This page includes a list of the main characters in the tv show along with some information about them. The information included only goes to the end of the third season.
Characters (page 2)

Benjamin Linus, aka Henry Gale, played by Michael Emerson, is a very intriguing character.  He was born in the middle of a forest just outside of Portland and his mother died in childbirth.  His father, Roger, always resented Ben because of this.  Ben came to the island when his father accepted a job with the Dharma Initiative, and that was when he decided on his path in life.  He ventured out into the jungle on day because he had seen his mother outside of the perimeter fence, and he found Richard Alpert.  Years after this encounter, Ben killed his father while the hostiles killed the rest of the Dharma Initiative and Ben rose to power.  He was special and was the only one that could see or hear their leader Jacob.  Two days before Oceanic flight 815 crashed on the island, Ben found out that he had a fatal tumor on his spine that would kill him if not operated on.  He came up with some elaborate plan that involved him being captured, tortured, and questioned by the Losties, that eventually led to Jack, Kate, and Sawyer being captured by his people.  He manipulated Jack into operating on his back and it is also possible that he manipulated Sawyer and Kate to sleep together (what with his obsession with fertility problems and pregnant women dying on the island).  When it became clear that Locke had a special bond with the island and could hear Jacob, Ben got really scared and shot him.  Ben did not want to lose his position with the Others and Locke was getting too powerful for his liking.  A master manipulator he may be, but his days of calling all the shots may be over sooner than he thought, because the island has chosen John Locke as its new voice.

Juliet Burke, played by Elizabeth Mitchell, was a fertility doctor living in Miami until she was recruited by an up and coming research company named Mittelos Bioscience.  Juliet's brilliant research included impregnating a male field mouse and her own sister Rachel - who's reproductive system had been destroyed by chemotherapy.  She didn't want to leave her sister, but it was a great opportunity to further her research...or so she thought.  She was brought to the island under the pretense that she was going to Portland and that she would only be there for six months, but that turned into three years.  Ben kept Juliet on the island by promising to cure Rachel's cancer, and he was not willing to let her go until she figured out the fertility problems on the island.  Juliet grew to resent Ben and thought that he lied to her about curing Rachel when she found that he had a tumor on his spine.  Ben proved that he was telling the truth and showed Juliet a video of her healthy sister and her nephew Julian.  When Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were brought to Alcatraz, Juliet cozied up to Jack and got him to trust her.  It was all part of Ben's plan to get Jack to operate on his tumor, but Juliet had plans of her own that included Jack "accidentally" killing Ben on the operating table.  Jack sold her out to her people, but Ben told her that he would finally let her go home if she made sure that Kate and Sawyer got off the island (so that Jack would finish the surgery).  Juliet ended up killing Danny to achieve this and was to be killed herself for her action if Jack hadn't stepped in.  Since the sub blew up, Ben and the Others "left her behind" to infiltrate the Losties camp and find out if any of the women were pregnant.  None of the Losties trusted her except for Jack and the two grew much closer during this time.  Juliet told Jack about all of this and they came up with a plan to kill the Others when they came to take the women from their camp.

Ethan Rom, played by William Mapother, was the first Other we met - though we didn't know he was an Other at that point.  In the beginning of the first season, it seemed like he was just a lesser seen Lostie, but he was found out as a mole after Hurley found the flight manifest.  Ethan had not been on the plane; he had been sent to the beach by Ben to infiltrate the camp and make a list of the survivors.  He was secretly doing tests on Claire for Juliet, but once he was found out he took drastic action.  Ethan captured both Charlie and Claire, hung Charlie from a tree by his neck, and brought Claire to the medical station.  He drugged her heavily so she wouldn't know what was going on as they continued to do tests on her.  Ethan seemed to begin to have feelings for Claire during their time together, but his duty came first for him.  He was the Other's surgeon and was going to cut the baby out of her - killing Claire in the process - if Alex had not interfered.  Ethan seemed to go crazy after that, threatening Charlie that if he didn't give Claire back, every last Lostie would be killed - Charlie being the last.  Claire was put out as bait to draw Ethan out so that they could capture and question him, but Charlie acted on impulse and shot him dead.

