Italians? Check. French? Check. Koreans? Check. Jews? Oddly, not so much.
When the creators of LOST were in the casting process, they knew they wanted an “international cast”. Well done. Who wants to see another show with a bunch of white people and one African-American thrown in for good measure?
The ethnic diversity on the show adds so much to the characterization and even their storylines. I have gone through the painstaking process (for most, but for me was a lot of fun!) of searching and studying the ethnicity of the entire cast of LOST. While I won’t bombard my fellow Losties with every single cast member ever, I will feature most of them. The phrase in (parenthesis) tells where the actor was raised.
Matthew Fox as “Jack Shephard”: Italian-English (America)
Evangeline Lilly as “Kate Austen”: English (Canada)
Josh Holloway as “James ‘Sawyer’ Ford”: Scottish (America); rare in that he is one of the few Southerners on the show- from Georgia in real life, on the show he was born in Jasper, Alabama
Jorge Garcia as “Hugo ‘Hurley” Reyes”: Chilean-Cuban (America)
Naveen Andrews as “Sayid Jarrah”: Indian (England)
Daniel Dae Kim as “Jin-Soo Kwon”: Korean (America)
Yunjin Kim as “Sun-Hwa Kwon”: Korean (America)
Terry O’Quinn as “John Locke”: Irish (America)
Dominic Monaghan as “Charlie Pace”: English-Irish (Germany); he speaks both English and German
Michael Emerson as “Benjamin Linus”: English (America)
Emilie de Ravin as “Claire Litteton”: French (Australia)
Henry Ian Cusick as “Desmond Hume”: Scottish-Peruvian (both Scotland and Peru)
Sonya Walger as “Penny Widmore”: Argentinean-English (England)
*oddly, married couple “Desmond and Penny” are both in real life half British, half South American
Alan Dale as “Charles Widmore”: New Zealander (New Zealand)
Ken Leung as “Miles Straume”: Chinese (America)
Francois Chau as “Dr. Pierre Chang”: Cambodian-American-Chinese-Vietnamese (America); random fact- he played “Shredder” in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze
Andewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as “Mr. Eko”: Nigerian (England)
Nestor Carbonell as “Richard Alpert”: Cuban-Spanish (America)
Elizabeth Mitchell as “Dr. Juliet Burke”: English (America); another rare Southerner (from Dallas, TX)
Jeff Fahey as “Frank Lapidus”: Irish (America); though his character his Greek-American
Cynthia Watros as “Libby Smith”: Greek or Czech (America)
Michelle Rodriguez as “Ana Lucia Cortez”: Puerto Rican-Dominican Republican (America)
Tania Raymonde (Katz) as “Alex”: Jewish (America)
Mira Fulan as “Danielle Rousseau”: Jewish (Croatia)
Katy Sagal as “Helen Norwood”: Jewish (America); played Locke’s love interest, also known as “Peg” on Married with Children
Titus Welliver as “Man in Black (Esau): Irish (America); though he looks like Billy Joel, who is Jewish
Mark Pellegrino as “Jacob”: Italian (America)
Since Jews only make up 1.7% of the American population, the three confirmed Jewish actors on LOST accurately and proportionately represent themselves in the large number of actors on the show. And that’s rare.
Of course, as usual, in the strange case there are no Jews or hardly any Jews on a show or movie (like Family Matters or Family Ties), the producers and/or writers are Jewish. So it goes without saying, that in fact, LOST creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof are both Jewish. Along with Jeffrey Lieber (who most likely is based on his name and physical appearance). Same thing with LOST writer Adam Horowitz.
It’s safe to say that LOST truly has the most international, most diverse cast of any show in American history. We as Losties have invested years of our lives in these characters. They’ve become like real people to us. I’m so glad this show is made up of such a randomly planned cast of characters and actors.
Read more about the astonishing number of Jewish actors in American film: The Funny Thing about Jews
And one more thing… Now that you’ve read my take on this, why not read my perspective on being a dad? That’s right- parenting from a dad’s point of view. I have been documenting my thoughts as a dad since the week we found out my wife was pregnant. I formally invite you now to read my “dad blog” by clicking on the link below:
dad from day one
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 