Matthew Fox

Born: July 14 1966
Where: Crowheart, Wyoming, USA

The former model is best known to TV audiences for the role of Jack Shephard in the drama Lost.

On the big screen he has appeared in the thriller Vantage Point and played the character Racer X in the blockbuster Speed Racer.

The son of a cattle breeder (and descendant of General George Meade), Fox and his two brothers grew up on the family's horse ranch.

Rural life was relatively hard: the family did not own a TV until he was 15, he had his first alcoholic drink and chewed tobacco at 12 and lost his virginity at around the same time.

Following his graduation from the local Wind River High School, he undertook a prep year at the private Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and went on to study economics at Columbia University.

(while at college he met his future wife, former Italian runway model Margherita Ronchi).

After graduating in 1989, he did some modelling and also began acting with the Atlantic Theater Company and also attended the School for Film and Television in New York City.

Fox subsequently attempted to gain employment on Wall Street before turning down a job selling stocks and embarking on an acting career.

Aged 25 he made his debut on an episode of Wings and went on to play a variety of minor TV roles until his big screen debut in the horror-comedy My Boyfriend's Back.

After the TV movie Behind The Mask, Fox landed 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.

After a recurring role in the series Haunted, in 2004 he was cast as the troubled and dedicated surgeon Jack Shephard in co-creator JJ Abrams' Lost.

Back on the big screen he has a minor role in the 2006 shoot 'em up Smokin' Aces and appeared alongside Matthew McConaughey in the sports drama We Are Marshall.

In 2008, he starred in the political thriller Vantage Point and also played the principal rival driver in the CGI blockbuster Speed Racer.