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Neil Hopkins

American actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ1627128
Source-derived summary

Neil Edward Hopkins (born May 13, 1977) is an American television and film actor. He is a trained actor and singer, best known for his portrayal of Charlie's heroin-addicted brother Liam on Lost.

Early life and education

Hopkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey. Later, he and his family moved to Aurora, Colorado, where he graduated from Regis Jesuit High School in 1995. He then attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1996 to 1999. He is a graduate of the American Conservatory Theater's MFA program.

Career

Hopkins has portrayed characters in several television shows including a "Specialist" in Birds of Prey, "Lester" in Crossing Jordan, and has had appearances in Dragnet, Charmed, Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, My Name Is Earl, Point Pleasant and Ghost Whisperer. Hopkins has also starred in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as "Donny Drummer" and had a recurring role on Lost as Charlie's older brother and former heroin addict Liam Pace. He also made appearances in two episodes of Big Love as "Ken Byington" and in an episode of The 4400 as "Nick Crowley". Hopkins plays musicians in several series, appearing as a rock star in The 4400 and Lost, and as a promising musician on Ghost Whisperer.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Neil Hopkins” is american actor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Neil, Hopkins and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977, 1995, 1996, 1999—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1977-05-13. For this dossier, Neil, Hopkins and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american actor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1627128. VIAF identifies the subject as 87581885. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1995, 1996 and 1999.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Neil Hopkins”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Neil Hopkins primary sources, Neil Hopkins archive and Neil research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Neil Hopkins”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Neil Hopkins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.