Be afraid.
William Reibert Mapother Jr. (born April 17, 1965) is an American actor and former teacher.
He is probably best known to audiences as Ethan Rom on Lost or Richard Strout in In The Bedroom. He often ends up cast in the roles of villains or creeps, but he's a versatile actor with a pretty eclectic resume. Despite his reputation with general audiences as being utterly terrifying, he's actually a nice guy who also serves on the board of directors for the Screen Actor's Guild.
He is the first cousin of actor Thomas C. Mapother IV, better known as Tom Cruise. They have played together in some films.
Film Roles
- 2000 Mission: Impossible II as Wallis
- 2001 Swordfish as Gabriel's Crew
- 2001 Vanilla Sky (cameo, clubgoer)
- 2002 In the Bedroom as Richard
- 2002 Minority Report as Hotel Clerk
- 2004 The Grudge as Matthew Williams
- 2005 Lords of Dogtown as Donnie
- 2008 The Burrowers as Will Parcher
- 2008 Hurt as Darryl Coltrane
- 2011 Another Earth as John Burroughs
- 2011 Warrior as David Milligan
- 2013 Jobs as Calligraphy Professor
Television Roles
- 2002 CSI as Douglas Sampson
- 2003 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Luke Edmunds
- 2004 CSI: Miami as Pete Keller
- 2004 NCIS as Kyle Grayson
- 2005 The Inside as Ronald Ewing
- 2005 Threshold as Gunneson
- 2005 Crossing Jordan as Henry Bishop
- 2008 Criminal Minds as Ian Corbin
- 2004-2010 Lost as Ethan Rom
- 2009 Prison Break as FBI Agent Chris Franco
- 2010 Law & Order: Criminal Intent as John Silvestri
- 2010 Human Target as Sam Fisher
- 2011-2014 The Mentalist as Richard Haibach
- 2012 Justified as Delroy Baker
- 2012 American Horror Story: Asylum as Misogynist Driver
- 2012 Burn Notice as Garret Hartley
- 2013 Mad Men as Randall Walsh
- 2013 Castle as Carl Matthews
- 2014 Constantine as Jacob Shaw
- 2016 Supergirl (2015) as Rudy Jones/Parasite
Videogames
- 2010 Fallout: New Vegas as Colonel Hsu
- 2010 Halo: Reach as Air Control / Dispatch
- 2012 The Secret World as Paul Gamelin
- 2012 Hitman: Absolution as Agent 47 (Mapother was replacing series staple David Bateson in the role but fan backlash led to Bateson being brought back in, though Mapother’s motion capture for 47’s face was retained.)
- 2013 Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII as Additional Voices
- 2016 Hitman (2016) as Dino Bosco.
Tropes
- Slasher Smile: Can't seem to help it, poor guy.
- What Could Have Been: William was supposed to replace David Bateson as Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution. Square Enix, in a rare showing of common sense, realised their mistake they made at recasting when shown secret recordings Bateson and IOI had made to convince them to change their minds, and they agreed with the fan backlash, resulting in Bateson returning at the last minute. Mapother later voiced Dino Bosco, a target in Hitman (2016) as a Casting Gag to this situation, with two NPC's noting he's not right for the role, and want him replaced by another actor named Dave Bateson, and are protesting and boycotting the film until this happens.
