Jorge Garcia as Hurley Reyes
Hugo “Hurley” Reyes is played by Jorge Garcia on the television series,
Lost. When Hugo was a young boy, his father abandoned them, and ever since then, he has had to deal with his weight. He got even more concerned when a deck he was standing on collapsed, killing two people. However, instead of trying to do something to lose weight, he went into a terrible eating binge, making him even heavier.
Hurley’s mother decided to send him to a mental hospital, where Hurley found some peace when a doctor assured him that the accident was not his fault. Still, Hurley’s alter ego, Dave, kept pushing him to eat to relieve him of his guilt. However, Hurley’s better judgment led him to complete his treatment to the hospital, and after he was released, he ran into some tremendous luck. By using the numbers he heard a fellow mental patient, Leonard, muttering, Hurley won $114 million dollars in the lottery. He invested in various kinds of business, including a Chicken Shack restaurant where he used to work.
Despite his great wealth, Hurley saw that everyone around him seemed to be experiencing equally great misfortune. Eventually, he came to believe that the numbers he used in the lottery were cursed, so he returned to the mental hospital to question Leonard. Leonard told Hurley that he got the numbers while he was working in the Navy with an officer named Sam Toomey. Hurley then bought himself a ticket to Australia in the hopes of getting some answers from Toomey. Before Hurley could leave for Australia, his father suddenly returned to his life, but Hurley was too angry to give his father some meaningful time and energy.
When Hurley arrived in Australia, he found out that the Toomey, who had also believed the numbers were cursed, had taken his own life. Not having found any resolution, Hurley decided to head back to America so as not to miss his mother’s birthday. He boarded Oceanic 815, and when the plane crashed, Hurley again felt responsible.
As one of the survivors, Hurley found it relatively easy to get along with everyone, and his sense of humor has often helped bring up the spirits in the camp. He felt a great attraction towards Libby, but unbeknownst to both of them, they were admitted at the same mental hospital at the same time. Moreover, Hurley built a golf course on the island and ended up betting (and losing) $20000 to Walt during a backgammon game.
On the other hand, Hurley secretly continued to feel guilty for all the survivors’ misfortunes. His alter ego, Dave, again reappeared to him and pushed him so hard that he almost committed suicide. Libby was the one who came to his rescue, but when things started to get more serious between them, Libby died from a gunshot wound after being shot by Michael. More obstacles presented themselves, one of which was being captured by the Others. After Hurley was freed, he returned to the camp and later on found an overturned van with Jin, Charlie and Sawyer. They brought the van back to the camp, which sparked a renewed sense of hope in the other survivors. While Hurley and Sawyer were playing ping-pong, Nikki came out of the jungle and collapsed. Together with Jin and Sawyer, Hurley went into the jungle, where all three of them found Paulo, who also appeared to have collapsed. Thinking that the Nikki and Paulo were dead (they were actually just paralyzed due to a spider bite), Hurley and the others buried them on the beach. After some time passed, Hurley talked to Sawyer and encouraged him to make amends with the other remaining survivors.
(Photo courtesy of ABC)