Characters are listed alphabetically. "Starring season(s)" refers to the season in which an actor or actress received star billing for playing a character. "Guest season(s)" identifies a season in which an actor or actress appeared, but received guest star or special guest star billing.
Oceanic Six
The Oceanic Six are the six characters aboard flight Oceanic 815 that, in Season 4, are revealed in flashforwards to have eventually safely left the Island. Their flashforward episodes show them coping with life after rescue.
After blowing up her stepfather, Kate goes on the run and is eventually captured by a federal marshal while in Australia. On the island, Kate is attracted to both Sawyer and Jack, but has stronger feelings for Jack. After escaping the island, she is put on trial for murder, but subsequently makes a highly favorable plea bargain that does not require prison time. After breaking up with Jack, she wants to repair their relationship, but has no desire to return to the island.
A former military communicationsofficer, Sayid is haunted by his past as an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. On the island, he is romantically involved with Shannon. After escaping the island and coming to America, he reunites with and marries his former girlfriend Nadia. After Nadia is murdered, Sayid is employed by Ben as an assassin to kill the associates of Charles Widmore.
The rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer with ties to the Korean mob, Sun has an affair and almost leaves her husband Jin before the crash. They reconcile on the island and she becomes pregnant with Jin's baby. After escaping the island, Sun gives birth to Jin's baby, named Ji Yeon. With the settlement money from Oceanic, Sun buys a controlling share of her father's company.
The son of Claire Littleton and her boyfriend Thomas. Aaron is born on the island and leaves it, then being raised by Kate with the public perceiving the baby to be hers, to follow along with their version of what happened on the island. (Over fifty male and female blonde-haired, blue-eyed babies portrayed Aaron during the first three seasons.1)
After winning the lottery with the numbers, Hurley suffers from great bad luck. He remains optimistic on the island but after escaping from it is hospitalized for psychiatric reasons that include recurring hallucinations involving Charlie.
A spinalsurgeon with father issues, Jack is the survivors' leader. He has feelings for Kate. After escaping the island, he ends up in a relationship with Kate but after a dramatic breakup he becomes drug-addicted and suicidal because he longs to return to the island to save everyone there that Locke informs him of, and return to his relationship with Kate.
Boone is the stepbrother of Shannon, with whom he is in love. On the island, he becomes a protector of the people and a hunter with Locke. He's also very cautious with his sister Shannon on the island and does his duty of protecting her. A plane falls with Boone in it, crushing Boone from the waist down in the impact. He returns to the camp to be treated by Jack, but dies shortly thereafter
A former LAPD police officer, Ana Lucia is the leader of the survivors of the tail section of Flight 815 and guides them to the relative safety of the fuselage survivors. She is shot and killed by Michael Dawson while he tries to free Ben, the leader of the "Others."
While trying to escape the Island via raft, Michael's son Walt is abducted by the Others. After making a deal with the Others that includes killing some of his fellow crash survivors, Michael and Walt leave the Island. However when they return home Walt leaves Michael after he finds out that he killed Libby and Ana Lucia. Michael tries to commit suicide a couple times but soon finds out that "the island won't let him die". He later infiltrates the Kahana freighter crew under the orders of Ben in order to save everyone on the Island. He is killed in an explosion on the Kahana while trying to deactivate a bomb.2
A former Nigerian drug lord turned priest, Eko crashes with the tail section survivors. He meets the smoke monster on more than one occasion in the Island's forests, and is eventually killed by the monster.
Libby is a tail section survivor. Prior to the crash of 815, she met Desmond and gave him her late husband's boat for the around the world race that ended with Desmond crashing on the island. She is also revealed to have been a patient in the same mental institution at the same time as Hurley. She becomes romantically involved with Hurley. She is accidentally shot to death by Michael on the Island after witnessing Ana Lucia's death.
Nikki is an actress who, with Paulo, murders a television producer for his diamonds. When they get to the island they spend their time searching for the diamonds lost in the crash. She is Paulo's girlfriend and is assumed dead and buried alive on the island after being paralyzed from a spider bite.
Sawyer is a confidence man emotionally crippled by the murder-suicide of his parents when he was a child. He is romantically involved with Kate on the island.
The son of a poor fisherman, Jin marries Sun on the condition that he work for her father as a mobenforcer. On the island, Jin struggles as the only castaway who does not speak English, although he does eventually understand it and could slightly speak it. He is presumably killed when a bomb goes off on the Kahana.
Claire gives birth on the island to a boy and forges a strong relationship with Charlie. She is also Jack's half-sister. She is not aware of this, but Jack learns this from her mother after he leaves the Island.
