Matthew Fox

Tall, handsome and slim. Shy, even serious. But with a look full of good intentions. Perhaps it is all of this that has made him the ideal tormented hero. Hence, the roles of him that have transcended the most respond to the previous description. The human being who, due to external circumstances, is “chosen” and has to take charge of an almost impossible situation. His bearing does not go unnoticed. But his manner is not that of someone who is in absolute control of everything. Hence the torment of him and the good work of him in this type of character. Heroes with authentic inner dramas.

You probably wouldn’t have felt like the chosen one when you were born on July 14, 1966, in Abington, Pennsylvania. The second of three brothers, he spent his childhood on the family ranch in constant relationship with nature and animals. He got a scholarship thanks to American football that allowed him to earn a degree in Economics at Columbia University. Two years later (1991) he married Margherita Ronchi with whom he has a girl and a boy, Kyle (1998) and Byron (2001). From the first moments Margherita has been his companion and support. Matthew Fox remembers the anecdote of how she taught him to swim in the university pool when he was 21 years old. Who was going to tell him that years later he would achieve world fame in a job surrounded by water.

Fox studied Economics because he wanted to work on Wall Street, but a friend of his mother’s got in the way of his plans. She was a modeling agent and she was very insistent that Matthew try the world. She got away with it and got him to do a couple of TV commercials. Something symbolic, but that he changed his life forever, because he decided that he wanted to be an actor. He studied for it at the School of Film and Television in New York. His first opportunity on television came in an episode of the series Dos en el aire (1992). The same year he starred in the series Freshman DormAbout some college students. The series was not successful and only five episodes were shot. A reality check. Of all the series that are proposed, few are the ones that get to be filmed, and even less those that manage to stay. Let’s not talk about how many are the ones that become world phenomena like Lost .

In cinema he made his debut with a supporting role in the comedy ¡Qué muerto de novio! (1993). His first leading role on the big screen did not come until 1999 ‘s Under the Mask , in which he played a handicapped man who develops an intimate relationship with a doctor played by Donald Sutherland . It is true that this protagonist came to him when he was already a television idol thanks to the series Cinco en familia (1994-2000). During the five seasons that the project lasted, Fox played Charlie Salinger, the oldest of five brothers, who has to take care of everything when his parents die. This series made him popular in the United States and was the springboard for actresses Neve Campbell –one of his sisters– andJennifer Love Hewitt – the girlfriend of one of his brothers.

The television success led him to star in another series, Haunted (2002), where he once again tasted the bile of the medium. Only 12 episodes where he played a detective capable of speaking with the dead were shot. However, the small screen was the medium where he had worked the most and which had given him the most joy. So he kept trying. With this spirit, he submitted to the test of the “Martian” series proposed by the great JJ Abrams . According to what they say, when Fox finished his sentences, he was very clear that he wanted it to be Dr. Jack Shepard.

A family man where there are, he took his wife and children and moved to Hawaii to be the main protagonist –no matter how much they sell the series as a choir– of this mass phenomenon that has revolutionized the concept of television series. Among the millions of miles of ink that have flowed over it, it is said that the Jack Shepard character was going to die at first, but they soon saw the potential in him. In any case, he is the chosen one, the undisputed leader – although this does not imply that he is the audience’s favorite character. When you interview him, he is the only one who has information about the future of the series. Even if it’s all a perfectly orchestrated marketing campaign, he’s the one who can say that he knows things. The rest maintain a sepulchral silence and speculate with the different possibilities that the plot could offer.

Taking into account the packaging that JJ has given him within a series of these dimensions, it is not uncommon for him to be the actor who has done the best in terms of film offers. Since filming Lost , he has made a small cameo in Hot Aces (2006) –in a non-heroic role, by the way–, he has co-starred in the sports drama Team Marshall (2006), the thriller In the Crosshairs (2008) and the film adaptation of the Wachowski brothers of Speed ​​Racer , Speed ​​Racer (2008). None of these titles are memorable, although they are very worthy. So now that Lostis nearing its end, it is possible to predict a hopeful future for Fox. Otherwise, it would not be the chosen one.