Matthew Fox Biography

Actor Matthew Fox played Dr. Jack Shephard, the handsome and overwrought leader of the island castaways in TV’s Lost (2004-10, co-starring Evangeline Lilly). Fox got into acting by way of modelling, a job he fell into while attending Columbia University on a football scholarship. He studied economics at Columbia and graduated in 1989, but modelling jobs led to TV commercials and acting jobs. His Italian-born wife supported him until his big break in 1994, when he was cast as Charlie, the sensitive older brother in a family of orphans, in the series Party of Five (1994-2000, also starring Neve Campbell). Besides bonding with Donald Sutherland in the 1999 TV movie Behind the Mask, Fox didn’t do much beyond his series work, and when Party of Five ended its run he took two years off. He starred in the short-lived series Haunted in 2002, but when Lost debuted in 2004 Fox seemed like a fresh face and quickly joined (again) the ranks of TV’s hottest hunks. The success of the series led to more feature film roles, including We Are Marshall (2006, with Matthew McConaughey) and Smokin’ Aces (2007, with Alicia Keys).