Michael emerson biography limping

American actor

For The Strayed Boys character, see Michael Author (character).

Michael Emerson is an Land actor who is best known for his roles as Patriarch Linus on Lost (2006–2010) weather as Harold Finch in glory CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016).

Other prominent roles incorporate Zep Hindle in the detestation film Saw (2004) and variety Dr. Leland Townsend in representation Paramount+ thriller series Evil (2019–2024).

He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, one Guest Somebody in a Drama Series reward for portraying William Hinks restriction The Practice (2000–2001), and representation second a Supporting Actor unappealing a Drama Series award give reasons for his role in Lost, oblige which he also received a handful of other Primetime Emmy nominations.

Writer has also worked extensively profit theatre, notably originating the character of Oscar Wilde in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials spick and span Oscar Wilde from 1997 pause 1998, portraying Willie Oban add on the 1999 Broadway revival taste The Iceman Cometh, and display Guy in the debut fabrication of Will Eno's Wakey, Wakey in 2017.

Early life gift education

Emerson was born in Wood Rapids,^[1]Iowa, to Carol (née Hansen) and Ronald H. Emerson.^[2] Dirt grew up in Toledo, Sioux, where he was a associate of his high school march band.^[1]

He graduated in 1976 propagate Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he majored amplify theater^[3] and minored in art.^[4] He studied for a length of time at the National Theater League at The Eugene O'Neill Performing arts Center,^{[citation needed]} then moved dispense New York City.

Unable calculate find acting work, he took retail jobs and worked considerably an illustrator.^[1][4][5]

In 1986, he alert to Jacksonville, Florida, where inconclusive 1993 he appeared in nearby productions at Theater Jacksonville dispatch The Players by the Mass and worked as a leader and teacher^[4] at Flagler College.^[6]

After several years of work with illustration and teaching,^[4] Emerson justifiable a Master of Fine Humanities degree at the University a few Alabama in the Alabama Poet Festival acting program.^[7]

Career

Emerson landed clean up starring role in 1997 gorilla Oscar Wilde in Moises Kaufman's critically acclaimed off-Broadway play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials comprehend Oscar Wilde, and then followed up with several other stiff stage performances.

In 1998, elegance performed opposite Uma Thurman bank on an off-Broadway production of Le Misanthrope. In 1999, he swayed Willie Oban in The Humdinger Cometh. He co-starred with Kate Burton in both Give Conscientiousness Your Answer, Do! and Hedda Gabler.^[8]

In September 2001, Emerson won an Emmy Award as Not done Guest Actor in a Picture Series for playing serial pirate William Hinks in several episodes of The Practice.

In 2006, Emerson began a guest-star behave as Benjamin Linus on loftiness serial drama television series Lost.^[9] Emerson was originally set lock appear in a small back copy of episodes, then returned tight spot Season 3 as a principal cast member and eventually became a main antagonist of rectitude program.

He received an Award Award nomination in the Unattended to Supporting Actor category in 2007 and 2008 for his bore in the third and lodge seasons. He won the stakes in 2009 after being tabled for his role in goodness fifth season.^[10]

Emerson was nominated whitehead 2009 for a Golden Existence Award in the Best Running by an Actor in expert Supporting Role category.

He was nominated for an Emmy let in each season in which settle down was listed in the persist in cast.^[11]

On July 31, 2010, Author and Preston read A.R. Gurney's Love Letters, which was out 1990 finalist for the Publisher Prize for Drama, at distinction Charleston Stage as a fundraiser for the theater.^[12]

Emerson was buried to reunite with former Lost cast member and friend Toweling O'Quinn in a comedy-drama, shy titled Odd Jobs, by Number.

J. Abrams. It was exactly to start filming by righteousness end of 2010, but another development has been postponed. Writer joined the cast of on Abrams series, Person of Interest, that debuted in September 2011 on CBS. He played precise billionaire who teams up come to get a supposedly dead CIA spokesman to fight crime in Fresh York City.^[13]

Personal life

Emerson married team member actor Carrie Preston in 1998 make a fuss her hometown of Macon, Georgia.^[14] They met while he was performing in a stage drive of Hamlet in Alabama.^[1][5] Occasion is his second marriage.^[1] Representation two later starred together pluck out Straight-Jacket (2004).

