Many of the first season roles were a result of the executive producers' liking of various actors. The main character Jack was originally going to die in the pilot, and was hoped to be played by Michael Keaton; however, ABC executives were adamant that Jack live.[2] Before it was decided that Jack would live, Kate was to emerge as the leader of the survivors; she was originally conceived to be more like the character of Rose. Dominic Monaghan auditioned for the role of Sawyer, who at the time was supposed to be a suit-wearing city con man. The producers enjoyed Monaghan's performance and changed the character of Charlie, originally a middle-aged former rock star, to fit him. Jorge Garcia also auditioned for Sawyer, and the part of Hurley was written for him. When Josh Holloway auditioned for Sawyer, the producers liked the edge he brought to the character (he reportedly kicked a chair when he forgot his lines and got angry in the audition) and his southern accent, so they changed Sawyer to fit Holloway's acting. Yunjin Kim auditioned for Kate, but the producers wrote the character of Sun for her and the character of Jin, portrayed by Daniel Dae Kim, to be her husband. Sayid, played by Naveen Andrews, was also not in the original script. Locke and Michael were written with their actors in mind. Emilie de Ravin, who plays Claire, was originally cast in what was supposed to be a recurring role.[2] In the second season, Michael Emerson was contracted to play Ben ("Henry Gale") for three episodes. His role was extended to eight episodes because of his acting skills, and eventually for the whole of season three and season four.[3] Rebecca Mader's role of Charlotte was originally only intended for 8 episodes of season 4, but her role was extended to the whole of the season, and part of season 5. While a large cast makes Lost more expensive to produce, the writers benefit from more flexibility in story decisions. According to series executive producer Bryan Burk, "You can have more interactions between characters and create more diverse characters, more back stories, more love triangles."[4]
Characters are listed alphabetically. "Starring season(s)" refers to the season in which an actor or actress received star billing for playing a character. "Recurring season(s)" identifies a season in which an actor or actress appeared, but received guest star or special guest star billing.
| Name |
Actor/actress |
Starring seasons |
Recurring seasons |
Centric episodes |
Episode count |
| Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen |
Evangeline Lilly |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.03, 1.12, 1.22, 2.09, 3.06, 3.15, 4.04, 5.04 |
78 |
| After killing her abusive stepfather (later revealed to be her real father), Kate goes on the run and is eventually captured by a federal marshal while in Australia. On the island, Kate is attracted to both Sawyer and Jack, and eventually has a short relationship with Sawyer. After escaping the island, she is put on trial for murder, but subsequently makes a highly favorable plea bargain that does not require prison time. She becomes engaged to Jack and raises Claire's son Aaron as her own, pretending to be his biological mother as part of the Oceanic 6 cover story. Before Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter that would have brought him to safety with her, Sawyer whispered something in Kate's ear, which she will not reveal to Jack. His jealousy becomes the demise of their relationship. She resists returning to the island, but eventually decides that she will. She arrives on the island in 1977 and joins the Dharma Initiative, along with Jack and Hurley. |
| Dr. Juliet Burke |
Elizabeth Mitchell |
3, 4, 5 |
— |
3.07, 3.16, 4.06 |
31 |
| Three years prior to the crash, fertility doctor Juliet is recruited by the Others. She develops a relationship with Goodwin, who is killed by Ana Lucia, and Juliet blames Ben. Ben is in love with her and refuses to let her leave the island - and he orchestrated Goodwin's death out of jealousy. Although Juliet acts initially as Jack's interrogator when he is captured, she helps Sawyer and Kate escape from the animal cages at the Hydra station, and then lives with the Oceanic 815 crash survivors after leaving the "Others" camp. She defies Ben's orders to infiltrate the survivors' camp, and she has clear romantic feelings for Jack. She is left behind when the Oceanic Six leave the island, and when the recurring time flashes leave Juliet and the others in the mid-1970s, she becomes a mechanic for the Dharma Initiative and, three years later, is in a relationship with Sawyer. |
| Boone Carlyle |
Ian Somerhalder |
1 |
2, 3 |
1.13 |
25 |
