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Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Mr. Eko
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| Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje: |
Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje (born 22 August 1967) is an actor and a former model.
His parents are Nigerian. Born in London, England, Akinnuoye-Agbaje
has four sisters and he is fluent in several languages, including
English, Italian, Yorùbá (which is the tribe his parents are from),
and Swahili. He also holds a Master of Laws from the University of
London. He is a practicing Buddhist. The meaning of his name is broken
down thusly: Ade- the crown, wale- has come home, Akin- warrior, nuoye-
of chieftaincy, Agbaje prosperity and wealth.
He is most known for portraying the criminal Simon Adebisi in the HBO
TV series Oz, as well as Mr. Eko on the second season of ABC's
survivor drama Lost.
His film credits include Congo (1995), The Mummy Returns (2001), The
Bourne Identity (2002), and Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005). |
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| Mr. Eko: |
Prior to
Oceanic Flight 815
Before arriving on the island, Eko was a ruthless warlord in Nigeria,
renowned for his mercilessness and viciousness. He is drawn into this
life at an early age, when guerrillas raid his village in search of
young recruits. Taking an older man in the village captive, the
guerrillas order Eko's younger brother, Yemi, to kill the man. When he
hesitates, the guerillas threaten to kill Yemi as well, leading Eko to
intervene to save his brother's life. Taking the gun from Yemi, Eko
shoots down the older man. Impressed by his actions, guerrillas take
Eko away, and stop to remove a pendant bearing a cross from his neck
before departing.
Many years later, after he has become leader of a guerrilla group, Eko
acquires a large amount of heroin, which he then seeks to smuggle out
of the country. Realizing that the most reliable way to smuggle the
drugs out of the country is to take advantage of a privilege given to
aid groups and missionary priests, Eko returns to his old village,
where his younger brother Yemi has become a priest of the village
church. There he asks his brother to aid him in smuggling the drugs
from the country, requesting a large number of Virgin Mary statues in
which to hide the drugs and the use of his plane. In return, Eko
offers a large sum of money, which Yemi would use to provide vaccines
to the village. Though momentarily tempted, Yemi refuses. Some time
after, Eko returns with a second proposal: sign forged documents to
make Eko and his henchmen appear to be priests, for which he'll be
paid handsomely, or watch as Eko's men burn down the church. This
second time Yemi agrees.
When the shipment is ready to be smuggled from the country, Eko and
his men assemble at an airfield dressed as priests. While they are
loading the plane, a Beechcraft 18, Yemi arrives to convince Eko not
to go through with his plan. Moments after his arrival, however, the
military, having been warned by Yemi about the impending operation,
arrive to capture Eko and his men. In the ensuing gun battle, Yemi is
wounded in the crossfire. Before the military can stop them, however,
Eko and his henchman attempt to flee in the plane. After placing Yemi
on the plane, the henchman boards the plane, but then suddenly turns
and kicks Eko away from the door, leaving him to be captured. As the
plane pulls away, the soldiers arrive at Yemi's vehicle. Based on
Eko's clothing, the soldiers mistake him for a priest, and set him
free.
On the Island
Eko survives the crash of the tail section, and is the first to return
to the water to help other survivors to the shore. When the
tail-section survivors are attacked by The Others during that first
night, he is among those targeted. Unlike three of their other
targets, however, Eko fights back against his attackers and wins,
killing two of them. Disturbed and saddened by his actions, even
though they were done in self-defense, Eko remains silent for the next
40 days, instead channeling his efforts into the carving of a stick
that he adorns with references to Biblical passages.
Among the tail-section survivors, Eko simultaneously comes to be the
muscle and the soul of the group. His strength is well evidenced by
his single-handedly incapacitating Sawyer, Michael and Jin when they
are mistaken for the mysterious attackers. However, he also speaks up
in defense of the trio, frequently disagreeing with the merciless Ana
Lucia. Moreover, Eko is also the first of the tail-section survivors
to support them, as evidenced by his actions when Michael takes off in
search of The Others. Even though he was initially assaulted by Jin,
it is Eko who goes off with Jin to find Michael.
After the tail-section survivors begin making their way across the
island to join the mid-section survivors, Eko proves pivotal in
helping the two groups come together in the face of truly terrible
circumstances. After Ana-Lucia shoots and kills Shannon and takes
Sayid hostage, Eko, carrying a dying Sawyer on his back, stands up to
a crazed Ana-Lucia. Then, after arriving at the Station 3 bunker, he
meets Locke, to whom he tells the story of Shannon's shooting. When
Jack hears this, he begins preparing weapons for an assault on Eko's
group. Not wishing to see any more bloodshed, Eko stops Jack, instead
offering to take Jack to the other group if he promises to bring no
guns.
Soon afterward, in Station 3, Eko meets with Locke once again, who is
looking deeper into the mysteries of the bunker. After Michael, Eko,
and Locke watch the Dharma Initiative's Station 3 orientation film,
Eko pulls Locke to the side. There, Eko shows him an item he'd found
in the other bunker: a hollowed-out Bible, which contains a missing
piece of the orientation film.
Later, Eko learns from Claire that Charlie has been carrying around a
Virgin Mary statue. Surprised and angered, Eko confronts Charlie about
the statue and forces him to bring Eko to the plane. While wandering
through the jungle, while Charlie is in the trees searching for the
plane, the island's "security system" appears and charges
Eko. Undaunted by the dangerous entity before him, Eko stands his
ground and stares down the "security system," which displays
in its smokey swirls flashes of images from his past. Unshaken by the
encounter, Eko continues on, until he and Charlie arrive at the plane,
the same Beechcraft plane Eko had used in Nigeria. Inside, Eko finds
his brother's body, and, coming full circle, retrieves the cross
pendant that had been thrown away by the guerrillas when he was taken
from his village. Afterward, he and Charlie set the plane ablaze, as
the two recite the 23rd Psalm.
After Charlie begins having seemingly prophetic dreams and visions of
Aaron in grave danger, Eko baptises Claire and Aaron at Claire's
request. |
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Information
and image taken from:
ABC's Lost Site and Wikipedia.org |
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