But he's back on screens this year
The 55-year-old has been off our screens for nearly a decade due to him focussing his energy on family time - and completing his "bucket list".
'Lost' star Matthew Fox quit acting not too long after the ABC show aired its (confusing) finale episode, but he'll be back on screens later this year in 'Last Light', a new thriller for Peacock.
But why did the actor quit the business? Speaking at a press conference for the series at the Monte-Carlo Film Festival, Fox said he'd completed his "bucket list" and the time was right to take a break. The most recent production he appeared in was the western film 'Bone Tomahawk', which was shot in 2014. The final season of 'Lost', in which he played spinal surgeon Jack Shepard, aired in 2010.
Asked why he quit acting for nearly a decade, Matthew Fox said: "I kind of had a bucket list in my mind of things that I wanted to accomplish in the business, and after I did 'Bone Tomahawk' in 2014 that had kind of completed the bucket list. I wanted to do a Western. It’s a very odd Western, but it’s a Western. And so that sort of completed the bucket list."
He also said, however, that he felt that it was a great time for him to spend quality moments with his family. He added: "At that time in my life, our kids were at an age where I felt like I needed to really reengage.
"I had been focused on work for some time, and [my wife] Margherita [Ronchi] had been running the family so beautifully, but I felt like it was time to be home, and I really felt like I was retiring from the business, and working on other creative elements that are really personal to me – some music and writing."
However, Fox will return to TV screens with 'Last Light', which he boarded as both a leading star and an executive producer. He continued: "I kind of got to a point where I thought that maybe the bucket list included executive producing. I’d never done that before. The opportunity to be involved in 'Last Light' came along, and so I wanted to give it a shot. And it felt like the right time."
'Last Light' was directed by Dennie Gordon, who had previously worked with Fox on 'Party of Five', the '90s drama where he made his break-out TV role as Charlie Salinger.
'Last Light' will launch on Peacock later this year (meaning it should be available in Ireland and the UK via Sky and NOW), and sees Fox team up with 'Downton Abbey' star Joanne Froggatt and 'Game of Thrones' and 'Stranger Things' season four star Tom Wlaschiha in a world that is caving in on itself. Based on the novel by Alex Scarrow, the thriller is billed as a global disaster miniseries.