| Boone is the stepbrother of Shannon, with whom he is in love. On the island, he spends much of his time hunting with Locke, and together they find the first hatch. He slowly learns that Shannon is manipulative and does not love him, but he remains protective of her. When John's legs mysteriously malfunction, Boone climbs into a crashed plane, perched in a tree, and uses its radio to contact (although he doesn't know it) the tail section survivors. The plane falls with Boone in it, and his leg and torso are crushed. John carries him back to the camp to be treated by Jack and Sun, but Boone dies shortly thereafter. |
| Ana Lucia Cortez |
Michelle Rodriguez |
2 |
1, 5 |
2.08, 2.20 |
21 |
| A former LAPD police officer, Ana Lucia is the leader of the survivors of the tail section of Flight 815. She loses her job as a police officer after killing the man who had previously shot her, killing her unborn child. She meets Christian at LAX and agrees to accompany him to Australia. Before the flight back to L.A. she chats up Jack, whom she doesn't know is Christian's son, at the airport bar. Ana Lucia is very protective of her fellow survivors after several are kidnapped, and she is extremely distrusting of others. She eventually kills Goodwin after discovering that he is not a survivor of the crash. She also inadvertently kills Shannon. Ana Lucia is shot and killed by Michael Dawson while he tries to free Ben, the leader of the "Others," but she appears after her death in visions to several of the characters, notably Hurley. |
| Michael Dawson |
Harold Perrineau |
1, 2, 4 |
— |
1.14, 2.02, 2.22, 4.08 |
40 |
| Michael is a New York artist and construction worker who has not communicated with his son Walt since he was a baby. When Walt's mother dies in Australia, Michael comes to collect his son (and Walt's dog, Vincent). Michael is the first on the island to learn that Sun speaks English, and he has various conflicts with Jin. While trying to escape the Island via raft, Michael's son Walt is abducted by the Others. Michael strikes a deal with the Others wherein he exchanges Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley for Walt, and together the two leave the island by boat. However, when they return home, Walt goes to live with his grandmother after finding out that Michael killed Libby and Ana Lucia while carrying out his part of the deal. Michael tries to commit suicide a couple times but soon finds out that "the island won't let him die". He later infiltrates the Kahana freighter crew under the orders of Ben, in the hopes of making up for the lives he took by saving those of the people left on the island. He is killed in an explosion on the Kahana while trying to deactivate a bomb.[5] |
| Mr. Eko |
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje |
2, 3 |
— |
2.10, 2.21, 3.05 |
19 |
| A former Nigerian drug lord turned priest, Mr. Eko crashes with the tail section survivors. For the first 40 days, he does not speak. Upon joining the fuselage survivors' camp, Eko becomes part of the group involved in pressing the button in the hatch. He begins building a church on the island with Charlie, but this is abandoned when he becomes obsessed with the hatch and the button within. Eko is haunted by visions of his brother, who died in Nigeria and whose body was on a plane that crashed on the island before Eko's arrival. These visions lead Eko and John to discover the Pearl Dharma station. Eko meets the smoke monster on more than one occasion in the Island's forests, and is eventually killed by it. |
| Elizabeth "Libby" |
Cynthia Watros |
2 |
4 |
— |
19 |
| Libby is a tail section survivor. Prior to the crash of 815, she met Desmond and gave him her late husband's boat for the around the world race that ended with Desmond crashing on the island. She is also revealed to have been a patient in the same mental institution at the same time as Hurley. She becomes romantically involved with Hurley. She is shot to death by Michael after accidentally witnessing Ana Lucia's death. |
| Daniel Faraday |
Jeremy Davies |
4, 5 |
— |
4.02 |
13 |
| Faraday is a physicist hired to go to the Island by Charles Widmore. He initially claims to have intentions to save the 815 crash survivors, but this proves to be untrue. Daniel is connected to Desmond in several ways - Desmond visits him at Oxford during a flashback in time. Later, when John moves the island, Daniel travels back in time and visits Desmond in the hatch, to tell him how to save the island. Even though he initially lied about his intent to save the survivors, Daniel ends up ferrying several of them, including Sun and Jin, to the Kahana. He claims to be in love with Charlotte, and he claims to be the son of Eloise Hawking, the caretaker of the Lamppost Dharma station in LA. |
| Nikki Fernandez |
Kiele Sanchez |
3 |
— |
3.14 |
6 |
