Matthew Fox Biography

Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor and former model. His first major role was playing the older brother and patriarch Charlie Salinger on Party of Five in the 1990s, co-starring with both Scott Wolf and Neve Campbell. He gained much greater fame for his current starring role as Jack Shephard on the hit ABC drama series Lost.

Biography

 Early life

Fox (from emmerdale) was born in Crowheart, Wyoming, and was raised on his family's horse ranch there. His mother, Loretta B. (née Eagono), was a teacher, and his father, Francis G. Fox, raised longhorn cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors beer. Fox's mother was of part Italian descent, and his father is a descendant of General George Meade. He has an older brother, Francis, Jr., and a younger brother, Bayard. Following his graduation from Wind River High School in nearby Pavillion, Wyoming, Fox undertook a prep year at prestigious Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, from which he gained admission to Columbia University. At Columbia, he played wide receiver, participating in the game that led to the end of Columbia's notorious 44-game losing streak. He was also a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. After graduating in 1989, he began acting with the Atlantic Theater Company. He also attended the School for Film and Television in New York City.

Fox sought a career on Wall Street before turning a job offer down. He studied economics at Columbia and upon his graduation applied for a job to sell stocks at Prudential-Bache. "I didn't have a suit, so I had to borrow one from a friend. He was 5-10, and I'm 6-2, so the thing didn't fit. And I borrowed his penny loafers," he said. He described the staff as "all these mid-20s, Type A, go-getting wannabe Gordon Gekkos. There was just so much testosterone flying around, in all the wrong directions ... I'll never forget the moment as long as I live: We're saying goodbye, and they were like, 'Well, y'know, you're gonna come here and kick ass, and it's all gonna be great!' and then one of 'em says, 'But he's gonna have to do something about those shoes!' They all had exactly the same pair of Oxford shoes on. In that moment, I said, 'There's no way I can do this.'"

 Career

At the age of 25, Fox made his debut on an episode of Wings. That same year, he also starred on a short-lived dramatic series, Freshman Dorm. Still not being a familiar face on the small screen, he continued receiving supporting roles, including the CBS Schoolbreak Special series, If I Die Before I Wake before he made his big screen debut in My Boyfriend's Back (1993).

In 1994, Fox was cast in a co-starring role as the eldest of five siblings who lose both parents in a car accident on the 1990s teen drama, Party of Five, as Charlie Salinger. In 1996, People Magazine named Fox as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. After Party of Five was canceled after its sixth season, Fox starred in another TV series Haunted, in 2002.

Since September 2004, Fox has played the role of the troubled and dedicated surgeon, Dr. Jack Shephard, on Lost. He initially auditioned for the role of James "Sawyer" Ford. However, co-creator J.J. Abrams thought he would be better for the role of Jack, a role originally slated to be for the pilot episode only. ABC, however, liked Fox in the role, and asked Abrams to keep the character in the cast. Fox was nominated for a Golden Globe, won the 2005 Satellite Award, and shared the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, for his role in Lost.

On December 2, 2006, he hosted Saturday Night Live with musical guests Tenacious D. In 2006, Fox co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in the sports drama, We Are Marshall. He also played a bit part in the action film Smokin' Aces and starred in the 2008 thriller, Vantage Point. He said of this film that as well as being a straightforward thriller, he thinks it has the potential to make people stop and think that "there are very different ways of looking at the world". In May 2008, Fox starred as Racer X in the movie Speed Racer.

Fox also appears in advertisements for L'Oreal.

 Personal life

Fox grew up in the town Crowheart, Wyoming, where his father, Francis, raised longhorn cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors beer. Francis Fox had previously worked for Getty Oil in Philadelphia, and had given up his job as a consulting geologist to work on his own ranch in the middle of Wind River Indian Reservation.

Fox described his father as a tough man who brought up his three sons (of whom Matthew was the middle) with a firm and distinct sense of discipline. An enthusiastic outdoorsman, Francis Fox demanded that his sons practice their dry casting in front of the house for days and days at a time before he would allow them to go fishing in an actual river. According to Fox, his father hated TV, and the family did not own one until he was 15. During his childhood, Fox suffered from Aquaphobia.

