Richard Alpert is a recurring 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; however, 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 2004 as well as flashbacks dating as far back as the mid-1950s.

While 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; however, 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 caused Cane to be cancelled and allowed Carbonell to return for the final three episodes of the fourth season and several in the fifth. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed in January 2009 that Carbonell had been contracted for the show's sixth and final season in 2010.

The earliest chronological time period in which Alpert has been seen is 1954 in the episode "Jughead", where he is leading a group of Others which had recently killed a detachment of eighteen US military soldiers who landed on the island with a hydrogen bomb. Alpert first asked the troops to leave peacefully, but was "forced" to kill them when they refused. He hints that he was ordered to by someone higher in his chain of command.

Similar to 0 things you like: