MATTHEW FOX
Matthew Chandler Fox was born July 14, 1966 in Abington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia with a metro population around 5 million, but, one year later, his family moved to Crowheart, Wyoming, population 163. Being so young, I am sure that Matthew didn't experience any sort of cultural shock. In fact, he flourished amid the ranches and beauty of The Equality State. Perhaps that is where he managed to perfect his brown-eyed stare...
Following his graduation from high school in 1984, Matthew became an Ivy League scholar, not only attending Columbia University in New York City, but playing football for them...
Ah, how I had a thing for football players when I was in college...and after college...and, well, okay...I've never really lost my "thing," but you've got to agree that the picture above is just cute as it comes. Matthew got a degree in Economics and was on his way to a stellar career in the world of finance. Fortunately for us, he became a model and then was bitten by the acting bug, giving us moments in which he was the ideal fresh-scrubbed hero. His first film was in 1993, My Boyfriend's Back, which also featured another up and coming handsome actor with the same first name and the last name of McConaughey. Remember this. There's going to be a quiz later.
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| From My Boyfriend's Back |
But then Matthew grew out his hair and wore a permanent five o'clock shadow, and became the lovable rake...
This look so worked for him that he became the quintessential lanky lug, the oldest brother of the Salinger family on the Fox series Party of Five. The vulpine-named one was joined by a lupine-named one, Scott Wolf, who, if he ever gets his career together, could become a Fab 40+ of the future.
Also in the cast were NeveCampbellJenniferLoveHewittLaceyChabert, okay?
Fox and Wolf gettin' dirty. Bad boys. Bad, bad boys who should be spanked and then cleaned up and then spanked some more.
Matthew went on to become a star, and make suits look awesome...
And then, in 2004, Matthew Fox went from being a minor star to becoming a huge one in the surrealistic TV series...
He would go from sharing the credit with four other rising stars, to becoming a favorite for magazine covers...
A doctor stranded on an island was never quite so sexy...
With Josh Holloway and better days with Dominic Monaghan.
What could make this picture a little sexier?
Okay, guys...KISS!
One could use this space to ask imponderables like If they were all stranded with limited resources, then how come all of the men managed to keep the perfect five o'clock shadow? or Where did they launder their clothes? or Why couldn't Scott Wolf ever crash a plane on the island, too?
Okay, remember some of that information that I told you to remember? It's going to come into play now. A mere 13 years after playing bit parts in the horror film My Boyfriend's Back, Matthew joined the other hot Matthew (McConaughey) to play coaches in the film We Are Marshall.
The film and all of its stars, which would include hotties Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty and Huntley Ritter (all of whom I actually got to hang out with...TWICE!), and silver foxes David Strathairn and Ian McShane (both of whom I got to spend a day working with!). This whole hot cast came to West Virginia to film the true story about Marshall University (my alma mater) and the rebuilding of the football team after a plane crash claimed the lives of most of the team the previous year. Sadly, it was a true story. The joy that came out of it was the excitement of getting to see this film made and with this cast...
It was so strange to be among the first people to see Matthew Fox with his hair dyed red for the character...
While in town, Matthew had to do some looping for Lost, which was done at a local recording studio that mostly specialized in creating gospel recordings.
In this scene, you can see not just two hot hunks named Matthew, but the very hometown in which I grew up, and the train line on which my father actually worked.
That's a pre-Mad Men January Jones playing Carol, Red's wife.
As an extra, I played a funeral mourner and a University Governor of the Board. First came the funeral scene, filmed in late April. It was a sad scene and it rained appropriately that day. Fox, Strathairn, Mackie, Geraghty and McShane are all in that crowd below along with me, about ten feet from each of them.
Fox and Jones were just a few feet away. As it rained, they and the other stars would stand beneath a canopy while their stand ins would fill their spots and we would stay in the rain. Fox smoked like a chimney, surprising us all.
A local car dealer provided SUVs for the stars and after Foxy left town, our documentary production got his. Soooo, I am happy to tell you that my ass has been in the same spot as Foxy's!
With the other Matthew and director McG.
Since then Matthew has been in a variety of films, but perhaps never looking quite as buff as he does in the recent Tyler Perry non-Madea film Alex Cross.
As you will also recall, I told a cute little story about scanners and design programs. Well, around 2000, when my friend Dewey had his fantastic hunk site going full throttle, I told him about having pictures of Matthew from an Interview magazine in the early 90s in which he appeared with other models of the day with just a towel in front of him. I had to go to--get this--the Marshall University library to scan the pictures and then send them to Dewey, who had the early Photoshop Editor, and then add them to his site!
Alas, and fortunately, that would not be his last appearance in a state of undress. Here he is at the peak of his Lost fame on The Jimmy Kimmel Show...
JIMMY KIMMEL VIDEO
LOST
The producers of Lost were no dummies. They found a few opportunities to get Matthew in a towel or shirtless. A lot of towel action for him, huh?
Don't ask me how or why the chest hair came and went on the show, but as you can see, it did.
LOST #1
LOST #2
LOST #3
LOST #4
And then there are these shots of Matthew doing shirtlessness of his own...
And showing off some nicely shaped legs for such a tall lean guy...
And so for this Thanksgiving Weekend, my gift to all of you is my former co-star....
MATTHEW FOX: APPROPRIATELY NAMED
Thanks to the foxy xyzpdq for his video additions!
You did it again, Mr. Derek! You managed to pluck out one of my favorites from the over-40 gang. I am Marshall-green with envy thinking about you actually getting a chance to see him in person.
ReplyDeleteThanks, sexy x'y! It was so bizarre that day. Up to that point, none of us had gotten to see the stars. They had us park in a spot and vans would take us to make up in facilities near the set, and then the van would take us to the set, and there they all were. It was amazing. And then to see Matthew Fox with the red hair was completely jarring. I became friends with his stand in, who was from nearby in Ohio, and he is one of the handsomest guys you've ever seen. I thought he was from Hollywood, too.
ReplyDeleteThis was while Lost was at its zenith, so it felt sort of like I was in one of the episodes. LOL!
I think Matthew must have appreciated working with you a great deal Derek--he still refers to that as the "double learning": when you are acting in the midst of such a powerful screen presence, it's extra important not to let your ACTING stand in the way of your background in RE-acting! ;)
ReplyDeleteAnother superb choice--Matthew is quite attractive in a quiet way I think, and so cute in those early shots! I actually LOVE Foxy's new lean, hard body--but he and Matty Mac have become true skin-flints these days, a little scary! And yes, I vote for HAIR, that skinhead crap has got to go--it takes away from his appeal, IMHO! Thanks Derek!
LOL, thanks, reks. I also love the buff body, and loved his hair back in the 90s when he was the hipster. I wish he'd somehow combine the two looks. :)
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