Matthew Chandler Fox

Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor and former model. His first major role was playing an older brother and patriarch Charlie Salinger on Party of Five in the 1990s, co-starring with Scott Wolf, Neve Campbell, and Lacey Chabert. Currently, he plays Jack Shephard on the ABC drama series Lost.

Fox is a descendant of Union General George Meade who is best known for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

He was born on July 14, 1966 in Abington, Pennsylvania to Francis G. Fox of English descent and Loretta B. Fox (née Eagono) of Italian descent, the second of three brothers. When Fox was young the family moved to Wyoming to live on the remote "Bitterroot Ranch" outside Dubois.

Fox attended Wind River High School in nearby Pavillion, Wyoming and undertook a prep year at prestigious Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, from which he gained admission to Columbia University. There he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, met his future wife, Margherita Ronchi, and played football in the 1988 game that broke Columbia's record 44 game losing streak for a 16-13 victory over Princeton University.

After graduating from Columbia, Fox sought a career on Wall Street but turned down a job as a stockbroker and moved to Hollywood.

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 a familiar face on the small screen, he continued getting cast in supporting roles, including the role of Charlie in 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 one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. After Party of Five was canceled following 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. 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 has repeatedly stated that he is "done with television" after Lost ends. The four-and-a-half hour Lost series finale aired on Sunday May 23, 2010.

Source: Wikipedia