| Nikki is an actress who, with Paulo, murders a television producer for his diamonds. When they get to the island they spend their time searching for the diamonds lost in the crash. She is Paulo's girlfriend and is assumed dead and buried alive on the island after being paralyzed from a spider bite. |
| James "Sawyer" Ford |
Josh Holloway |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.08, 1.16, 2.13, 3.04, 5.08 |
76 |
| James is a confidence man who was orphaned as a child when his father killed his mother - and himself - after his mother was conned for all their money by a man named Sawyer. All that James knows about the man who conned her is his name, and he adopts this name - Sawyer - for himself, and goes on to con various women for hundreds of thousands of dollars when he grows up. With Cassidy, one of these women, he has a daughter named Clementine whom he has never met. He travels to Australia to kill the man he believes is the original Sawyer, but he is wrong and kills an innocent man. On the Island, he is initially disliked for his antisocial behaviour and for his practice of nicknaming his fellow survivors, but he becomes romantically involved with Kate and, eventually, friendly with the rest despite his rough personality. When John moves the island and the remaining survivors are launched back into the 1970s, Sawyer joins the Dharma Initiative under the name Jim LaFleur, and he becomes head of security due to his ability to deal with the Hostiles. He falls in love with Juliet, and they are living together three years later. |
| Desmond David Hume |
Henry Ian Cusick |
3, 4, 5 |
2 |
2.23, 3.08, 3.17, 4.05, 5.03 |
30 |
| Desmond shipwrecks on the island while on a boat race around the world and lives in the Hatch for three years until he moves in with the crash survivors. At the start of the third season, Desmond gains the ability to see flashes of future events, most of them being about Charlie's death. He escapes the Island with the Oceanic Six at the end of season four and is reunited with his girlfriend, Penelope Widmore. They name their baby boy Charlie. Hume is named after Enlightenment philosopher David Hume. |
| Sayid Jarrah |
Naveen Andrews |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.09, 1.21, 2.14, 3.11, 4.03, 5.10 |
69 |
| A former military communications officer, Sayid is haunted by his past as an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. On the island, he is romantically involved with Shannon. After escaping the island and coming to America, he reunites with and marries his former girlfriend Nadia. After Nadia is murdered, Sayid is employed by Ben as an assassin to kill the associates of Charles Widmore. |
| Jin-Soo Kwon |
Daniel Dae Kim |
1, 2, 3, 4 5 |
- |
1.17, 2.05, 3.03, 4.07, 5.05 |
63 |
| The son of a poor fisherman, Jin marries Sun on the condition that he work for her father as a mob enforcer. On the island, Jin struggles as the only castaway who does not speak English, although he does eventually begin to learn. He is presumed dead by his wife, Sun-Hwa Kwon, and the other members of the Oceanic Six, when a bomb goes off on the Kahana. Kwon is later found unconscious on driftwood by a French research team in 1988, having flashed to that time period with the other people on the island. |
| Sun-Hwa Kwon |
Yunjin Kim |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.06, 2.05, 2.16, 3.03, 3.18, 4.07, 5.05 |
62 |
| The rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer with ties to the Korean mob, Sun has an affair and almost leaves her husband Jin before the crash. They reconcile on the island and she becomes pregnant with Jin's baby. After escaping the island, Sun gives birth to Jin's baby, a girl named Ji Yeon, off the island. With the settlement money from Oceanic, Sun buys a controlling share of her father's company. |
| Charlotte Staples Lewis |
Rebecca Mader |
4, 5 |
— |
4.02 |
12 |
| Charlotte is an anthropologist hired to go to the Island by Charles Widmore. Miles suggests that she has been to the Island before and she chooses to stay there when given the option to leave. She later dies due to the ill effects of the Island's erratic movements through time and admits she was born on the Island, her parents being members of the Dharma Initiative. |
| Benjamin Linus |
Michael Emerson, Sterling Beaumon |
3, 4, 5 |
2 |
3.20, 4.09 |
35 |
| Ben is the manipulative leader of the Others. He is captured by the survivors and is held hostage in a hatch that Boone and Locke found. However Michael releases him in return for the safe passage of himself and his son, Walt, back home. In the finale of the 4th season he is forced to leave the Island after he "moves" it. |
| Claire Littleton |
Emilie de Ravin |
1, 2, 3, 4 |
5 |
1.10, 2.15, 3.12 |
55 |
| Claire gives birth on the island to a boy and forges a strong relationship with Charlie. She is also Jack's half-sister. She is not aware of this, but Jack learns this from her mother after he leaves the Island. Claire is later seen in Jacob's hut with her father. Her current whereabouts and her state of being are currently unknown. |
| Walter "Walt" Lloyd |
Malcolm David Kelley |
1 |
2, 3, 4, 5 |
1.14 |
30 |
| An elementary school student, he is kidnapped by the Others, who claim that he is "special." He is rescued by his father Michael and goes to live with his grandmother in New York. |
| John Locke |
Terry O'Quinn |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.04, 1.19, 2.03, 2.17, 3.03, 3.13, 3.19, 4.11, 5.07 |
70 |
| After having his paralysis healed during the crash, Locke lives out his dreams of becoming a hunter on the Island. John Locke is also the name of a philosopher. Being a man of faith, he believes he has a special connection with the island, leading him to clash with man of science Jack. Having been "chosen," Locke becomes the leader of the Others at the end of the fourth season. Locke is eventually murded by Ben shortly after leaving the island. Eventually his body returns on the island with most of who left. After waking up from the crash, Locke could walk again. |
| Charlie Pace |
Dominic Monaghan |
1, 2, 3 |
4 |
1.07, 1.15, 2.12, 3.21 |
58 |
| A one-hit wonder, rock musician Charlie ends his addiction to heroin on the island and cares for Claire and her baby. He drowns in the Looking Glass station, trying to help the survivors communicate with the outside world. |
| Paulo |
Rodrigo Santoro |
3 |
— |
3.14 |
7 |
| Paulo helps Nikki murder a television executive for his diamonds. He spends his time on the island with Nikki searching for the diamonds. He is assumed dead and buried alive on the island after being paralyzed from a spider bite. |
| Hugo "Hurley" Reyes |
Jorge Garcia |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.18, 2.04, 2.18, 3.10, 4.01, 5.02 |
75 |
| After winning the lottery with the numbers, Hurley suffers from great bad luck. He remains optimistic on the island but after escaping from it is hospitalized for psychiatric reasons that include recurring hallucinations involving Charlie. |
| Shannon Rutherford |
Maggie Grace |
1, 2 |
3 |
2.06 |
28 |
| Shannon is a ballet instructor and Boone's stepsister. She has a relationship with Sayid on the island. She is accidentally shot and killed by Ana Lucia on the Island. |
| Jack Shephard |
Matthew Fox |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
— |
1.05, 1.11, 1.20, 2.01, 2.11, 3.01, 3.09, 3.22, 4.10, 5.06 |
79 |
| A spinal surgeon with father issues, Jack is the survivors' leader. He has feelings for Kate. After escaping the island, he ends up in a relationship with Kate but after a dramatic breakup he becomes drug-addicted and suicidal because he longs to return to the island to save everyone left behind, and return to his relationship with Kate. |
| Miles Straume |
Ken Leung |
4, 5 |
— |
4.02 |
10 |
| Miles is a spiritualist hired to go to the Island by Charles Widmore. He can apparently talk to the dead. He has the most cutting wit out of the Kahana away team members, earning him a comparison to Sawyer by Hurley. |
| Name |
Actor/Actress |
Season(s) |
Episode count |
| Aaron |
Various; William Blanchette (Toddler version) |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
35 |
| Aaron is the son of Claire Littleton and her boyfriend Thomas. Aaron is born on the island and leaves it, then being raised by Kate with the public perceiving the baby to be hers, to follow along with their version of what happened on the island. (Over fifty male and female blonde-haired, blue-eyed babies portrayed Aaron during the first three seasons.[6]) |
| Leslie Arzt |
Daniel Roebuck |
1, 3 |
4 |
| Dr. Leslie Arzt is a high school science teacher, who crashes with the fuselage survivors and keeps a collection of native fauna in various jars. Arzt complains about not being included in the various missions of Jack and Locke, finally joining them on a trip to the Black Rock. He dies ironically when a stick of dynamite explodes in his hand while he lectures Jack, Locke, Kate and Hurley on how to safely handle it. |
|
| Cindy Chandler |
Kimberley Joseph |
1, 2, 3 |
10 |
| Cindy Chandler is an Australian Oceanic Airlines stewardess dating the Flight 815 passenger Gary Troup. She crashes with the tail-section survivors and is taken by the Others in the second season during the journey to the fuselage survivors' camp. Cindy lives comfortably with the Others following her abduction. |
|
| Emma and Zack |
Kiersten Havelock and Mickey Graue |
2, 3 |
3 |
| Emma and Zack are two sibling children from the tail section of the plane who live under the care of the Others, following the pair's kidnapping. |
|
| Rose Henderson Nadler |
L. Scott Caldwell |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
19 |
| A woman with terminal cancer from the Bronx, New York, Rose Henderson-Nadler marries Bernard less than a year before the crash. She lives with the fuselage survivors and reunites with Bernard in season two. She opts to return to the beach at the beginning of season four when the survivors contact the freighter. |
|
| Scott Jackson and Steve Jenkins |
Christian Bowman and Dustin Watchman |
1, 2, 3 |
21 |
| Scott Jackson and Steve Jenkins crash with the fuselage survivors. They are regularly confused with each other, even after one of them (Scott) is killed in the first season by Ethan. In season four, Steve is killed as well when the survivors are attacked by the people from the freighter. |
|
| Edward Mars |
Fredric Lane |
1, 2, 3 |
8 |
| Edward Mars is an American marshal who is obsessed with capturing Kate, finally apprehending her in Australia. He is critically injured during the crash and dies in the third episode. |
|
| Bernard Nadler |
Sam Anderson |
2, 3, 4, 5 |
14 |
| An American dentist, Dr. Bernard Nadler weds Rose Henderson less than one year prior to the crash. He crashes with the tail section survivors, but joins the fuselage survivors in season two. Bernard stays with the majority of the group after some of the freighter crew arrive. He is the only tail section survivor not to be abducted by the Others or killed. |
|
| Seth Norris |
Greg Grunberg |
1, 4 |
2 |
| Seth Norris is the pilot of the airplane (Flight 815) which crashes on the island. He is found in the cockpit in the first episode by Jack, Kate and Charlie and soon after is killed by "the Monster." |
|
| Gary Troup |
Laird Granger and Frank Torres |
Lost Experience |
1 |
| Gary Troup is the New York author of the metafictional novel, Bad Twin[7] Gary Troup is Cindy's lover. He dies when he is sucked into the plane's turbine immediately after the plane crash.[8] |
|
| Vincent |
Madison[9][10] and Pono[11] |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
32 |
| Vincent is Walt's yellow Labrador retriever, who is originally owned by Walt's stepfather, Brian Porter. He is left behind on the Island when Michael and Walt leave. He is given to Shannon by Walt and remains under her care until she is killed. He is later seen accompanying Sun. |
|
| Neil "Frogurt" |
Sean Whalen |
5 |
2 |
| Neil is first mentioned when Bernard is trying to make an S.O.S sign out of rocks. He is first seen in the mobisode "The Adventures of Hurley and Frogurt". He first appears in the TV series in the season 5 premiere, "Because You Left" and "The Lie". He is on the Zodiac raft with Daniel Faraday when the island shifts in time. He is killed in 1954 when he is shot by flaming arrows in the chest and back. |
| Name |
Actor/Actress |
Season(s) |
Episode count |
| Alex |
Tania Raymonde |
2, 3, 4 |
15 |
| Alexandra is Rousseau's daughter who is kidnapped by the Others sixteen years prior to the crash of Flight 815 and raised by Ben. Alex aids the crash survivors in various escapes and eventually defects at the end of season three. She dates Karl, but Ben tries to keep them apart because she would die if she becomes pregnant. She is executed by Keamy. |
|
| Richard Alpert |
Nestor Carbonell |
3, 4, 5 |
14 |
| Dr. Richard Alpert is Ben's advisor who is seemingly ageless. In flashbacks spanning fifty years, including being present for Locke's birth in 1956, associating with Ben to purge the Dharma Initiative in 1992, and recruiting Juliet to the Others, he always appears to be the same age as he is in 2004. In the fourth season, Richard leads the surviving Others to a place referred to as "The Temple". He is shown to come into contact with John Locke several times during the latter's early life. Juliet has said that Richard has always been on the Island and, when questioned about how old he is, cryptically asserts that he is "old." |
|
| Mikhail Bakunin |
Andrew Divoff |
3 |
7 |
| Mikhail Bakunin is one of the Others and has lost one of his eyes. He lives and works at the Flame Dharma station. Locke, Sayid and Kate find him and take him hostage. He manages to escape and later sets off a hand grenade, which kills both himself and Charlie at the Looking Glass Dharma station. |
|
| Karl |
Blake Bashoff |
3, 4 |
8 |
| A young Other, Karl is Alex's boyfriend. In an attempt to prevent Karl from impregnating Alex, Ben imprisons him until he is rescued by Kate and Sawyer. Later, he joins the plane crash survivors and is killed by the mercenaries from the Kahana in season four. |
|
| Bea Klugh |
April Grace |
2, 3 |
3 |
