William B. Davis

Well-Manicured Man (John Neville)

Occupation: Member of the Syndicate

Agenda: The Well-Manicured Man (at left) is a highly placed ranking leader of the Syndicate, the shadowy international group paving the way for an alien takeover of Earth. Little is known about this ... morewealthy Brit.

Case File: We don't know the Well-Manicured Man's real name, but this Englishman is a powerful Syndicate leader. He's distinguished by his bitter relationship with Cigarette Smoking Man, whom he considers a fool and a brute. Perhaps regretting his choices, he finally offers Mulder some critical help (in the first "X-Files" movie) before his car mysteriously explodes.

Quote: "We predict the future. And the best way to predict it, is to invent it."

Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis)

Occupation: Enforcer for the Syndicate

Agenda: The CSM (at right) is the embodiment of the dark forces aligned against Mulder and Scully in their search for the truth. He acts as an assassin and enforcer for the malevolent organization known as the Syndicate and also happens to be Mulder's biological father.

Case File: His real name may be C.G.B. Spender. An orphan, he went into the military and then into black operations. He is responsible for the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Part of the conspiracy to pave the way for an alien invasion of Earth, he also undermines that operation from within. He has attempted to murder one son (Jeffrey Spender) and has a love-hate relationship with the other (Mulder). Suffering from lung cancer for years, he dies in the final "X-Files" episode ... but, then again, he never officially existed.

Quote: "Life ... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates."

(20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection)