| Richard Alpert | |
|---|---|
| Lost character | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Richard_Alpert.jpg) Néstor Carbonell as Richard Franklin Alpert | |
| First appearance | "Not in Portland" |
| Last appearance | "The End" |
| Created by | |
| Portrayed by | Néstor Carbonell |
| Centric episode(s) | "Ab Aeterno" |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Ricardo (surname unknown) |
| Alias | Richard Franklin Alpert, Ricardus |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Advisor to the Others Farmer Slave |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Former residence | Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain |
Richard Franklin Alpert is a fictional character played by Néstor Carbonell in the American ABC television series Lost. Alpert is introduced in the third season, specifically in a flashback of the character Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell), where he claims to be a doctor for a bioscience company called Mittelos Bioscience; he is later revealed to be a member of a native island faction called the Others, where he plays a role in the group's hierarchy that has been compared to that of the Panchen Lama in Buddhism by the series' producers.
A major mystery behind his character was his agelessness; from the third through fifth seasons, Alpert appears both in the present day and in several flashbacks dating to the 1950s, 70s and 80s; in all the different time periods, Richard always appears to be a man in his mid-40s, not having appeared to have aged at all. The nature of his agelessness and his true age is revealed in the season six episode "Ab Aeterno"; in the 1860s, Alpert was a prisoner on the Black Rock when it crashed on the Island. After meeting the true leader of the Others (Jacob), he made Richard ageless in exchange for his loyalty. At the end of the series, following the deaths of Jacob and the Man in Black, Richard becomes mortal.
Originally introduced as a guest star in the third-season episode "Not in Portland", Alpert reappears throughout the third season, both in flashbacks and present-day island events. In the spring of 2007, shortly before the conclusion of Lost's third season, Carbonell was contracted as a regular on the CBS television series Cane, which jeopardized his future on Lost. Nevertheless, the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike resulted in Cane being cancelled and allowed Carbonell to return for the final three episodes of the fourth season and several in the fifth.