Actor Michael Emerson

Michael Emerson (born September 7, 1954) is an American film and television actor who is best known for his roles as serial killer William Hinks on The Practice, Benjamin Linus on Lost, Zep Hindle in the first Saw film, Cayden James on Arrow, and Harold Finch on the CBS series Person of Interest. Emerson has also worked extensively in theater and narration. He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards and been nominated for three others, as well as receiving other awards and nominations. He currently stars as Dr. Leland Townsend in the CBS thriller series Evil.

Early life

Emerson was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Carol (née Hansen) and Ronald H. Emerson. He grew up in Toledo, Iowa, where he was a member of his high school marching band.

He graduated in 1976 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,[citation needed] 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 (from 1986–93) 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 differing kinds of work 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

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 then followed up with several other notable stage performances. In 1998, he performed opposite Uma Thurman in an off-Broadway production of Le Misanthrope. In 1999, he played the role of Willie Oban in The Iceman Cometh. He co-starred with Kate Burton in both Give Me Your Answer, Do! and Hedda Gabler.

In September 2001, Emerson won an Emmy Award as “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 originally set to appear in a small number of episodes, then returned for Season 3 as a main cast member and eventually became a main antagonist of the program. He received an Emmy Award nomination in the “Outstanding Supporting Actor” category in 2007 and 2008 for his work in the third and fourth seasons, respectively. 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. He was nominated for an Emmy for each season in which he was listed in the main cast.

On July 31, 2010, Emerson and Preston read A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, which was a 1990 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, at the Charleston Stage. They performed it as a fundraiser for the Stage, a South Carolina theatre. The reading was followed by 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 of the show has been postponed. Emerson joined the cast of another Abrams series, Person of Interest, that debuted in September 2011 on CBS. He played a billionaire who teams up with a supposedly dead CIA agent to fight crime in New York City.

Personal life

Emerson married actress Carrie Preston in 1998 in her hometown of Macon, Georgia. They met while he was performing in a stage production of Hamlet in Alabama. It is his second marriage. The two later starred together in Straight-Jacket (2004). Preston portrayed Emily Linus (the mother of Emerson’s character) on Lost in the flashback sequences of the episode “The Man Behind the Curtain”. The two teamed up again, with Emerson portraying Preston’s next-door neighbor, in the film Ready? OK! (2008). Preston also appeared in several episodes of Person of Interest as Grace Hendricks (the former fiancée of Emerson’s character).

Emerson supports charities connected to the theatre community, including the Actors Fund, Broadway Cares, and Off-Off Broadway, in addition to publicly supported radio stations and Habitat for Humanity.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
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	The Laramie Project	Reverend
	Unfaithful	Josh
2004	Saw	Zep Hindle
	Straight-Jacket	Victor
2005	Saw II	Zep Hindle	Uncredited; archive sound
	29th and Gay	Gorilla
	The Legend of Zorro	Harrigan
2006	Saw III	Zep Hindle	Uncredited; archive footage
	Jumping Off Bridges	Frank Nelson
2008	Ready? OK!	Charlie New
2010	Saw 3D	Zep Hindle	Uncredited; archive footage
	Goldstar, Ohio	Steve Harper
2012	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1	The Joker (voice)	Straight-to-Video
2013	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2		Straight-to-Video

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Orpheus Descending	Clown	Television film
1998	Grace & Glorie	Arnold Dudley
1999	Stark Raving Mad	Mr. Putnam	Episode: “The Psychic”
2000	The District	Man in Bar	Episode: “Pilot”
2000–2001	The Practice	William Hinks	6 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
2001	The Education of Max Bickford	Unknown	Episode: “Herding Carts”
	Sounds from a Town I Love	Unknown	Television film
2002	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Gerry Rankin	Episode: “Phantom”
	The X-Files	Oliver Martin	Episode: “Sunshine Days”
2003	Without a Trace	Stuart Wesmar	Episode: “Victory for Humanity”
	Skin	Scarpelli	Episode: “Secrets & Lies”
	Whoopi	F. Thomas Erickson	Episode: “The Fat and the Frivolous”
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Allan Shaye	Episode: “Ritual”
2005	The Inside	Marty Manning	Episode: “Pre-Filer”
2006–2010	Lost	Ben Linus	79 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2007–08, 2010) Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2006–07) Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television (2007, 2009–11) Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Villain
2007	Lost: Missing Pieces		2 episodes
2010	Front Line	John Winthrop	Episode: “God In America”
2011	Parenthood	Andy Fitzgerald	Episode: “Amazing Andy and His Wonderful World of Bugs”
	G.I. Joe: Renegades	Doctor Venom (voice)	Episode: “The Anaconda Strain”
	Generator Rex	Alpha Nanite (voice)	Episode: “Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United”
2011–2016	Person of Interest	Harold Finch	103 episodes
2014	The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements	Narrator (voice)	3 episodes
2017–2018	Arrow	Cayden James	7 episodes
2017	Claws	Ted	Episode: “Ambrosia”
2018	Mozart in the Jungle	Morton Norton	2 episodes
2019	The Name of the Rose	The Abbot	8 episodes
2019–present	Evil	Leland Townsend	12 episodes Nominated—Critics’ Choice Super Award for Best Actor in a Horror Series Pending—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2008	Lost: Via Domus	Ben Linus

