Austin St. John

Austin St. John
St. John in June 2014.
Born	Jason Geiger (1974-09-17) September 17, 1974 Roswell, New Mexico
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1993–2003, 2009, 2016

Austin St. John (born Jason Geiger;^[1] on September 17, 1974) is an American Paramedic, actor, and martial artist, mainly known for his role as Jason Lee Scott, the original Red Ranger and first leader of the Power Rangers in the popular children's television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.^[2]

Personal life

St. John has been practicing martial arts since he was five years old and holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do,^[3] a first-degree black belt in Judo, and he also practices Kenpo.^[4]

His stage name came as his management team at Pat O'Brien Management Talents thought Jason Geiger was not a strong name, with the actor coming up with "St. John" himself, and Austin being suggested by the managers inspired by Steve Austin, from The Six Million Dollar Man.^[1]

Power Rangers and acting career

St. John's first major acting role was in 1993, when he starred as Jason Lee Scott, the Red Power Ranger, in Saban Entertainment's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was an instant success and quickly became one of the highest-rated children's television programs ever. However, Austin left the series midway through the second season, after a contract and pay dispute, and was replaced as the Red Ranger on the show by Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos.^[5]

St. John later returned to the franchise as the Gold Ranger in Power Rangers: Zeo and in a supporting role as the recently retired-Ranger Jason Lee Scott in the second feature film Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, along with his former castmate Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly Hart, the original Pink Power Ranger). He also co-hosted the 1999 Power Rangers special titled "The Lost Episode," with his former castmate and close friend Walter Emanuel Jones (Zack Taylor, the original Black Power Ranger), in which they both discussed the history of Power Rangers up to that point and also presented the original, never-before-seen pilot of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

St. John's last Power Rangers appearance was in the tenth anniversary special episode of Power Rangers: Wild Force (2002) entitled Forever Red, where he joined nine other Red Ranger actors from the previous and the then-current season (minus, Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos) to battle and defeat the remnants of the Machine Empire from Power Rangers: Zeo. He once again suited-up as the original MMPR Red Ranger and was reunited with his former cast mate Jason David Frank (Tommy Oliver, the franchise's longest-serving Power Ranger). St. John was also one of the guest speakers who appeared at the 2007 Power Morphicon convention held in Los Angeles, which celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise.

After several years of service overseas St. John began making convention appearances in 2014 including a return to Power Morphicon.^[6][7]

St. John will return to the acting world in an upcoming post-apocalyptic thriller called Survival's End.^[8]

In 2017, he will star in an upcoming short movie The Order alongside a host of other Power Rangers alumni, including Walter Emanuel Jones, Catherine Sutherland, David Yost, Johnny Yong Bosch, Paul Schrier, Karan Ashley, Steve Cardenas, Erin Cahill, Blake Foster, Nakia Burrise, Hilary Shepard Turner, Dan Southworth, Alyson Sullivan, Deborah Estelle Phillips, and Azim Rizk.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Filmography

Television

Film

Books

• Austin St. John is the author of the book Karate Warrior: A Beginner's Guide to Martial Arts. - ISBN 1-56138-784-3

References

External links

• Austin St. John at the Internet Movie Database
• Austin St. John on Twitter