewhat ManChild-like behavior, in videos he posted online.
* BarbarianLonghair: Was this during most of his time as Tommy in ''Power Rangers'', with his long hair and toned, muscular physique.
* TheCastShowoff: Tommy had '''a lot''' of sparring scenes in the early ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' episodes.
* CastTheExpert: Frank himself would've told you that he's a martial artist first and an actor second.
* CatchPhrase: Many of Jason's social media posts include the phrase "Live Fearlessly".
* DawsonCasting: Frank was 19-20 when he first started playing Tommy on ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''. Not much of a stretch considering the original story had the characters as seniors, but Jason was going on 24 when his character finally graduated.
* DisownedAdaptation: He stated while he was open to a PG-13 version of ''Power Rangers'', he was not fond of the hard-R fan film/parody ''[[WebVideo/PowerRangersBootlegUniverse Power/Rangers]]'', which was intended as a TakeThat to the idea of a darker version of the series. Notably, he even had a cameo appearance in ''Film/{{Power Rangers|2017}}'' (2017), which ''is'' a PG-13 version.
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: His MMA opponents had a habit of claiming to be the one that will beat the Green Ranger. Jason's record was still undefeated upon his passing.
* HostilityOnSet: His relationship with Austin St. John was particularly notable; The two never got along during the original series and at most were cordial during filming, notably never doing panels at conventions together or even staying in the same room unless filming was involved; for a time things actually somewhat heated up in the 2010's until the two finally became somewhat amicable around 2020 (They never became friends, but any conversations regarding their history became less adversarial and more matter-of-fact).
* IAmNotLeonardNimoy:
** Jason full-on embraced this trope. He'll always be known as the original Green Ranger, occasionally White or Red, and he was completely fine with that. Take one look at his Facebook and you'd think it was a fan page for the character, not the actor.
** He also had suits made for the Green and White Rangers, to wear at conventions.
** Humorously, a defeated MMA opponent said in a post-match interview, [[CherryTapping "He could have at least morphed before he took me on."]]
** When Boom Studios decided to do a voiced trailer for the ''Power Rangers'' comics, Jason stepped in to voice Lord Drakkon, a mirror universe version of Tommy and later on suited up as Drakkon for a live-action trailer for the ''[[ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersShatteredGrid Shattered Grid]]'' event.
*** Even more impressive, Frank paid for most of the trailer himself.
* {{Irony}}: He stated in an interview that he was originally contracted to film only a handful of episodes of ''[[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers MMPR]]'' and explicitly told it would not become a recurring role or a career. He ended up becoming the face of the franchise.
* KungFuJesus: Invoked, not for himself, but for his Christian and martial arts-themed clothing line, "Jesus Didn't Tap".
%%* LargeHam
* LongRunnerCastTurnover: Jason was the main reason that this happened during ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo''. He wanted out, so they sent everyone else but Blake Foster with him.[[note]]Rumor has it that Catherine Sutherland also wanted out, but she has since claimed that she was just as surprised as everyone else.[[/note]]
* {{Manchild}}: He was infamous for being this both on set and in his personal life; make no mistake, he was generally very professional, but couldn't help himself from constantly pulling pranks on his coworkers, often made inflammatory/emotionally charged statements on personal and fan pages online, and a lot of his feud with Austin St. John is public knowledge because of his unwarranted potshots at the latter; it took an actual threat of violence from a fan who was willing to attack Austin at a con on his behalf for JDF to finally cool it, and the two were only amicable the last few years before JDF's tragic suicide.
* NoStuntDouble: According to his ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' cast mates, there were the stunt doubles, and there was Jason Frank. He also begged to do a rapids stunt in ''Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie'' to the stunt double's approval.[[labelnote:*]]His stunt double only did the actual jump. Everything in the water was Jason.[[/labelnote]]
** StuntDouble: After the rapids stunt, he became less eager to do his own high-risk stuff, and during his last episode of ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', Tommy became magically Asian during wide shots of a car explosion.
*** Also people have asked if he did his own skydiving stunt in the film. He said he didn't because Sky surfing is incredibly dangerous and very few people actually do it, himself not included. He was reportedly looking for someone to teach him though.
** TalentDouble: JDF has specifically called out his snowboarding double from ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'', who Jason himself picked because the double was '''worse''' than he was.