Tom Friendly, played by M.C. Gainey, was first seen in the first season finale in full hillbilly pirate regalia when he stole Walt off the raft and shot Sawyer in the shoulder.  He then made another appearance in the middle of the jungle to tell Jack that the Others would leave the Losties alone as long as they didn't cross the line.  He even held a gun to Kate's head to emphasize his point.  It was only in the second season finale that we learned that his name was Tom and he finally removed his fake beard.  Tom seemed so gruff and mean when we first met him, but the third season created a much different vision of him.  He was nice to Kate (as nice as he could be given the circumstances), he cracked jokes at Sawyer's expense, and he buddied up with Jack.  Tom seemed to be one of the only Others who wouldn't waver in his loyalty to Ben, and he was extremely nervous during his surgery.  We never really learned much about him other than that he was not really a bad guy.  Tom did show a bit of a backbone in the third season finale, when Ben ordered him and Ryan to shoot Sayid, Jin, and Bernard and they fired into the sand instead.  He didn't want to go against Ben's orders, but he thought that Ben was losing it.  When Juliet and Sawyer came back to save the guys, Tom surrendered and Sawyer shot him without hesitation.  He didn't do it because Tom had shot him, or because he held Kate at gunpoint, but because he took Walt off of the raft.  Even if he had surrendered and wasn't as bad a guy as we thought he was in the beginning, Tom was one of the enemy, and there was no way to know what he would try and do if he was allowed to live.

Tania Raymonde plays Alex Linus who was raised by Ben in the Others camp, but he is not her real father.  Her real mother is the crazy French woman Danielle Rousseau, but Alex did not find that out until the third season finale.  Alex did not really fit in with the Others, as she had a conscience and wanted to do the right thing by the Losties.  She saved Claire and Aaron from death when Ethan kidnapped them, she helped Kate and Sawyer escape from Alcatraz, and she helped Jack escape from his cage and save Juliet's life.  Most of her actions stemmed from the fact that Alex held a grudge towards Ben because of his rash behavior regarding her boyfriend Karl, and thus she wanted to get back at him in any way she could.  Since all pregnant women died on the island, Ben took great care in making sure that fate did not befall on his daughter.  He locked Karl in a cage and then tried to brainwash him.  Kate and Sawyer helped her save Karl and they took him with them to the other island so he would be safe.  Karl made his way back to Alex and she kept him hidden from the rest of the Others for awhile.  When Alex found out that Ben was dispatching a team to take the pregnant women a day early and that a lot of the Losties would be killed in the process, Alex sent Karl to warn them.  Alex has not been warped by living with the others, and she has finally been reunited with her mother after sixteen years, so it will be interesting to see where she goes from here.

Andrew Divoff is Mikhail Bakunin the never dying, patch wearing, communications loving Other.  He lived alone at the Flame station and was the one to gather all of the intelligence on the Losties when their plane crashed on the island.  When Locke, Sayid, and Kate happened upon the station, Mikhail pretended to be part of the Dharma Initiative and tried to gain their trust (right after he shot Sayid in the shoulder), but Sayid saw through his act.  They took Mikhail with them on their journey to save Jack and he tried to rattle the three as much as possible.  He had files on everyone and was going to use that intel as much as he could.  Mikhail's tactics only seemed to work on Locke though, and his reaction was to shove Mikhail right into the sonar fence where he died a pretty gruesome death.  However, the fence was not set to a lethal level and Mikhail was up and walking a few days later when he happened upon Desmond's group at Naomi's crash site.  Mikhail saved Naomi's life and tried to steal her satellite phone, but Jin was awesome and stopped him.  He found Ben and the Others and warned them about Naomi and her boat, and Ben sent Mikhail down to the Looking Glass station to stop Charlie.  Ben did not want the Losties contacting the boat, and if the communications jammer in the station was shut off they would be able to do just that.  Mikhail swam down to the station and was angry when he found out that Ben had been jamming transmissions, but he trusted Ben and decided to help him clean up his mess.  Mikhail was ordered to kill the two women manning the station and Charlie as well, but before he could finish the job Desmond harpooned him in the heart.  Miraculously he survived that death too and went on to blown open one of the portholes in the station with a grenade, killing Charlie in the process.  The question now is, was he killed by the blast from the grenade, or has he cheated death yet again?

Danny Pickett, the bad tempered grieving widower, was played by Michael Bowen.  He was angry from the first time we met him in season 2, but that only amplified in the third season when he was forced to put up with Sawyer.  He didn't like Sawyer from the beginning, and after his wife Colleen was killed by Sun, Danny needed someone to take his aggression out on.  He beat on Sawyer every chance he got, and once Ben was in surgery he saw his chance to finally finish it.  He had Sawyer at gunpoint and was about to blow his brains out when Tom called him on his walkie talkie and told him to let Sawyer and Kate go or Ben would die.  Sawyer and Kate spent the next day dodging Danny and his men around Alcatraz, but he finally caught up to them.  Just as he was about to shoot Sawyer (or Kate as she tried to run in front if him), Juliet came in from the side and killed Danny.  I can't say that I was sad to see him go, but just like all of the other Others, he did have his reasons for his actions and you could see his side.  He had just lost his wife and was completely heartbroken.  Danny just wanted to find a way to make the pain go away, and I guess that Juliet granted that for him.  Even if he had killed Sawyer, it wouldn't have helped anything as his wife's real murderer was still alive.