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Early Life,
Education and Career
Michael Emerson was born in
Cedar Rapids
,
Iowa
and grew up in the neighboring town of
Toledo
,
Iowa
. After graduating from
Iowa
’s
Drake
University
(where he majored in Theater and minored in Art) in 1976, he moved to
New York City
. Unable to find acting work, he took retail jobs and worked as a
freelance illustrator. In 1986, he moved with his first wife to
Jacksonville
,
Florida
. There, from 1986 to 1993, he acted in local productions and worked as
a teacher and a director.
Emerson considered giving up acting in favor of a more stable career as
a teacher, but instead decided to find an MFA program that would help
introduce him to professionals in theater and a higher grade of
directors. In 1993, he enrolled in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's
University of Alabama-sponsored Master of Fine Arts/Professional Actor
Training program. After graduation, Emerson returned to
New York
and appeared in the annual Alabama Shakespeare Festival showcase.
Fame
Michael finally got his big break in 1997, when he starred as Oscar
Wilde in Moises Kaufman's critically acclaimed off-Broadway play, Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde.
In the following years, Emerson has continued to act on stage. He has
displayed his talents opposite Uma Thurman off-Broadway in The Misanthrope in 1998 and as Willie Oban in 1999's The
Iceman Cometh with Kevin Spacey. He costarred with Kate Burton in
both Give Me Your Answer, Do!
and Hedda Gabler.
Successful in television and film, Michael has appeared in episodes of Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit, Law
& Order: Criminal Intent,
Without a Trace, and The
X-Files. He offered a memorable performance as (fictional) confessed
serial killer William Hinks in several episodes of The
Practice, for which he won a 2001 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest
Actor in a Drama Series. In 2006, he began a guest-starring role playing
Benjamin Linus (formerly called "Henry Gale" on the show) on
the American television show LOST.
Originally set to appear in a small number of episodes, Emerson returned
for the third season as a main cast member. On the big screen he has
appeared in such films as Saw (in which he played the character of hospital orderly Zep Hindle),
The Legend of Zorro, The
Laramie Project, Playing by
Heart, The Imposters, and Jumping off
Bridges.
Trivia
According to ABC.com's bio, Michael's hobbies include Shakespeare, the
Greeks, verse, black-and-white films, black-and-white drawings,
bluegrass, world crafts and ghost stories. He is a long-time supporter
of the charities that are connected to the Theater community—Actors
Fund, Broadway Cares, Gay Men's Health Crisis and Off-Off Broadway, as
well as publicly supported radio stations, and Habitat.
Michael has been married to actress Carrie Preston since 1998, and they
both had roles in the movies Straight-Jacket,
Grace & Gloria and The
Journey, as well as an episode of the short-lived television crime
drama The Inside. Michael
Emerson also had a small role in the film 29th
and Gay, which Carrie Preston produced, directed, and edited. Both
Michael Emerson and Carrie Preston are in the popular TV Show LOST. Michael
is playing Ben Linus, the enigmatic leader of the Others, and Carrie
Preston is in the episode, "The Man behind the Curtain." She
plays his mother and can be seen during a flashback.
by
Shannon, A.K.A. Flummery
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