Theater

Othello, University of North Florida

Noises Off (as Gary), Theatre Jacksonville, 1986 or 1987

Hamlet (as Hamlet), University of North Florida Theatre, Jacksonville, Florida, 1987

Hamlet (as Hamlet), Players-By-The-Sea Theatre, Jacksonville Beach, Florida

The Importance of Being Earnest, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 1990

Parts Unknown, Players-By-The-Sea Theatre, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 1993

The Tempest (as Ferdinand), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

The Way of the World (as Lady Wishfort), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

Hamlet (as Rosencrantz), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

All’s Well That Ends Well, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

Henry IV, Part 1, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

A Christmas Carol, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

The Crucible, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1994 or 1995

Androcles and the Lion, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1995 or 1996

Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde (as Oscar Wilde), Minetta Lane Theatre, off-Broadway, 1997–1998

The Iceman Cometh (as Willie Oban), Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 1999

Give Me Your Answer, Do! (as David Knight), Gramercy Theatre, off-Broadway, 1999–2000

Hedda Gabler (as George Tesman), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Stage, 2000

Hedda Gabler (as George Tesman), Ambassador Theatre, Broadway, 2001–2002

Tartuffe (as Cleante), American Airlines Theatre, Broadway, 2003

Measure for Measure (as Duke Vincentio), California Shakespeare Theater, Orinda, California, 2003

Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, The Ridgefield Playhouse for Movies and the Performing Arts, 2004

Hamlet (as Ghost, Claudius, Osric, and Guildenstern), McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, New Jersey, 2005

Bach at Leipzig (as Schott), New York Theatre Workshop, 2005

Likeness, Primary Stages Theater (307 W. 38th Street), 2008

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (as Alexander), Chautauqua Theater Company, 2008

Love Letters (as Andrew Makepeace Ladd, III), Charleston Stage, 2010

Wakey, Wakey (play by Will Eno) Signature Theatre (as Guy), 2017

Other work

In 2000, played the unnamed narrator character in the radio play adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story, Murder Mysteries.

In 2001, participated in a Woody Allen short called “Sounds From a Town I Love” which aired on television during The Concert for New York City and depicts people talking on their cellphones as they walk around New York City.

In 2003, participated in a staged reading of a play involving string theory written by Jacquelyn Reingold called String Fever at Rockefeller University.

In 2003, was the voice of George Washington in Favorite Son, an experimental documentary film about the relationship between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.

In 2005, narrated audio book CD of Robert Penn Warren’s novel All the King’s Men.

In 2006, narrated audio book CD of The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright, published.

In 2007, with other Lost cast members, he participated in a play-reading session at the Tenney Theatre in Hawaii to raise money for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth.

In 2009, narrated a reading of “Babar the Elephant” with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.

Co-narrated with Peter J. Fernandez, the audio book version of James Patterson’s novel, Four Blind Mice.

Co-narrated with John Rubinstein the audio book of the novel Private Sector by Brian Haig.

Awards

Primetime Emmy Awards:

Won – 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series) for playing “William Hinks” on The Practice, 2001.

Nominated – 59th Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2007.

Nominated – 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2008.

Won – 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2009.

Nominated – 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2010.

Golden Globe Awards:

Nominated – 67th Golden Globe Awards (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television) for portraying Ben Linus on LOST, 2010.

Saturn Awards:

Won – 34th Saturn Awards (Best Supporting Television Actor) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2008.

Nominated – 35th Saturn Awards (Best Supporting Television Actor) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2009.

Nominated – 36th Saturn Awards (Best Supporting Television Actor) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2010.

Nominated – 37th Saturn Awards (Best Supporting Television Actor) for portraying Ben Linus on Lost, 2011.

External Links

Actor Michael Emerson – Wikipedia