William B. Davis (3) :: Character Guides

The Cigarette Smoking Man (sometimes called CSM or Cancerman) oversaw Agent Scully's debriefing and disposed of the evidence she had in the pilot episode. His presence in Skinner's office usually warns that the government is keeping an eye on the nonconformist. If he's not in Skinner's office, he can usually be found storing away evidence in the basement of the Pentagon.

There is much more to the Cigarette Smoking Man than it would seem. He is a member of the Syndicate, an organization that hides the fact that aliens visit the earth from the general public. CSM knows the truth, and Mulder is the one trying to uncover it. CSM's reasons, though, are far more complex than simply just wanting to hide the truth, and thus he cannot be labeled as purely "good" or "bad."

The sixth-season two-part finale ("Two Fathers" / "One Son") reveals a lot about CSM. His true name is told to be C. G. B. Spender, and he is revealed to be the father of Jeffrey Spender. He was a colleague of Bill Mulder's, and it is discovered that he is Fox Mulder's biological father.

His memoirs note, among other things, that he assassinated John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., that he fixed the Super Bowl to ensure the Buffalo Bills would never claim a victory, and that he drugged the goalie for the Soviet Union in the Miracle on Ice.