| Beatrice Klugh visits Michael during his forced stay with the Others and is present when they capture Jack, Kate and Sawyer. In season three, at the Dharma Flame station, she is found by Sayid, Locke and Kate and has Mikhail kill her to prevent her from being the survivors' prisoner. |
|
| Jacob |
Voiced by Carlton Cuse |
3, 4 |
2 |
| Jacob is the Others' highest authority. With the exception of Ben, the Others do not have regular contact with him. Jacob lives in a cabin that seemingly moves and is invisible to some people. At first, Locke can only hear Jacob and not see him, although he later sees and talks to Christian Shephard inside the cabin. |
|
| Danny Pickett |
Michael Bowen |
2, 3 |
7 |
| Danny Pickett is a violent member of the Others who supervises Kate and Sawyer while they are imprisoned. He is married to another Other named Colleen until Sun kills her. Enraged, Pickett takes his anger out on Sawyer, and tries to kill Sawyer until Juliet intervenes and kills Pickett. |
|
| Ethan Rom |
William Mapother |
1, 2, 3, 5 |
12 |
| Dr. Ethan Rom poses as a fuselage survivor until he is exposed by Hurley, at which point he kidnaps Claire and Charlie. He unsuccessfully attempts to murder Charlie and takes Claire to the Staff Dharma station, where he performs tests on her unborn child and implants a device that can cause her to become sick. Charlie kills Ethan in "Homecoming". Later, when Juliet, Sawyer and others are living with the Dharma Initiative after traveling back to the 1970s, Juliet delivers the baby of Amy and Horace - and Amy later reveals that she has named the baby Ethan. |
|
| Goodwin Stanhope |
Brett Cullen |
2, 3, 4 |
4 |
| Goodwin Stanhope is married to the Others' therapist, Harper Stanhope. He has an affair with Juliet, which dismays Ben because he is in love with Juliet. Partially out of jealousy, Ben sends Goodwin on a mission to infiltrate the tail section survivors. When Goodwin's identity is discovered by Ana Lucia, she confronts and kills him. |
|
| Tom |
M. C. Gainey |
1, 2, 3, 4 |
18 |
| Tom, aka "Mr Friendly," wears a fake beard when acting as a liaison to the crash survivors until they kidnap Jack, Kate and Sawyer. He recruits Michael to spy on the boat Kahana. He's shot and killed by Sawyer. |
| Name |
Actor/Actress |
Season(s) |
Episode count |
| Amy |
Reiko Aylesworth |
5 |
3 |
| A member of the Dharma Initiative whose husband was murdered by the Hostiles. Sawyer and Juliet intervened and saved Amy's life. Three years later, Amy was married to Horace Goodspeed and pregnant with his child. When complications arose during the delivery, Juliet was forced to step in and deliver the child, a boy named Ethan. |
|
| Annie |
Madeline Carroll |
3 |
1 |
| A girl who befriended Ben Linus when they were both young and living in the Dharma Initiative during its heyday. On the Season 3 DVD, the producers stated Annie is a major influence on Ben, and will play a "seismic" part in future storylines.[12] |
|
| Pierre Chang |
François Chau[13] |
2, 3, 4, 5 |
10 |
| He is the scientist in the Dharma Initiative orientation films, who also goes by the names Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, and Edgar Halliwax. He appears as an actual character in season 5. |
|
| Gerald and Karen DeGroot |
Michael Gilday and Courtney Lavigne |
2 |
4 |
| A couple, Doctoral candidates of the University of Michigan, who received funding by the Hanso Foundation in 1970 to create and operate the Dharma Initiative on the island. |
|
| Horace Goodspeed |
Doug Hutchison |
3, 4, 5 |
5 |
| The leader of the Dharma Initiative on the island. He is first seen assisting Roger Linus after his son's birth, and eventually recruiting Roger into the Dharma Initiative. Later, Horace is romantically involved with Amy, with whom he fathers a child, who turns out to be none other than Ethan Rom. Horace also maintains diplomatic relations with the Others, led by Richard Alpert. Horace dies during the Purge, an event during which the Others kill the majority of the Dharma Initiative using poison gas, but he appears to John in a vision many years later. |
|
| Alvar Hanso |
Ian Patrick Williams |
2 |
1 |
| A former arms salesman and manufacturer, he is the enigmatic Danish leader of the Hanso Foundation. Hanso can be seen in the show via the orientation film in "Orientation". When Widmore is seen bidding on the Black Rock's ship's log, the log is said to have some connection to the Hanso family. |
|
| Kelvin Joe Inman |
Clancy Brown |
2 |
2 |
| Kelvin is an intelligence operative for the United States government, and responsible for making Sayid torture his former commander in Iraq. Later, Kelvin joins the Dharma Initiative, and operates the Swan station until Desmond accidentally kills him. |
|
| Roger Linus |
Jon Gries |
3, 5 |
3 |
