Michael Emerson (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor best known for his roles in The Practice, Lost, and Person of Interest.
He played Zep Hindle in the first Saw film.
Early Life[]
Michael Emerson was born to Carol and Ronald H. Emerson in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He grew up in Toledo, where he attended South Tama County High School and was a marching band member. In 1976, Emerson graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he majored in Theater and minored in Art. He studied a semester at the National Theater Institute at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, then moved to New York City. Unable to find acting work, he took retail jobs and worked as an illustrator.
In 1986, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he appeared in local productions at Theater Jacksonville and The Players by the Sea and worked as a director and teacher at Flagler College. After several years of working in different jobs, including illustration and teaching, Emerson earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alabama in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival acting program.
Career[]
Upon graduation from the University of Alabama in 1995, Emerson returned to New York City, where he appeared in the annual Alabama Shakespeare Festival showcase. Emerson landed a starring role in 1997 as Oscar Wilde in Moises Kaufman's critically acclaimed off-Broadway play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and followed up with several other notable stage performances. In 1998, he performed opposite Uma Thurman in an off-Broadway production of Le Misanthrope. The following year, Emerson played the role of Willie Oban in The Iceman Cometh and co-starred with Kate Burton in Give Me Your Answer, Do! and Hedda Gabler.
In September 2001, Emerson won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" for playing serial killer William Hinks in several episodes of The Practice. In 2006, Emerson began a guest-star role as Benjamin Linus on the serial drama television series Lost. Emerson was initially set to appear in a small number of episodes, then returned for Season 3 as a starring cast member. For his performance in the third and fourth seasons, he received an Emmy Award nomination in the "Outstanding Supporting Actor" category in 2007 and 2008. He finally won the award in 2009 after being nominated for his role in the fifth season.
Emerson was nominated in 2009 for a Golden Globe in the "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role" category. In addition, he was nominated for an Emmy for each season in which he was part of the main cast. On Lost, Emerson's wife, Carrie Preston, portrayed Emily Linus, Emerson's character's mother, in the episode The Man Behind the Curtain. Later, the two teamed up again, with Emerson performing as Preston's next-door neighbor in the film Ready? OK! in 2008.
On July 31, 2010, Emerson and Preston read A.R. Gurney's Love Letters, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama at the Charleston Stage, a South Carolina Theater. They performed it as a fundraiser for the Stage and held a brief and intimate Question and Answer session.
Emerson was set to reunite with former Lost cast member and friend Terry O'Quinn in a comedy-drama tentatively titled Odd Jobs by J.J. Abrams. It was expected to start filming by the end of 2010, but further development has been postponed. Emerson also joined the cast of another Abrams series, Person of Interest, that debuted on CBS in September 2011. His wife appeared in several episodes as Grace Hendricks, the former fiancée of Emerson's character, Harold Finch, a billionaire who teams up with a supposedly dead CIA agent to fight crime in New York City.
Personal Life[]
Before meeting Carrie Preston, Emerson was married to another woman, and the couple resided in Florida before divorcing. He later met his second wife while performing in a stage production of Hamlet in Alabama. They married in September 1998, and both starred in Straight-Jacket in 2004.
Emerson has long supported charities connected to the theater community, including the Actors Fund, Broadway Cares, and Off-Off-Broadway. He has also publicly supported radio stations and Habitat for Humanity.
Filmography[]
Films[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | The Journey | Michael |
| 1998 | The Impostors | Burtom's Assistant |
| Playing by Heart | Bosco | |
| 1999 | I'll Take You There | Tom |
| For Love of the Game | Gallery Doorman | |
| 2002 | Unfaithful | Josh |
| 2004 | Saw | Zep Hindle |
| Straight-Jacket | Victor | |
| 2005 | 29th and Gay | Gorilla |
| The Legend of Zorro | Harrigan | |
| 2006 | Jumping Off Bridges | Frank Nelson |
| 2008 | Ready? OK! | Charlie New |
| 2010 | Goldstar, Ohio | Steve Harper |
| Lost: Epilogue - The New Man in Charge | Ben | |
| 2012 | Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 | Joker |
| 2013 | Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 | Joker |
| 2022 | Glimpse | Reg Kelson |
Television Series[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Stark Raving Mad | Mr. Putnam |
| The District | Man in Bar | |
| 2000-2001 | The Practice | William Hinks |
| 2001 | The Education of Max Bickford | |
| 2002 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Gerry Rankin |
| The X Files | Oliver Martin | |
| 2003 | Without a Trace | Stuart Wesmar |
| Skin | Scarpelli | |
| Whoopi | F. Thomas Erickson | |
| 2004 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Allan Shaye |
| 2005 | The Inside | Marty Manning |
| 2007 | Lost: Missing Pieces | Benjamin "Ben" Linus |
| 2010 | Late Show with David Letterman | Creepy Target Sock Shopper |
| God in America | John Winthrop | |
| 2006-2010 | Lost | Benjamin "Ben" Linus / Henry Gale |
| 2011 | Parenthood | Andy Fitzgerald |
| G.I. Joe: Renegades | Dr. Archibald Monev / Dr. Venom | |
| Generator Rex | Nanite Alpha | |
| 2015 | The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements | Narrator |
| 2011-2016 | Person of Interest | Harold Finch |
| 2017 | Claws | Ted |
| 2017-2018 | Arrow | Cayden James |
| 2018 | Mozart in the Jungle | Morton Norton |
| 2019 | The Name of the Rose | Abate Abbassano da Fossanova |
| 2023 | My Adventures with Superman | Brainiac |
| 2019-2024 | Evil | Leland Townsend |
Television Films[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Orpheus Descending | Clown |
| 1998 | Grace & Glorie | Arnold Dudley |
| 2001 | Sounds from a Town I Love | |
| 2002 | The Laramie Project | Reverend |
| 2008 | Lost: Past, Present & Future | Narrator / Benjamin "Ben" Linus |
| 2009 | Lost: A Journey in Time | Narrator / Benjamin "Ben" Linus |
| 2010 | Lost: Final Chapter | Narrator / Benjamin "Ben" Linus |
Video Games[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Lost: Via Domus | Benjamin "Ben" Linus |
| 2020 | Crucible | Brother |
Gallery[]
External Links[]
Michael Emerson on Wikipedia
Michael Emerson at the Internet Movie Database
Michael Emerson on Twitter