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Matthew Fox portrayed Jack Shephard, the primary lead role of the series.

Background and personal life[]

Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor and former model. His first major role was playing an older brother and patriarch Charlie Salinger on Party of Five in the 1990s, co-starring with both Scott Wolf and Neve Campbell. Matthew Fox was born in Abington, Pennsylvania but grew up in Crowheart, Wyoming where his parents raised longhorn cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors beer.

He attended Wind River High School in Pavillion, Wyoming and did post-graduate high school study at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Fox subsequently attended Columbia University, where he played football and majored in Economics with the intent to end up on Wall Street. Fox also studied acting for two years at The School for Film and Television in New York City.

Fox married Margherita Ronchi in 1992. They have two children, Kyle and Byron.

Career[]

Haunted

Fox as he appeared in Haunted.

In college, his girlfriend's mother, a modeling agent, convinced him to try some modeling. This job subsequently led to several television commercials, leading Fox to pursue a career in acting. After attending The School for Film and Television in New York City, Fox began searching for roles. His first major part was a guest role on a 1992 episode of the television show Wings, where he played the part of Ty Warner. This led to roles in the show Freshman Dorm and in the film My Boyfriend's Back. Fox's big break came with a regular role on the show Party of Five, in which he played Charlie Salinger, the eldest of five orphans and the head of the family. The show proved to be a success, and it ran for six years, ending in 2000. After briefly appearing as the lead of the short-lived show Haunted, Fox was cast on the television show Lost as Jack Shephard.

PartyOfFive

Fox in Party of Five.

In between his time spent acting on the show, Fox was able to star in several films. The first of these, We Are Marshall, premiered in 2006, and was followed the next year by Smokin' Aces (in which Fox had a minor role), and then in 2008 by Vantage Point and Speed Racer, both of which featured major roles for Fox. Fox also appeared as the host in the December 2, 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live. In March 2009, Fox announced Lost would be his last television show. [1]

On Lost[]

FoxCC

Fox on the Lost panel at Comic-Con 2008.

In 2004, Fox auditioned for the role of Sawyer. However, the producers thought that he would be a better fit as Jack, a role which had been reworked from the original draft of "Pilot, Part 1", in which Jack was to be killed, to become the principal male lead for the series. Fox successfully auditioned, and was cast as Jack.

For his role as Jack Shephard, Fox was nominated for a Golden Club, won the 2005 Satellite Award, and shared the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Fox has also claimed that he is the only actor out of the main cast to know how the show ends, stating that "I do know how the show's going to end, I know what the last images will be." [2]

Filmography[]

Title Medium Character Year(s)
World War Z Movie USAF Parajumper 2013
Emperor Movie General Bonner Fellers 2013
Alex Cross Movie Picasso 2013
Speed Racer Movie Racer X 2008
Vantage Point Movie Kent Taylor 2008
Smokin' Aces Movie Bill Security Super 2007
We Are Marshall Movie Red Dawson 2006
Lost TV series Jack Shephard 2004 - 2010
Haunted TV series Frank Taylor 2002
Behind the Mask TV movie James Jones 1999
Party of Five TV series Charlie Salinger 1994 - 2000
My Boyfriend's Back Movie Buck Van Patton 1993
Freshman Dorm TV series Danny Foley 1992
Wings TV series Ty Warner 1992

Awards[]

Main article: Awards

Media appearances[]

Talk show[]

Fox has appeared as a talk show guest in the following:

Magazine[]

Fox has been featured as the main topic of the following magazine articles:

Source: [1]

Miscellaneous[]


Trivia[]

  • Has four tattoos.
  • Is a Philadelphia Eagles fan.[6]
  • Is a good friend of Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.[7]
  • Was the first main cast member on Lost to be told how the series would end.
  • In We Are Marshall, William "Red" Dawson (Matthew Fox) stands in the gym watching head coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) and University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) repeatedly calling each other Jack and Doc, the two names Jack is called the most on Lost.
  • The second episode of his series Haunted bears some striking similarities to Lost themes. It revolves around a 4-piece English rock band, two of whom are brothers who have matching band rings, very much like Charlie. A reference to the term redshirt is made, and a character mentions that to get to a certain place, Matthew Fox's character needs to "follow the white rabbit".
  • Has been an avid chess player since his college days and plays both correspondence and over-the-board. [8]
  • When Fox hosted Saturday Night Live (#611, December 2, 2006), he said in the sketch "Lost in an Elevator"[9] "I've been married for 15 years".

References[]

Wikipedia has information related to:

External links[]

  • Biography - at ABC Medianet
  • Amazon-IMDB January 2006 article on Fox's reputed $250,000 above and beyond salary increases for the main cast
  • [2] An article discussing the meaning of the 4 Chinese characters on Fox's forearm.
  • YouTube - "Connecting Flight", a student film starring a much younger Fox and his wife Margherita.
  • YouTube - Class Day 2007 Speech at Columbia University, his speech to the graduating class of 2007 on May 15, 2007.
  • Matthew Fox interviews Non-English, but with large scans


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