Celebrity Biographies
Michael Emerson
It took a highly versatile actor to bring the baffling Ben Linus from Lost to life . Is he as Machiavellian as he seemed at first or is he actually a piece of bread? Does he have everything under control or is he just a poor victim of circumstance? Whatever the answer, all fans of the revolutionary series will agree that Michael Emerson –a renowned Broadway actor– has done an exemplary job.
Born on September 7, 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Michael Emerson grew up in the nearby town of Toledo. After studying Drama at Drake University, he moved to New York, where he was slow to establish himself as an actor. While auditioning, he worked as a freelance illustrator for publications like The Boston Globe and The New York Times.
He soon established himself as a stage actor in classic works such as “Henry IV” and “Hamlet” by Shakespeare, or “El Tartuffe” by Molière. “I have been blessed with doing classics on Broadway, which was one of my biggest dreams,” said the actor.
For him he would have stayed in the theater, since his interventions in cinema have been occasional, with small roles in films such as Playing with the heart , Between love and the game , Unfaithful (2002) , Saw or The Legend of Zorro . He has also worked on the small screen, in series like the X Files , Without a Trace or The Lawyer , with which he won the Emmy for Best Guest Actor. “I am a little concerned about the reach and power of TV. More people saw me in The Lawyer than will ever see me on stage. Which is a bit strange. Or troublesome. Or both.”
International fame has come to Michael Emerson for his work on the Lost series , which he joined when it had already become an unprecedented phenomenon, in episode 14 of the second season. The protagonists found his character, a mysterious man who had fallen into a trap, but they were not sure of his true intentions.
Divorced from his first wife, in 1998 he joined actress Carrie Preston , actress of titles such as Vicky Cristina Barcelona , who has a fixed character in the series Fresh Blood . Interestingly, Carrie played Linus’s mother in Lost , her character.