Mike Johnson was a background actor on Lost. He portrayed several characters, including Jonathan in multiple episodes in Season 3 and 5.
Background[]
- Started his acting career since 1978.
- Was also a self-employed photographer.
- Sang with the Barbershop Chorus, and other chorus groups.
- Has retired now and living in South Carolina.
Career[]
On Lost[]
Johnson first appeared in season 1, as a traveler at the Sydney Airport in Jack's flashback from "White Rabbit". The same scene was shown in Jin and Sun's perspective in the following episode "House of the Rising Sun", where Johnson appeared as the traveler again.
Although Johnson did not film any scene for season 2, archive footages of the airport scene from "White Rabbit" were used in Ana Lucia's flashback in "Two for the Road", and Johnson was once again seen as the airport traveler in the background.
In season 3, Johnson played the role of a coffee shop patron in Claire's flashback of "Par Avion". The character was seen lining up at the cashier in the coffee shop, and later walking in the mall where the coffee shop located. Several episodes after this appearance, he was seen as a new DHARMA recruit of 1973, who eventually became a victim of the purge in "The Man Behind the Curtain".
Later in season 5, the DHARMA member Johnson portrayed has become a recurring background role when he returned for several episodes, and the character was named Jonathan. At some point of the season, the producers have filmed a scene recreating the purge from "The Man Behind the Curtain". Johnson was chosen to play one of the dead DHARMA members, where his body was collected by the others and being thrown to a pile. Other known DHARMA extras in this scene were Alice Carpenter, Alice's husband, Pascal Amar, Bonnie Berger, Ja-ne de Abreu, Liam Avery and Jonathan Shirley. However, it is uncertain which episode was this scene supposed to be featured in, as the scene was deleted and never released.
Other shows[]
Before working for Lost, Johnson was one of the background extra in the original Hawaii Five-O aired from 1968 to 1980, where he was seen in 5 episodes. He was also in about 36 episodes, with more than 40 nameless appearances of Magnum P.I., which aired during 1980 and 1988.
Johnson has continued to work as a background extra after the ending of Lost. He appeared as a detective in season 1 of the new Hawaii Five-0 aired in late 2010, and appeared as a sailor in movie Battleship which he has filmed for 8 days.
As a photographer[]
Beside working for TV shows and movies, Johnson was also an award winning photographer, specialized in animal and pet photography. He has won numerous awards with his unique style known by many pet lovers, as he has an unusual talent of communicating and understanding what his subjects were saying while he was photographing them.
Trivia[]
- He was close to many of the actors he worked with, including Michael Emerson, who portrayed Ben.
- In 2010, he has been interviewed by Mike Gordon of Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the largest daily newspaper in Hawaii. [1]
- During his acting career, he has learned the filming aspect of how to be in the right place at the right time for different camera angles.