| Ben's father and an employee of the Dharma Initiative. He is an alcoholic and distant and cruel to Ben, who he often ridicules for indirectly killing his mother during childbirth and physically abuses him. Ben later directly kills him in the Purge. Hurley discovers his corpse in a blue VW van in "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead". |
|
| Stuart Radzinsky |
Eric Lange |
5 |
2 |
| Radzinsky is head of research for the Dharma Initiative. In the 70s he worked in the Flame and designed the Swan. Years later he would live in the Swan and press the button every 108 minutes with Kelvin Joe Inman. Kelvin claimed that Radzinsky killed himself by putting a shotgun in his mouth. Radzinsky is a control freak. |
| Name |
Actor/Actress |
Season(s) |
Episode count |
| Charles Widmore |
Alan Dale (older version); Tom Connolly (younger version) |
2, 3, 4, 5 |
10 |
| A wealthy industrialist, former Other and father of Penelope Widmore. Juliet, Sawyer, Daniel, John, etc. encounter the young Widmore when they time travel back to the 1950s. Later, in real time, he claims that he used to be the leader of the Others until he was exiled by Ben, who in turn claims that Widmore is an enemy of the people on the Island. He sends the freighter Kahana to the Island in order to find and capture Ben, which is unsuccessful. Widmore disapproves of Desmond's relationship with his daughter, but he later tells Desmond how to find Eloise Hawking. When Sun takes a pregnancy test on the island, the box reads "Widmore Labs." He is still actively searching for the Island and tries to assist Locke in reuniting the Oceanic Six into going back to the Island. |
| Penelope "Penny" Widmore |
Sonya Walger[14] |
2, 3, 4, 5 |
9 |
| Penny Widmore is Desmond's girlfriend. After he is shipwrecked on the Island, she never gives up looking for him. She ultimately succeeds and rescues not only Desmond but also Frank Lapidus and the Oceanic Six. She helps arrange the Oceanic Six's cover story. Later she gives birth to Desmond's son Charlie. Carlton Cuse has stated that "Penny is an important character in the overarching mythology of the show".[15] |
| Matthew Abaddon |
Lance Reddick |
4, 5 |
4 |
| Matthew Abaddon works for Widmore by "helping people get to where they're supposed to be". He is responsible for Locke going on his walkabout which ultimately leads him to the Island. After the crash, Matthew hires Naomi, Miles, Faraday, Charlotte, and Lapidus to go to the Island via the freighter Kahana. He visits Hurley at the mental institution after the Oceanic 6 rescue and tries to gather information on where the other survivors are. Matthew acts as a chauffeur for Locke after he leaves the Island, helping him in his mission to convince the Oceanic 6 to return to the Island. During Locke's mission, Matthew is shot dead by Ben who claims that he is a "dangerous person." |
| Naomi Dorrit |
Marsha Thomason |
3, 4 |
10 |
| Recruited by Matthew Abaddon to lead a group of four people on a mission to the Island, Naomi Dorrit is the first to arrive on the Island and tells the survivors of the freighter Kahana. While she claimed she was there to rescue Desmond Hume, later events seemed to show she had a different agenda. She is mortally wounded when Locke throws a knife into her back, after finally contacting the boat. |
| Martin Keamy |
Kevin Durand |
4 |
7 |
| Martin Keamy is the lead mercenary on the Kahana and is a former Marine. Keamy leads a team onto the island to find Ben, killing Karl and Danielle Rousseau and later executing Alex in front of Ben. Keamy eventually tracks Ben down and is stabbed to death by him. His death causes the freighter to explode, presumably killing many people. |
| Frank Lapidus |
Jeff Fahey |
4, 5 |
11 |
| Frank Lapidus (pronounced /ləˈpiːdəs/) is a pilot who was originally supposed to fly Oceanic 815. He is selected by Abaddon to be part of the team that travels to the Island via the freighter Kahana; he brings Daniel, Miles and Charlotte to the Island by helicopter and ultimately helps Desmond and the Oceanic Six escape the Island. In the episode "316", he pilots Flight 316 that five of the Oceanic Six and Ben Linus board to return to the Island. Frank makes a controlled crash landing on the nearby Hydra Island, but he leaves the survivors' camp with Sun on an outrigger to go to the main island. |
| Name |
Actor/Actress |
Season(s) |
Episode count |
| Anthony Cooper |
Kevin Tighe |
1, 2, 3 |
5 |
| Anthony Cooper is a ruthless con man, John Locke's biological father and the man who conned Sawyer's parents, leading to their deaths. Cooper cons Locke into donating a kidney to him before abandoning him. He later comes to make amends with Locke when he convinces Locke to help him retrieve money he owes to a couple of heavies. Later, Locke begins to interfere with one of his cons, so Cooper pushes Locke out of an eighth-story window, paralyzing him. Cooper later mysteriously arrives on the Island, where Sawyer kills him in revenge. He is named after Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, the mentor of the philosopher John Locke.[16] |
