Austin St. John
Austin St. John – “Power Rangers” Los Angeles Premiere – Arrivals – Mann Village Theatre, Westwood, 961 Broxton Avenue – Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2017 – Photo Credit: Julian Blythe/HNW / PRPhotos.com
Birth Name: Jason Lawrence Geiger
Place of Birth: Roswell, New Mexico, U.S.
Date of Birth: September 17, 1974
Ethnicity: German, English, other
Austin St. John is an American actor, martial artist, and paramedic. He is known for his role as Jason in the Power Rangers franchise.
Austin is the son of Sharon and Stephen Geiger.
Various web sites states that he has Native American, Irish, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish ancestry. It is not clear if this is accurate.
Austin’s paternal grandfather was named Jerome Geiger.
Austin’s paternal grandmother was Janice Louise Hawley (the daughter of Isaac V. Hawley and Genevieve/Jennaveve Louis John). Janice was born in California. Isaac was born in Michigan, to English parents.
Austin’s maternal grandfather’s surname was Frackeen.
Source: Obituary of Austin’s father – https://www.findagrave.com
This is Janice’s husband (and likely Austin’s grandfather):
https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2238&h=17903406&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Dnf3749&_phstart=successSource
The wedding announcement in the papers mentiones nothing about his side of the family. I can’t find him under the names Geiger nor Swalley on any census.
J.A. Swalley is likely John A. Swalley that appears on voter lists in San Bernardino county.
Likely grandmother:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGP2-X6S
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCJR-WNN
I’ve found his father, his name is Stephen Lawrence Geiger:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2TC-J3T
Austin’s paternal grandparents’ surnames were Geiger and Hawley.
Possibly his grandmother?
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/fort-wayne-in/evelyn-bender-6719537
Interestingly, her funeral took place in St. John’s Lutheran Church of Lake Township.
It’s not. Different couple.
He will definitely turn out to be half or a quarter Japanese.
One quarter, perhaps. In any case, Power Rangers was certainly way ahead of its time in terms of diverse casting (other than having the lead character being identified as Native American while played by a white guy).
I could be wrong. But I definitely feel like he has some Italian, as I believe it said on his IMDB page. His over all looks and facial structure could definitely pass for at least partial ethnic Italian.