* ThePrankster: Just ask any of his cast mates, he would do things like secretly fill one cast member's trailer with all of the furniture from someone else's to standing off camera and make weird faces to try and get someone to [[{{Corpsing}} start laughing]]. Johnny Yong Bosch claimed it got to the point some of the cast started calling him Jason "Prank" instead.
* PromotedFanboy: Jason was once into ''Transformers'' back in the day, years later he finally got to be part of the franchise in ''WebAnimation/TheTransformersTitansReturn'' as the one character that's known for piloting giant robots; Emissary.
* RealLifeRelative: Jason's son, Jacob, was cast in a season two episode of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''. Two seasons afterward his late brother Eric played David, Tommy's brother, in ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''.
* RemakeCameo: He appeared in ''Film/PowerRangers2017'' as an Angel Grove citizen alongside fellow ''Mighty Morphin[='=]'' alum Creator/AmyJoJohnson.[[note]]Several members of the fandom let out a BigYes overseeing the original series Tommy and Kimberly together.[[/note]] Later outtakes showed he did an alternate cameo, with the same hairstyle as he'd worn during the series itself.
* RoleReprise: On top of being the second-longest returning Power Ranger in the series (the first being Creator/JohnnyYongBosch), he also took up the mantle of Green Ranger once more against [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] in ''WebVideo/SuperPowerBeatDown'', as well as playing the White Ranger once again against [[Franchise/MortalKombat Scorpion]] in the same show, and he even managed to reprise his role for the Boom Comics Power Rangers comic book, in a trailer released in 2018.
* SameCharacterButDifferent: The Black Ranger in ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' was originally called Dr. Edward Payne, just in case they couldn't get Jason back. Not much was actually changed between the switch from Payne to Tommy, which caused some discrepancies, the primary being that a Ph.D. in paleontology takes 8-11 years to get.
* SoMyKidsCanWatch: The main reason Jason returned for ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' was because of his daughter. (Apparently, he also did it because of ratings issues, at least according to ''WebVideo/HistoryOfPowerRangers''.)
* SuddenlyEthnicity: After he became Suddenly Native American on ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', and the fact that he actually looked it, Jason pulled off Suddenly '''''Not''''' Native American in real life.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Jason was originally slated to star in ''Series/VRTroopers'', then titled ''Cybertron'', before popularity brought him back to ''Franchise/PowerRangers''.
** One of the producers on ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', Jonathan Tzachor, wanted Tommy to die just like his counterpart in ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger''. He was overruled by his superiors (and presumably Fox Kids broadcast standards and practices).
** He almost got the part of Len in ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'', but the producers ultimately chose Matt Mullins instead, not wanting people to believe that ''Dragon Knight'' was connected to the ''Power Rangers'' universe. Interestingly enough, had he gotten the part as well as the above part in ''VR Troopers'', this would have made ''[[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultraman]]'' the only major Japanese Tokusatsu series[[labelnote:*]]unless one counts ''Series/{{Garo}}''[[/labelnote]] he had not starred in an American adaptation of[[labelnote:*]]although this is more because no major company has attempted to adapt ''Ultraman'' in the style of ''Power Rangers''. Reportedly, ''Series/TattooedTeenageAlienFightersFromBeverlyHills'' originally intended to adapt the ''Ultra'' spin-off ''Andromelos'', but those plans fell through[[/labelnote]].
** He was called up to appear in ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersOnceAndAlways'', but he turned it down, his first, last and only refusal of the call, partially, according to rumours, due to Creator/SabanEntertainment refusing to greenlight one of his projects, and partially due to the spec script they offered being almost identical to ''Legend Of The White Dragon'', his personal pet project at the time.
* WrittenInAbsence: Both times Tommy lost his powers on ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', Jason Frank was more or less just written out of the show until he was written back in. [[labelnote:*]]The original intention was for him to be written out. Frank even shot a pilot for another Saban show that would become ''V.R. Troopers''. The original plan would have seen Brad Hawkins play a new character as the white ranger. Saban decided to write Frank back in as the white ranger instead and Hawkins ended up doing ''V.R. Troopers''.[[/labelnote]] Then on ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'', Jason had more time off than his cast mates (to work at his karate school), so his character became invisible, then stuck in his Ranger suit.
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