|
| Eloise Hawking[17] |
Fionnula Flanagan |
3, 5 |
4 |
| Eloise Hawking is the caretaker of the L.A. based Dharma station known as the Lamppost. Well before we know who she is, Eloise appears as the jewelry store employee who urges Desmond not to marry Penny. Later, in the monastery that Desmond briefly lives in, she also appears in a photograph in the head monk's office. Eloise is supposedly the mother of Daniel Faraday, and the rat that Daniel trains to run a maze in Desmond's presence is named after her. She is able to track the location of the island, and to discover windows of time during which it is accessible. She instructs Jack, Sun and Ben on how to get back to the island. |
|
| Diane Janssen |
Beth Broderick |
1, 2, 3, 4 |
5 |
| The estranged mother of Kate, she turns Kate into the police after Kate kills Diane's husband and Kate's father, Wayne. Diane never forgives Kate, but decides not to testify at Kate's trial once Kate returns home as part of the Oceanic Six. |
|
| Nadia Jazeem |
Andrea Gabriel |
1, 2, 3, 4 |
4 |
| A childhood friend of Sayid's, Nadia becomes involved in an insurgency opposed to Saddam Hussein. She is imprisoned and interrogated by Sayid, but he lets her escape. She travels to the West, and in doing so comes in contact with both Charlie and Locke. When Sayid leaves the island, they get married, but shortly after she is murdered. |
|
| Jae Lee |
Tony Lee |
2, 3 |
3 |
| After teaching Sun English, Jae Lee has an affair with her and as a result her father sends Jin to kill him. Jin instead tells him to leave Korea forever, but Jae commits suicide by jumping from his apartment building.[18] |
|
| Cassidy Phillips |
Kim Dickens |
2, 3, 5 |
4 |
| Cassidy is a recently divorced woman whom Sawyer cons, even though he loves her. Cassidy then goes to Iowa and accidentally meets Kate. Cassidy later has Sawyer arrested and visits him in jail, where she tells him they have a daughter together - Clementine. After Kate returns from the Island, She tells Cassidy the truth about everything that happened on the Island and gives her some of her settlement money from Oceanic in order for Kate to keep her promise to look after Clementine. |
|
| Danielle Rousseau |
Mira Furlan; Melissa Farman (younger) |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
19 |
| Danielle Rousseau arrives on the island sixteen years before the crash of Flight 815 as part of a research team. She gives birth to Alex on the island after killing her team because they had gotten "sick." It is later revealed that she believes that the monster made them sick. Alex is kidnapped soon after by the Others. Rousseau occasionally helps the survivors and is shot and killed in an ambush along with Karl while leading Alex to the Temple on Ben's orders. In the fifth season, Jin, who has traveled back in time, meets Rousseau and her crew after surviving the explosion of the boat. She is originally known as 'The French Women', as she is from France. |
|
| Christian Shephard |
John Terry |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
17 |
| Christian Shephard, Jack's father, works as the chief of surgery at St. Sebastian Hospital. He loses his medical license when Jack reveals to the authorities that Christian performed surgery on a pregnant woman while drunk, causing her death. Christian then heads to Australia with Ana Lucia in tow to hunt down his daughter Claire, whom he is subsequently barred from seeing. He dies in Australia after days of drinking, after having first met and having a heart-to-heart with Sawyer. His body is being brought back to L.A. for his funeral when the plane crashes, but when the coffin is later recovered on the Island, it is mysteriously empty. Christian has appeared multiple times on the Island to many different characters, including Jack, Claire, Locke, Hurley, Miles, Michael and even Vincent. He is connected somehow to Jacob; he occupies Jacob's cabin, and he appears when John is trying to move the island. After the second plane crash, he also advises Sun and Frank that Jin and the others left behind are now living in 1977. |
|
| Sarah Shephard |
Julie Bowen |
1, 2, 3 |
5 |
| Sarah is involved in a car crash with Shannon's father. Jack performs surgery on her, but informs her that she will never walk again. However, she is miraculously healed. They fall in love and marry, but some time later, Sarah has an affair and divorces Jack. Sometime after the crash survivors are rescued, we learn that Sarah is pregnant. |
