Matthew Fox admits his father `saved his life` by sending him to boarding school

The 44-year-old actor grew up in Wyoming and said he had a pretty 'reckless' childhood so it was a good thing for him when he was taken out of that situation.

He said to Britain's Live magazine: 'We didn't have neighbours when I was young. The nearest shops were 80 miles away. I had to travel 45 miles to school.

'In the summer I'd go months without speaking to anyone outside my immediate family.

'In that part of the world, manhood is defined by how much punishment you can take in terms of alcohol consumption, fighting, chasing girls, general wild living.'

He added: 'But there was a dark side to all this recklessness. By the time I was 16, ten of my close friends had died. Some were suicides. Others got into brawls and had the life beaten out of them.'

But the actor was taken out of that situation by his father.

He said: 'I could easily have gone that way myself. But my dad stepped in. He'd caught me growing dope in one of his farm buildings. Up to that point there was a part of him that was amused by the hell-raising his kids got up to.

'But it got to a point where he felt he had to nudge me in the right direction. He sent me to boarding school and that saved my life.'