Cigarette Smoking Man | |
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The X-Files character | |
William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man
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First appearance | "Pilot" |
Created by | Chris Carter |
Portrayed by |
William B. Davis Chris Owens (younger) Craig Warkentin (younger) |
Information | |
Occupation |
Department of Defense Syndicate member Men in Black Case Officer Assassin |
Family |
Cassandra (ex-wife) Jeffrey Frank Spender (son) Fox Mulder (son) |
Alias | C.G.B. Spender |
Affiliated with |
Colonists Central Intelligence Agency National Security Agency Federal Bureau of Investigation, The X-Files The Syndicate |
Duration | 1993–2000, 2002, 2016– |
Films | The X-Files |
Cigarette Smoking Man (abbreviated CSM or C-Man; sometimes referred to as Cancer Man or the Smoking Man) is a fictional character and one of the primary antagonists of the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files, at least from the second to seventh season, and again in the tenth. He serves as the arch-nemesis of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder. In the show's sixth season, his name is said to be C.G.B. Spender, but Dana Scully suggests this is one of "hundreds of aliases"; the show's characters and fans continue to refer to him by variations of "the Smoking Man" because he is almost always seen chain-smoking Morley cigarettes.
Although he utters only four audible words in the entire first season of the show, the Smoking Man eventually develops into the series' primary antagonist. In his early appearances, he is seen in the offices of Section Chief Scott Blevins and Assistant Director Walter Skinner, Mulder and his partner Dana Scully's supervisors. An influential man working for the powers that be, he is a key member in a government conspiracy known only as the Syndicate, who are hiding the truth of alien existence and their plan to colonize Earth. His power and influence remained strong, even after most of the Syndicate was destroyed.