They were all on X-
Many a celebrity has gone in search of the truth out there.
WOULDN’T it be fabulous if you were an actor and you could proudly cite that you’d once appeared on The XFiles? These notable few can take a bow: Seth Green in Deep Throat (S1E2). Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman, for example, played Dr Nancy Silva in Ice (S1E7), while Lost’s Terry O’Quinn was in two episodes, Aubrey (S2E12) as Lt Brian Tillman and Trust No 1 (S9E6) as Shadow Man. His cast mate Michael Emerson showed up in Sunshine Days (S9E18).
Zany private eye Monk, Tony Shalhoub, turned into dark matter in Soft Light (S2E23) and That 70s Show’s Red Foreman (the dad) Kurtwood Smith played an agent in Grotesque (S3E14). A very young Ryan Reynolds was in Syzygy (S3E13) while Giovanni Ribisi and Jack Black partnered up in D.P.O. (S3E3). Needless tos ay, it was lightning!
Charlie’s Angel Lucy Liu and SVU’s BD Wong co-guest-starred in Hell Money (S3E19), notorious for being the only series episode banned during its RTM run.
Luke Wilson had a huge part in the hilarious Bad Blood (S5E12), which just happens to be Gillian Anderson’s favourite episode of all time! Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston was in Drive (S6E2) as Patrick Crump while a really young Shia LaBeouf played Richie Lupone in The Goldberg Variation (S7E6). And believe it or not, even Burt Reynolds guested, on the episode Improbable (S9E13).
Whoa. That’s some list, right? And we haven’t even got to the really nerd-friendly ones yet. On a show where every other episode featured a “notable guest appearance”, how by Lord Kinbote’s Harryhausen-esque shoulders do we select those?
We’ll take a shot at it, by serving up some that are noteworthy for their place in the series’ origins, inspirations, mythology and ... for just being quirky.
Darren McGavin
(Arthur Dales, Travelers and Agua Mala) – Dales is the FBI agent who investigated the very first X-File back in the 1950s. Notable casting because McGavin starred as reporter Carl Kolchak in the 1970s series The Night Stalker, said to be one of the primary inspirations for The X-Files. McGavin suffered a stroke which prevented him from appearing a third time, in The Unnatural, although he did film some scenes for it. The role of Arthur Dales was rewritten to be that of his policeman brother (also named Arthur), played by M. Emmet Walsh. But the flashback scenes which featured the younger Dales were again played by Frederick Lane, who played the young FBI agent in Travelers.
(Jeremiah Smith, Talitha Cumi, Herrenvolk and This Is Not Happening) – Smith is an alien member of the resistance, who fought against the Syndicate and its colonisation project. Because of the character’s shape-shifting abilities, various actors played him; although in Herrenvolk, only Thinnes did. Notable because Roy Thinnes was the star of the 1960s series The Invaders – another “spiritual antecedent” of The X-Files – where he was one of several humans aware of the existence of sinister aliens who had taken human form and infiltrated various levels of society.
(Wayne Weinsider, Terms Of Endearment) – Weinsider is a demon who took human form as he wanted
Roy Thinnes
Bruce Campbell
The tooth is out there: to sire a child with a human. Notable because Campbell starred in the western comedy-adventure series The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr, which was the leadin show for The X-Files in the latter’s first season. Fox (the network, not the agent) thought Brisco County would have a brighter future. After its cancellation, many crew members found regular work on The XFiles, leading Campbell to describe his guest appearance as a “homecoming” of sorts.
(Jose Chung, Jose Chung’s From Outer Space) – The veteran Reilly is here because of his place in the show’s behind-the-scenes mythology, as he was such a livewire and an entertaining personality that the crew loved him, although it was near impossible trying to get any shooting done with people laughing their heads off all the time. Chung, Scully’s favourite author, is writing a book on alien abduction – one that is told from differing viewpoints and with no small amount
Charles Nelson Reilly
(Betty, – Yes, good ol’ Jodie guest-appeared ... sort of ... in the series. She is the voice of a tattoo in this bizarre episode where Scully got one herself, though Foster’s Betty was actually a homicidal tat on a poor sap named Ed. Was she a hallucination? A real entity that took possession of a vulnerable soul? (Cue Mark Snow’s theme music ... or maybe The Twilight Zone theme.)
(nameless sailor, Piper Maru and Apocrypha) – OK, this is a bit of a con, since this 1996 appearance by the not-yet-famous singer-songwriter is not a “guest starring” role, just as an uncredited extra. But hey, just Call Me Irresponsible. Buble appears in the flashback scenes in this two-parter as one of the sailors on the submarine whose captain is “infected” with the notorious black oil.
(Gung Bituen, Excelsis Dei) – Notable because Shimono is the only actor to have played a Malaysian character on The X-Files! Yes, Gung was an orderly in a convalescent home who dispensed a herbal drug made from mushrooms he was growing in the basement. The drug cured the patients of their Alzheimer’s, but it also made them conduits for the spirits of people who had died in that home to return and attack the orderlies who had mistreated them before. We have prefectures in Malaysia?
Michael Buble
Sab Shimono
Brad Dourif
(Luther Lee Boggs, Beyond The Sea) – Grima Wormtongue did a terrific job as a supposedly psychic serial killer claiming to be able to channel various people, including Scully’s recently deceased father. Kind of like his character in The Exorcist III, but a little more controlled. Notable because his performance was really one of the best guest starring turns of the first season, and no doubt helped it become firmly entrenched in viewers’ minds.
(Clyde Bruckman, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose) – He’s on this list because, arguably (and you’d really need to be a compulsive debater to argue this), Boyle’s guest starring role in this episode is one of the (if not the) best in the whole series. A sad, saddened (by his psychic ability to see a person’s moment of death) figure, not without his moments of wry humour and matter-of-fact observations, insurance salesman Clyde is a truly memorable soul.
Peter Boyle
Jim Rose
The Enigma
and (Dr Blockhead and The Conundrum, Humbug) – Who? Rose and Enigma are real-life carnival performers who were cast in this brilliant and hilarious episode written by Darin Morgan. Their stage acts on the show closely followed their real-life gimmicks. It also had other sterling guest performances by Vincent Schiavelli (his Dr Kaufman was one of the highlights of the Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies) as Lanny, the guy with the “shy” conjoined twin; and Twin Peaks’ Michael J. Anderson as the trailer park proprietor Mr Nutt, whose two encounters with Mulder are simply wonderful.