Richard Alpert (Lost)

Richard Alpert
Lost character
Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert
First appearance	"Not in Portland"
Last appearance	"The End"
Portrayed by	Nestor Carbonell
Centric episode(s)	"Ab Aeterno"
Information
Full name	Ricardo (surname unknown)
Aliases	Richard Alpert, Ricardus
Occupation	Advisor to the Others Farmer Slave
Former residence	Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Richard Alpert is a fictional character played by Nestor Carbonell in the American ABC television series Lost. Alpert is introduced 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 facet of the character is his seeming agelessness; he has been seen with a similar physical appearance both in the show's present events in the mid-2000s as well as flashbacks dating as far back as the late-1860s. Richard becomes mortal at the end of the series.

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.

In 1867, Richard Alpert was a Spaniard known as Ricardo who lived in the Canary Islands with his wife, Isabella, who was dying from tuberculosis. Richard promised to save her and arrived at the doctor's house. The doctor had the medicine which could help her, but refused to accept Isabella's gold cross as payment. Richard pleaded with the doctor and in the scuffle the doctor fell back, hit his head on the table, and consequently died. Richard took the medicine and rushed back to Isabella only to find her dead. He was then arrested for murder and sentenced to be hanged. When the time came for his execution, Father Suarez, a priest, sold him to Magnus Hanso, who was setting out to the New World.