When Your Favorite Power Ranger Kills Himself

RIP Jason David Frank (1973-2022)

I had heard over the weekend on social media that one of the original Power Rangers had died, but it was not until this morning that I got the details. It was my childhood favorite, and he had done so by his own hand, as TMZ reported:

Jason David Frank -- one of the original "Power Rangers" -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

The actor and mixed martial artist died in Texas, according to his rep Justine Hunt. Sources with direct knowledge tell us his death was the result of suicide.

JDF is best known as Tommy Oliver from the original run of the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" franchise, dating back to the kids series' debut in 1993 ... when he was introduced as one of six crime/monster-fighting superheroes, masked head to toe with kung-fu skills.

I’m not really sure why, in the early 1990s, young Dave appreciated the Green Ranger so much. Perhaps it was for such a benign reason as that green was my favorite color, or - more likely - I was drawn to the character’s greater edginess, compared to the more straitlaced primary group of five. The Green Ranger was initially a mind-controlled villain opposing the other Rangers before becoming a hero. I remember, as a child, being so disappointed by the “Green Candle” episodes in which he temporarily lost his powers before being reintroduced as the White Ranger later in the series:

I haven’t really thought about Power Rangers very much since “growing up.” By the time the show emerged onto the pop culture scene in the summer of 1993, I was already nine years old, so the show could not make the same deep imprint on my psyche as some of the children’s programming of the 1980s did, such as blessed Thundercats:

As Power Rangers continued in iterations over the years, I outgrew the franchise pretty quickly, becoming a teenager and looking toward more subversive offerings in media:

Now it’s more than 20 years later, and I wonder: what all could have happened in the previous decades that could have put Jason David Frank so low that he would end his own life? Or were the seeds of his self-destruction already planted even before his acting career began? Was there some triggering event that could have brought about his death recently? Some answers to these questions will likely emerge soon enough.

One thing about suicide I’ve learned as I’ve grappled with my own chronic suicidal ideation and the suicides of people I’ve known is that each death is its own story, often with very different roots. Many different psychological and even physical conditions can provoke suicide, and a range of life events can trigger it. Oftentimes, multiple factors contribute.

As I’ve been trying to recover from and unpack my trauma over the last year, it’s become clear how many layers there are to it - so many different events of physical violence and emotional bullying, from childhood through adulthood, have compounded so much over the years, now just leaving me feeling worthless and broken much of the time.

Thank you to our readers and contributors for your support and patience through my PTSD and suicidal ideation struggles this year. Having now returned to Indiana for the holiday months to spend extra time with family and friends, we hope to increase both the quantity and quality of the content we’re putting out here at God of the Desert Substack. We’re also aiming to make more progress in our book publishing plans for 2023. Maybe if I can find peace here with the support of my family I’ll be able to get back to daily blogging and daily podcasting again like I’m targeting. Time will tell.

But I’ll keep an eye out for more stories about poor Jason Frank and what circumstances may have led to his decision to end his life. I really want to know what happened.