An elementary school student, he is kidnapped by the Others, who claim that he is "special." He is rescued by his father Michael and goes to live with his grandmother in New York.
After having his paralysis healed during the crash, Locke lives out his dreams of becoming a hunter on the Island. Being a man of faith, he believes he has a special connection with the island, leading him to clash with man of science Jack. Having been "chosen," Locke becomes the leader of the Others at the end of the fourth season. Locke apparently dies of an alleged suicide three years after the Oceanic Six leave the island, under the alias of Jeremy Bentham.
A one-hit wonder, rock musician Charlie ends his addiction to heroin on the island and cares for Claire and her baby. He drowns in the Looking Glass station, trying to help the survivors communicate with the outside world.
Paulo helps Nikki murder a television executive for his diamonds. He spends his time on the island with Nikki searching for the diamonds. He is assumed dead and buried alive on the island after being paralyzed from a spider bite.
Shannon is a ballet instructor and Boone's stepsister. She has a relationship with Sayid on the island. She is accidentally shot and killed by Ana Lucia on the Island.
Three years prior to the crash, fertilitydoctor Juliet is recruited by the Others. Ben does not allow her to leave the island after some time, which causes her to become furious. And after some time, she developed a relationship with Goodwin. However, she later lives with the crash survivors after she helps Sawyer and Kate escape from the "Others" camp (originally to spy on them, but soon helps them) she starts developing a relationship with Jack when they return.
Desmond shipwrecks on the island while on a boat race across the world and lives in the Hatch for three years until he moves in with the crash survivors. At the start of the third season, Desmond gains the ability to see flashes of future events, most of them being about Charlie's death. He escapes the Island with the Oceanic Six at the end of season four and is reunited with his girlfriend, Penelope Widmore.
Ben is the manipulative de facto leader of the Others. He was captured by the survivors and was held hostage in a hatch that Boone and Locke found. However Michael releases him in return for the safe passage of himself and his son, Walt, back home. In the finale of the 4th season he is forced to leave the Island after he "moves" it.
Faraday is a physicist hired to go to the Island by Charles Widmore. Though he lies several times to the Oceanic 815 survivors, he saves Desmond's life and helps Juliet ferry survivors to the Kahana.
Charlotte is an anthropologist hired to go to the Island by Charles Widmore. Miles suggests that she has been to the Island before and she chooses to stay there when given the option to leave.
Miles is a spiritualist hired to go to the Island by Charles Widmore. He can apparently talk to the dead. He has the most cutting wit out of the Kahana away team members, earning him a comparison to Sawyer by Hurley.
Dr. Leslie Arzt is a high school science teacher, who crashes with the fuselage survivors and keeps a collection of native fauna in various jars. Arzt complains about not being included in the various missions of Jack and Locke, finally joining them on a trip to the Black Rock. He dies ironically when a stick of dynamite explodes in his hand whilst he lectures Jack, Locke, Kate and Hurley on how to safely handle it.
Cindy Chandler is an Australian Oceanic Airlines stewardess dating the Flight 815 passenger Gary Troup. She crashes with the tail-section survivors and is taken by the Others in the second season during the journey to the fuselage survivors' camp. Cindy lives comfortably with the Others following her abduction.
A woman with terminal cancer from the Bronx, New York, Rose Henderson-Nadler marries Bernard less than a year before the crash. She lives with the fuselage survivors and reunites with Bernard in season two. She opts to return to the beach at the beginning of season four when the survivors contact the freighter.
Scott Jackson and Steve Jenkins crash with the fuselage survivors. They are regularly confused with each other, even after one of them (Scott) is killed in the first season by Ethan. In season four, Steve is killed as well when the survivors are attacked by the people from the freighter.
Edward Mars is an American marshal who is obsessed with capturing Kate, finally apprehending her in Australia. He is critically injured during the crash and dies in the third episode.
An American dentist, Dr. Bernard Nadler weds Rose less than one year prior to the crash. He crashes with the tail section survivors, but joins the fuselage survivors in season two. Bernard stays with the majority of the group after some of the freighter crew arrive. He is the only tail section survivor not to be abducted by the Others or killed.
Seth Norris was the pilot of the airplane (Flight 815) which crashes on the island. He is found in the cockpit in the first episode by Jack, Kate and Charlie and soon after is killed by "the Monster."
The New York author of the metafictional novel, Bad Twin3 Gary Troup is Cindy's lover. He dies when he is sucked into the plane's turbine immediately after the plane crash.4
Vincent is Walt's yellow Labrador retriever, who is originally owned by Walt's stepfather, Brian Porter. He is left behind on the Island when Michael and Walt leave. He is given to Shannon by Walt and remains under her care until she is killed. He is later seen accompanying Sun.
