Michael Emerson

Michael Emerson is one of those actors who makes you forget there's a human being behind the character — and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. When he slithered onto Lost as Benjamin Linus, this mild-mannered guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa somehow became the most unnerving presence on television, delivering threats in the softest voice imaginable. Two Emmy Awards later, he proved it wasn't a fluke: his Harold Finch in Person of Interest brought a quiet, wounded dignity to a sci-fi thriller that could've easily stayed shallow. And honestly, his turn as the sinister Dr. Leland Townsend in Evil reminded me all over again that nobody does creeping menace wrapped in intellectual calm quite like him. Drake University clearly produced something special.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Michael Emerson

Name (Japanese)

マイケル・エマーソン

Reading

まいける・えまーそん

Born

September 7, 1954 (age 72)

Origin

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States

Height

173 cm

Occupation

actor / stage actor / television actor / film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Horse

University

Drake University

Awards & achievements

• 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
• 2001 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/officialmichaelemerson/
• Xhttps://x.com/MichaelEmerson
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael%20Emerson
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B1%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A8%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q276302

Tags

• Iowa
• actor
• stage actor
• television actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.