In their ranch in Wyoming, Fox led somewhat of a wild life, consuming his first alcoholic beverage at the age 12, taking up chewing tobacco a year or two later, and losing his virginity during this same time period, attributing this early experimentation to the fact that Wyoming was a place that, "...has a pretty intense undercurrent to it. And from a very early age the kids there feel like they're living in an adult world and challenge each other to walk the edge. It really is kind of the last frontier."

Fox grew up near an Indian reservation where he played varsity basketball. After graduation, Fox attended a post graduate year at Deerfield Academy, a prestigious Massachusetts boarding school. Fox has stated that he continued his wild partying ways there, including wearing cowboy boots and chewing tobacco. In other more academic and athletic pursuits, Fox played football for the Deerfield team, which earned him an invitation to Columbia University. There he met his future wife, a former Italian runway model named Margherita Ronchi.

In addition to meeting his future wife, while at Columbia University, Fox played in the 16-13 victory over Princeton University in 1988 that broke Columbia's record 44 game losing streak. Regarding what it felt like to finally win, Fox stated,

    I had a 40 yard touchdown that was called back. It was a rainy day and the sidelines were muddy, and I got chucked coming off the line and apparently went out-of-bounds. I thought I scored, but it was called back. But more than anything, I remember the immense relief and euphoria that win brought. We had gotten the crap knocked out of us for a long time. Every week we lost, we were news. Then the goal posts came down, and the campus partied for two days. It was a great day.

While attending Columbia, a friend told Fox he ought to try modeling. Describing his experience as a male model, Fox said,

    During my crossover period, when I started studying acting and I was doing some of this modeling stuff, chewing tobacco was so totally outrageously not acceptable that I started smoking cigarettes. I kind of did this redneck-to-cosmopolitan changeover on my nicotine delivery system, and I've been doing that for over 15 years now. I have these two magnificently gorgeous and perfect children, and I hide it from them. It's really terrible.

Shortly after graduating from Columbia and turning down a job as a stockbroker, Fox moved to Hollywood.

In 1991, Fox married Margherita Ronchi, and had two children with her: Kyle Allison (1998) and Byron Francis(2001). Fox is a football fan and loves the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team. Every Sunday evening, Fox throws a viewing party and once gave his guests gifts of pictures he took during filming of the pilot episode of the show.

Regarding his use of alcohol, Fox said,

    I really enjoy social boozing, and what I enjoy about it is when people I know and care about say and do things they normally wouldn't say and do. To make that happen, I'll instigate anything. I'm absolutely an instigator. And I definitely know a lot of people who have woken up the next day and gone, 'I can't believe that happened. And it's Fox's fault.' Well, it's probably the most honest you've been in a while, man.

He has allegedly stopped smoking as his 2007 New Year's resolution. Regarding his sex symbol status and how that might affect his marriage, Fox stated,

    The reality of the situation is you understand why that girl at the bar is coming at you that way and not somebody else. She has this built-up romanticized image of who I am and what it'd mean to her if she could sleep with me. That sort of takes the fun out of it. It has nothing to do with me.

 Awards
Year     Award-giving Body     Award     Result
2006     Saturn Awards     Best Lead Actor in a Television Series (Lost)     Won
2006     Golden Globe Awards     Best Lead Actor in a Drama (Lost)     Nominated
2007     Saturn Awards     Best Lead Actor in a Television Series (Lost)     Nominated
2008     Saturn Awards     Best Lead Actor in a Television Series (Lost)     Won

 Filmography
Year     Title     Role     Other notes
1992     Wings     Ty Warner     Season 3, episode 21: "Say it ain't so, Joe"
1993     My Boyfriend's Back     Buck Van Patten     Feature film debut
1994     Party of Five     Charlie Salinger     TV series - 1994 - 2000
2002     Haunted     Frank Taylor     TV series - 2002
2004     Lost     Jack Shephard     TV series - 2004 to present
2006     We Are Marshall     Red Dawson     
2007     Smokin' Aces     Super Security Bill     Cameo
2008     Vantage Point     Kent Taylor     
Speed Racer     Racer X     

Matthew Fox Pictures ( 25 Pictures)