Alexandra is Rousseau's daughter who is kidnapped by the Others sixteen years prior to the crash of Flight 815 and raised by Ben. Alex aids the crash survivors in various escapes and eventually defects at the end of season three. She dates Karl, but Ben tries to keep them apart because she would die if she becomes pregnant. She is executed by Keamy.
Dr. Richard Alpert is Ben's advisor who is seemingly ageless. In flashbacks, he is shown associated with Ben to purge the Dharma Initiative in 1992. In one of season 3 flashbacks, Richard recruits Juliet to the Others. In the fourth season, Richard leads the surviving Others to a place referred to as "The Temple" and in a flashback he is shown to come into contact with John Locke several times during the latter's early life. Each time, including at Locke's birth in 1956, Alpert appears to be the same age as he is in 2004.
Mikhail Bakunin is one of the Others. He lives and works at the Flame Dharma station. Locke, Sayid and Kate find him and take him hostage. He manages to escape and later sets off a hand grenade, which kills both himself and Charlie at the Looking Glass Dharma station. He is missing an eye.
A young Other, Karl is Alex's boyfriend. In an attempt to prevent Karl from impregnating Alex, Ben imprisons him until he is rescued by Kate and Sawyer. Later, he joins the plane crash survivors and is killed by the mercenaries from the Kahana in season four.
Beatrice Klugh visits Michael during his forced stay with the Others and is present when they capture Jack, Kate and Sawyer. In season three, at the Dharma Flame station, she is found by Sayid, Locke and Kate and has Mikhail kill her to prevent her from being the survivors' prisoner.
Jacob is the Others' highest authority. With the exception of Ben, the Others do not have regular contact with him. Jacob lives in a cabin that seemingly moves and is invisible to some people. At first, Locke can only hear Jacob and not see him, although he later sees and talks to Christian Shephard inside the cabin.
Danny Pickett is a violent member of the Others who supervises Kate and Sawyer while they are imprisoned. He is married to another Other named Colleen until Sun kills her. Enraged, Pickett takes his anger out on Sawyer, and tries to kill Sawyer until Juliet intervenes and kills Pickett.
Dr. Ethan Rom poses as a fuselage survivor until he is exposed by Hurley, at which point he kidnaps Claire and Charlie. He unsuccessfully attempts to murder Charlie and takes Claire to the Staff Dharma station, where he performs tests on her unborn child and implants a device that can cause her to become sick. Charlie kills Ethan in "Homecoming".
Goodwin Stanhope is married to the Others' therapist, Harper Stanhope. He has an affair with Juliet, which dismays Ben because he is in love with Juliet. Partially out of jealousy, Ben sends Goodwin on a mission to infiltrate the tail section survivors. When Goodwin's identity is discovered by Ana Lucia, she confronts and kills him.
Tom, aka "Mr Friendly," wears a fake beard when acting as a liaison to the crash survivors until they kidnap Jack, Kate and Sawyer. He recruits Michael to spy on the boat Kahana. He's shot and killed by Sawyer.
Recruited by Matthew Abaddon to lead a group of four people on a mission to the Island, Naomi Dorrit is the first to arrive on the Island and tells the survivors of the freighter Kahana. She is mortally wounded when Locke throws a knife into her back, after finally contacting the boat.
Martin Keamy is the lead mercenary on the Kahana and is a former Marine. Keamy leads a team onto the island to find Ben, killing Karl and Danielle Rousseau and later executing Alex in front of Ben. Keamy eventually tracks Ben down and is stabbed to death by him. His death causes the freighter to explode, presumably killing many people.
Frank Lapidus (pronounced /ləˈpiːdəs/) is a pilot who brings Daniel, Miles and Charlotte to the Island. He was supposed to be the pilot for Flight 815. He ultimately helps Desmond and the Oceanic Six escape The Island.
George Minkowski is the ship's communications officer on the freighter. He seems to suffer the same symptoms as Desmond in "The Constant" and dies as a result.
Anthony Cooper is a con man, John Locke's biological father and the man who conned Sawyer's parents, leading to their deaths. Cooper cons Locke into donating a kidney to him. Later, Locke begins to interfere with one of his cons, so Cooper pushes Locke out of a window, paralyzing him. Cooper later arrives on the Island, where Sawyer kills him in revenge. He is named after Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, the mentor of the philosopher John Locke.7
Danielle Rousseau arrives on the island sixteen years before the crash of Flight 815 as part of a research team. She gives birth to Alex on the island after killing her team because they had gotten "sick." Alex is kidnapped soon after by the Others. Rousseau occasionally helps the survivors and is shot and killed in an ambush along with Karl while leading Alex to the Temple on Ben's orders.
