From Haunted to Lost: How Frank Taylor Paved the Way for Jack Shephard
Written by: Losttheothers
Before he became the spine of Lost, Matthew Fox was already exploring the emotional and physical toll of grief, trauma, and heroism — first as Charlie Salinger in Party of Five (1994–2000), and later as Frank Taylor in the short-lived supernatural drama Haunted (2002).
Though Haunted lasted only 11 episodes, it served as a kind of transitional role — a bridge between the raw family drama of Charlie and the complex inner world of Jack Shephard. In many ways, Frank Taylor was the emotional buffer zone, allowing Fox to explore darker tones, physicality, and intensity before stepping into one of TV's most iconic characters.
From Big Brother to Ghost Hunter
In Party of Five, Fox portrayed Charlie Salinger — the eldest sibling who suddenly becomes the reluctant guardian of his four younger brothers and sisters after their parents die in a car accident. Charlie was a character grounded in responsibility, grief, and emotional repression — themes that would continue to echo in his later roles.
Frank Taylor, on the other hand, is a former cop turned paranormal investigator, haunted (literally and emotionally) by the loss of his son. Both characters are defined by loss, but where Charlie holds a fractured family together, Frank is unraveling — lost between the living and the dead. This emotional shift — from caretaker to broken seeker — reveals how Fox began to explore darker emotional terrain.
Testing Action and Intensity
While Party of Five was firmly rooted in domestic drama, Haunted gave Fox a space to tap into action and supernatural suspense. Frank chases suspects, throws punches, navigates shootouts, and wrestles with internal and external demons. It wasn't his first dramatic role, but it was the first time those emotions were tied to physical stakes and psychological horror — a combination that would define Jack Shephard.
Watching Haunted today, you can see Fox evolving:
He runs down shadowy corridors.
He shouts, fights, bleeds.
He spirals emotionally and physically.
Sound familiar?
The Knife Connection
One of the strange but notable details: both Frank and Jack are stabbed in the lower stomach. A weirdly poetic mirror, as if physical pain were the visual language for emotional suffering in both roles. Frank bleeds out. Jack closes his eyes. Both are undone by the weight they carry.
The Emotional Blueprint
Frank, much like Charlie and Jack, is a man consumed by guilt, loss, and the desperate need to make things right. He can't move on from what haunts him — and neither could Jack. What started as a reluctant older brother in Party of Five slowly transformed into a ghost-chasing detective, and finally, a surgeon trying to fix everything, everyone — even when he couldn't fix himself.
Final Thoughts
Matthew Fox's path from Charlie to Frank to Jack wasn't accidental — each role gave him the emotional language, depth, and intensity to inhabit the next. Haunted wasn't his first dramatic role, but it let him embrace a darker edge, and opened the door to the emotionally fractured, physically demanding world of Lost.
If Jack is the completed sculpture, Frank is the clay being shaped — and Charlie is the foundation it all stands on.
Sometimes the roles that don't last leave the strongest fingerprints on the ones that do.