Zefram Cochrane was the man behind Star Trek's revolutionary warp drive technology, but despite being born in 2030, he could still be alive in the far future. Cochrane is best known from his appearance in Star Trek: First Contact, which depicted the Borg Collective's attempts to go back in time and sabotage his first warp flight. Played by James Cromwell, Cochrane was a hard drinking, easy living guy who not only broke the warp barrier, but made First Contact with alien life.
James Cromwell would briefly reprise the role in both Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Lower Decks, but he wasn't the first actor to play the historic figure in canon. Glenn Corbett previously played Cochrane in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Metamorphosis", which was set 204 years after the flight depicted in First Contact. This encounter between Cochrane and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) created the possibility that the inventor of warp drive is still very much alive in Star Trek canon.
