William Mapother

William Reibert Mapother, Jr. (/ˈmeɪpɒθər/; born April 17, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ethan Rom on the television series Lost.

William Mapother
Mapother at the South by Southwest festival in March 2007.
Born	William Reibert Mapother, Jr. (1965-04-17) April 17, 1965 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1989–present
Relatives	Tom Cruise (cousin)
Website	www.williammapother.com

Early life

Mapother was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the son of Louisa (née Riehm) and William Reibert Mapother, Sr. He is of English, Irish, and mostly German ancestry.

He is a first cousin of actor Tom Cruise, whose real name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Mapother has appeared in five movies starring Cruise. He had tiny roles in Minority Report and Vanilla Sky, and supporting roles in Mission: Impossible II, Born on the Fourth of July and Magnolia. Mapother has two sisters, Katherine and Amy. His father was a lawyer and judge in Louisville, between 1967 and 1970. His father died on June 22, 2006.

Mapother graduated from the University of Notre Dame. He majored in English. Then, he taught high school in East Los Angeles for three years before becoming an actor.

Career

Mapother has become widely known as a character actor. He sometimes plays scary or otherwise dark characters. He played an important role in Todd Field's In the Bedroom. Mapother is more widely known as Ethan Rom in the TV show Lost. The character was killed early in the first season. Since then, however, he has appeared in seven episodes mainly through flashbacks, once due to time travel and another in an alternate timeline. In total, he appeared in eleven episodes of Lost.

Mapother has also had major roles in several independent movies, such as The Lather Effect, Moola, Hurt and Another Earth. Mapother starred in The Burrowers as a Native American fighter who joins a posse to help find missing white settlers, only to discover that the hunters have become the hunted.

In September 2007, he was elected to a three-year term on the National Board of Directors for the Screen Actors Guild.

Television and movie roles

• American Horror Story (TV, 1 episode, 2012) .... Misogynist Driver
• Justified (TV, 2 episodes, 2012) .... Delroy Baker
• The Mentalist (TV, 2 episodes, 2011-2013) .... Richard Haibach
• Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster (2011) .... Detective Rhys
• Warrior (2011) .... David Milligan
• Another Earth (2011) .... John Burroughs
• A Warrior's Heart (2010)
• Hurt (2008) .... Darryl Coltrane
• Prison Break (TV, 2 episodes, 2009) .... FBI Agent Chris Franco
• Lost (TV, 11 episodes, 2004–2010) .... Ethan Rom
• Criminal Minds (TV, 1 episode, 2008) .... Ian Corbin
• The Burrowers (Film, 2008) .... Will Parcher
• Lost: Missing Pieces (TV, 1 episode, 2008) .... Ethan Rom
• Skip Tracer (TV, 2008) .... Henry Hargrove Jr.
• WordGirl (TV animation, 2007) ... Guy Rich (voice)
• Viva Laughlin (TV, 1 episode, 2007) .... Sweet Lenny Collins
• K-Ville (TV, 1 episode, 2007) .... Gordon Wix
• Moving McAllister (2007) .... Bob
• Moola (2007) .... Steve
• Robot Chicken (TV, 2 episodes, 2006) .... Alien Bully / Leprechaun #2
• World Trade Center (2006) .... Jason Thomas
• The Lather Effect (2006) .... Jack
• Ask The Dust (2006) .... Bill
• Crossing Jordan (TV, 1 episode, 2005) .... Henry Bishop
• Threshold (TV, 2 episodes, 2005) .... Gunneson
• Chloe (2005) .... Doctor
• The Zodiac (2005) .... Dale Coverling
• Lords of Dogtown (2005) .... Donnie
• The Inside (TV, 1 episode, 2005) .... Ronald Ewing
• The Grudge (2004) .... Matthew Williams
• NCIS (TV, 1 episode, 2004) .... Kyle Grayson
• CSI: Miami (TV, 1 episode, 2004) .... Pete Keller
• Suspect Zero (2004) .... Bill Grieves
• Line of Fire (TV, 2 episodes, 2004) .... Larry
• The Kiss (2003) .... Peter
• Touched by an Angel (TV, 2 episodes, 2003) .... Eddie
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV, 1 episode, 2003) .... Luke Edmunds
• The Pennsylvania Miners' Story (TV, 2002) .... John 'Flathead' Phillippi
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV, 1 episode, 2002) .... Douglas Sampson
• Self Storage (2002) .... Graham
• Minority Report (2002) .... Hotel Clerk
• Swordfish (2001) .... Gabriel's Crew
• In the Bedroom (2001) .... Richard Strout
• Almost Famous (Scenes Deleted, 2000) .... Bartender
• Mission: Impossible II (2000) .... Wallis
• Magnolia (1999) .... WDKK Show Director's Assistant
• The Unknown Cyclist (1998) .... By-Stander
• Trickle (1998) .... Josh Riddell
• Without Limits (1998) .... Bob Peters
• Born on the Fourth of July (1989) .... Platoon Member – Vietnam