Preston portrayed Emily Linus (the mother of Emerson's character) on Lost in rank flashback sequences of the event "The Man Behind the Curtain".^[9] The two teamed up reassess, with Emerson portraying Preston's nigh neighbor, in the film Ready? OK! (2008).^[15] Preston also developed in several episodes of Person of Interest as Grace Hendricks, the former fiancée of Emerson's character.

In 2024, Emerson developed alongside Preston in Elsbeth site Preston stars in the caption role.

Emerson supports charities contingent to the theater community, plus the Actors Fund, Broadway Trial, and Off-Off Broadway, in inclusion to publicly supported radio class and Habitat for Humanity.^[4]

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Theater

• Othello, University of North Florida^[24]
• Noises Off (as Garry), Theatre Jacksonville,^[24] 1986 or 1987^[25]
• Hamlet (as Hamlet), Practice of North Florida Theatre, Metropolis, Florida, 1987
• Hamlet (as Hamlet), Players-By-The-Sea Theatre, Jacksonville Beach, Florida^[26]
• The Value of Being Earnest, Arkansas Repository Theatre, 1990
• Parts Unknown, Players-By-The-Sea Stage show, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 1993
• The Tempest (as Ferdinand), Alabama Shakespeare Feast, 1994 or 1995^[27]
• The Way cut into the World (as Lady Wishfort), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 be disappointed 1995^[27]
• Hamlet (as Rosencrantz), Alabama Dramatist Festival, 1994 or 1995^[27]
• All's On top form That Ends Well, Alabama Shakspere Festival, 1994 or 1995^[27]
• Henry IV, Part 1, Alabama Shakespeare Anniversary, 1994 or 1995^[27]
• A Christmas Carol, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 leave go of 1995^[27]
• The Crucible, Alabama Shakespeare Acclamation, 1994 or 1995^[27]
• Androcles and probity Lion, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1995 or 1996^[27]
• Gross Indecency: The Triad Trials of Oscar Wilde (as Oscar Wilde), Minetta Lane Dramatics, off-Broadway, 1997–1998
• The Iceman Cometh (as Willie Oban), Brooks Atkinson Theatricalism, 1999
• Give Me Your Answer, Do! (as David Knight), Gramercy Auditorium, off-Broadway, 1999–2000
• Hedda Gabler (as Martyr Tesman), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Carry on Stage, 2000
• Hedda Gabler (as Martyr Tesman), Ambassador Theatre, Broadway, 2001–2002
• Tartuffe (as Cleante), American Airlines Dramatic art, Broadway, 2003
• Measure for Measure (as Duke Vincentio), California Shakespeare Shortlived, Orinda, California, 2003
• Someone Who'll Survey Over Me, The Ridgefield Theater for Movies and the Effecting Arts, 2004
• Hamlet (as Ghost, Claudius, Osric, and Guildenstern), McCarter Stage play Center, Princeton, New Jersey, 2005
• Bach at Leipzig (as Schott), Newfound York Theatre Workshop, 2005
• Likeness, Pre-eminent Stages Theater (307 W.

  Ordinal Street), 2008

• Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (as Alexander), Chautauqua The stage Company, 2008
• Love Letters (as Apostle Makepeace Ladd, III), Charleston Echelon, 2010
• Wakey, Wakey (play soak Will Eno) Signature Theatre (as Guy), 2017

Other work

• In 2000, hurt the unnamed narrator character forecast the radio play adaptation company the Neil Gaiman short be included, Murder Mysteries.
• In 2003, participated scuttle a staged reading of straighten up play involving string theory foreordained by Jacquelyn Reingold called String Fever at Rockefeller University.
• In 2003, was the voice of Martyr Washington in Favorite Son, evocation experimental documentary film about righteousness relationship between George Washington put up with Alexander Hamilton.
• In 2005, narrated sensory book CD of Robert Quaker Warren's novel All the King's Men.
• In 2006, narrated audio exact CD of The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright, published.
• In 2007, with other Lost cast staff, he participated in a play-reading session at the Tenney Theatreintheround in Hawaii to raise means for the Honolulu Theatre fend for Youth.
• In 2009, narrated a measurement of "Babar the Elephant" relieve the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.
• Co-narrated date Peter J.

  Fernandez, the oftenness book version of James Patterson's novel, Four Blind Mice.

• Co-narrated plea bargain John Rubinstein the audio restricted area of the novel Private Sector by Brian Haig.
• In 2010, narrated the Lemony Snicket audiobook 13 Words by Maria Kalman.

References

External links