Michael Emerson
"I've played villains on stage - you know, the Iagos and so on - but I think of myself as a funny person. I mostly did comedies before I did TV work."
Michael Emerson
"...with those big ol' eyes of his, [Emerson] could always say more with a lengthy stare than he could with twenty pages of dialogue....[He has], once again, proved why he has become Lost's star as well as its heart and soul....an Emmy should belong to [him]"
Kevin Thompson, Palm Beach Post
Michael Emerson, born in 1954, is one of the most talented actors occupying the screens today. He's best known for playing Benjamin Linus on the show Lost, arguably one of the finest Magnificent Bastards ever seen. He also portrayed Zep Hindle in the Saw movies, Marty Manning in the short-lived Tim Minear show The Inside, and William Hinks in The Practice, for which he won an Emmy. He won a second Emmy for his role as Benjamin Linus. Others might recognize him from an earlier role as the mysterious narrator of Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries radio play. He currently stars as the enigmatic Mr Finch on the CBS action-thriller Person of Interest.
Despite his tendency to play deeply scary characters, he's best known in theatre for his comedic talent. In real life, he's a sweet, funny guy with a great sense of humour who does plenty of charity work. He's married to actress Carrie Preston, who has played his short-lived mother on Lost.
This actor contains examples of:
- Deadpan Snarker: Perhaps the only thing he has in common with Ben is They are both this trope.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: See his charity work, his gentle funny demeanour in interviews, his major support for gay rights, and attended a benefit reading at a children's theatre where his performance was described thusly: 'And Emerson never broke character, even when Fox briefly lost his place in the script. “Aue!” he groaned, struggling under the weight of an imaginary giant fishing hook, as Fox found his place. He staggered as pages flipped. “Aue!”'.
- Cast Incest: His wife played his mother on Lost.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: With Terry O'Quinn.
- Older Than They Look: Look at him. He'll be 58 later this year (2012). And he doesn't look a day older than most of his Lost co-stars.
- Promotion to Opening Titles
- Self-Deprecation: He's not shy about pointing out how often he is beaten up on Lost.