Henry Gale was a man whose hot air balloon crashed on the island and he was buried. When Ben was captured by Rousseau he claimed to be Henry Gale. Gale had a wife named Jenny.
A girl who befriended Ben Linus when they were both young and living in the Dharma Initiative during its heyday. On the Season 3 DVD, the producers stated Annie is a major influence on Ben, and will play a "seismic" part in future storylines.8
A couple, Doctorals candidates of the University of Michigan, who received funding by the Hanso Foundation in 1970 to create and operate the Dharma Initiative on the island.
Kelvin is an intelligence operative for the United States government, and responsible for making Sayid torture his former commander. Later, Kelvin joins the Dharma Initiative, and operates the Swan station until Desmond accidentally kills him.
A couple who help Ben's parents, when his mother gives birth to him. They work for the Dharma Initiative and recruit Ben and his Father. Horace dies during the "purge" with several other Dharma Initiative members. In Cabin Fever, Horace appears to Locke and tells him how to find Jacob's cabin. The producers have stated that Horace and Olivia Goodspeed are important to the Dharma story.8
A former arms salesman and manufacturer, he is the enigmatic Danish leader of the Hanso Foundation. Hanso can be seen in the show via an orientation film in "Orientation".
Ben's father and an employee of the Dharma Initiative. He is killed by Ben in the "purge" (the massacre of the members of the Dharma Initiative). Later, his corpse is discovered by Hurley in "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead".
Mathew Abaddon is the man who hires Naomi, Miles, Faraday, Charlotte, and Lapidus to go to the Island via the freighter Kahana. He also visits Locke after the latter is paralyzed and tells him to go on a walkabout. After the Oceanic Six return home, he tries to get information about the status of the people on the Island by threatening Hurley.
The estranged mother of Kate, she turns Kate into the police after Kate kills Diane's husband and Kate's father, Wayne. Diane never forgives Kate, but decides not to testify at Kate's trial once Kate returns home as part of the Oceanic Six.
Nadia Jazeem
Andrea Gabriel
Sayid's girlfriend and later wife, Locke's client, rescued from a mugging by Charlie
A childhood friend of Sayid's, Nadia becomes involved in an insurgency opposed to Saddam Hussein. She is imprisoned and interrogated by Sayid, but he lets her escape. She travels to the West, and in doing so comes in contact with both Charlie and Locke. When Sayid leaves the island, they get married, but shortly after she is murdered.
After teaching Sun English, Jae Lee has an affair with her and as a result her father sends Jin to kill him. Jin instead tells him to leave Korea forever, but Jae commits suicide by jumping from his apartment building.11
Cassidy is a recently divorced woman whom Sawyer cons, despite his loving her. Cassidy then goes to Iowa and meets Kate. Cassidy later has Sawyer arrested and visits him in jail, where she tells him they have a daughter together.
Christian Shephard works as the chief of surgery at St. Sebastian Hospital, and is a recovering alcoholic. He goes to Australia with Ana Lucia to find his daughter, Claire, after his son, Jack inadvertently costs Christian his medical license. Christian subsequently dies from drinking too much after being abandoned at a bar by Ana Lucia and meeting Sawyer. He frequently appears on the Island to Jack, Claire, Locke, Hurley, Michael and even Vincent.
Sarah is involved in a car crash with Shannon's father. Jack treats her injuries, and informs her that she will never walk again, however he "fixes" her. They fall in love and marry, but some time later, Sarah has an affair and divorces Jack. Sometime after the crash survivors are rescued, Sarah is pregnant.
A wealthy industrialist and the father of Penny Widmore. He is the main antagonist of the fourth season. He disapproves of Desmond's relationship with his daughter. According to Ben, Charles is an enemy of the people on the Island. He sends the freighter Kahana to the Island in order to find Ben. Charles is contacted by both Sun and Ben after they leave the Island.
Penny Widmore is Desmond's girlfriend. After he is shipwrecked on the Island, she never gives up looking for him. She ultimately succeeds and rescues not only Desmond but also Frank Lapidus and the Oceanic Six. She helps arrange the Oceanic Six's cover story. Carlton Cuse has stated that "Penny is an important character in the overarching mythology of the show".13
Yemi is a priest and Mr. Eko's younger brother, of whom Mr. Eko is very protective. Together, they arrange for a plane filled with heroin to leave Nigeria, but Yemi is shot and killed before getting on the plane. The wreckage of the plane is later discovered on the Island, where Yemi appears to Mr. Eko.
