Cigarette Smoking Man
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"Cancer man" redirects here. Cancer Man may also refer to the X-Files character Leonard Betts.
| The X-Files character | |
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| Cigarette Smoking Man | |
|---|---|
| Affiliated with | Department of Defense/Syndicate |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "The Truth" |
| Portrayed by | William B. Davis |
The Cigarette Smoking Man (abbreviated to CSM, also known as Cancer Man or C.G.B. Spender), was a fictional character played by William B. Davis on the 1993-2002 television series The X-Files.
The Cigarette Smoking Man oversaw Scully's initial briefing on her assignment to the X-Files to debunk the work of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, as well as her debriefing. The Cigarette Smoking Man also stole the evidence obtained by Mulder and Scully during the show's Pilot episode, and moved it to a secret, underground storage room at the Pentagon. Although uttering only four audible words in the entire 1st season of the show, CSM eventually developed into the series' primary antagonist. The character is most commonly referred to by this description because he is almost always seen chain-smoking Morley cigarettes, and also because like other villains on the show, he has no known real name.
CSM's silent presence in Skinner's office early on was always a warning that the shadowy government attempting to discredit Mulder is again keeping an eye on the nonconformist agent.
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[edit] Background
On the surface, it may seem that CSM merely tries to hide information from Mulder and Scully, but there is much more to him. He is involved in the Syndicate, a shadow organization which includes members of the United States government that exists to hide from the public the fact that aliens are planning to colonize Earth. CSM often ruthlessly protects the secrets of the conspiracy, and served as the main antagonist to Mulder, who had an equally consuming devotion to reveal the truth. Although his actions can be described as monstrous for the most part, his stated justification is a desire to prevent the alien colonization for as long as possible, and he is at times shown working towards that goal, particularly in connection with developing a vaccine to protect people from the "black oil", a parasitic agent which the alien Colonists use to propagate themselves.
CSM had a strained relationship with the rest of the Syndicate throughout the show, and there is evidence to suggest that he was never actually a full member of the Group. It is likely that he was employed by the Syndicate to act as both a liaison to the American government in such instances as were necessary, and as leader of the Men in Black, due to his formidable expertise as an assassin. If he was a full member, he was their most visible one, since the other members only rarely appeared in public.
Most of the other members, excepting perhaps Conrad Strughold, didn't seem predisposed to trust CSM, especially the Well-Manicured Man, who more than once expressed contempt for what he perceived as the CSM's degree of barbarity and incompetence. He was able to last both inside the Syndicate and outside it for as long as he did primarily due to a) the fact that he always ensured that he had too much valuable information to be expendable, b) his experience as an assassin, (in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", it is shown that he assassinated Kennedy from a sewage drain opening) and c) his connections with elements of the extraterrestrial presence and others. Eventually, however, this internal struggle comes to a head later on in the show, when power struggles and what were perceived as frequent failures resulted in the Elder ordering that CSM was to be assassinated (an attempt which failed.) CSM is also different from the other members in that most of the other members seemed to have some sort of functioning family relationships, where as CSM usually did not. Other Elders were also often shown living on large estates and enjoying high class entertainment, whereas CSM was often shown living in a sparsely furnished, dimly-lit, small apartment, and drinking beer while watching old black and white war movies.
[edit] History
During the first season, CSM was mostly seen in the offices of FBI Section Chief Blevins or Assistant Director Skinner; if not there, he was shown in an underground vault in the Pentagon, secreting evidence in a vast storehouse of classified materials. He had few lines during the season. Coupled with his tendency to lurk in the shadows, he was seen as embodying the "dark hand" of the conspiracy.
In season two, he has his Man in Black underling, Alex Krycek, spy on Mulder, and authorizes Scully's abduction. With help from Skinner, who had recently stood up to CSM for the first time, Mulder tracks him down to his apartment (presumably in the DC area). There, Mulder confronts CSM, whose first real dialogue has become one of the most famous moments in X-Files history. This scene does much to establish the nature of their relationship. In the Season Two finale "Anasazi", CSM pays his old colleague William Mulder a visit, revealing their relationship for the first time. Not long after, CSM orders Krycek to execute William, presumably because he felt the disillusioned William had grown to be too great a liability to the security of "The Project".
Season Three put the Syndicate onscreen for the first time. Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that the individual members do not exactly trust one another. It is shown that CSM is not the all-powerful leader of the Syndicate; in fact, many other members look down on him. In the finale, "Talitha Cumi", a rebel alien named Jeremiah Smith, is taken prisoner by CSM. Pending execution, the two have a dialogue that echoes The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. During their conversations, Smith repeatedly unnerves CSM by morphing into people CSM in the past ordered the deaths of. CSM learns that he is dying of lung cancer and quickly gives Smith his freedom in exchange for a cure (some aliens have remarkable healing abilities). Also during this episode, the question of whether CSM is actually Mulder and/or Samantha's biological father is first presented when he is shown to have had a past relationship with Mulder's mother.
In Season Four, the episode, "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", presents a possible history to CSM. The Lone Gunmen, during some of their own investigations, discover some information concerning CSM, which they recount to Mulder and Scully. According to the episode, CSM was born on or around August 20, 1940, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He grew up an orphan (his father was executed for treason) and in 1962 was stationed, along with Bill Mulder, at the Center for Special Warfare in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was recruited for the conspiracy at this time and quickly rose through the ranks. In the episode, he is portrayed as a deadly assassin with a long history in black operations and American intelligence. He was involved in training Cuban nationals in the Bay of Pigs, aided Dominican locals in the assassination of Rafael Trujillo, assassinated both John F. Kennedy (firing 2 shots from a storm drain) and Martin Luther King, fixed the Super Bowl to ensure that the Buffalo Bills would never win a championship, drugged the Soviet Union's goalie in the Miracle on Ice, and thinks nothing of insulting J. Edgar Hoover to his face or putting Saddam Hussein on hold. He is also shown as a failed writer whose stories are rejected for being too unrealistic. After making a sale, he plans to retire from the conspiracy, but decides otherwise after seeing what the world thinks of his kind of pulp fiction.
During this episode, the Cigarette Smoking Man meets with Lee Harvey Oswald to discuss his part in the assassination of J.F.K.. During this conversation, Lee refers to the Cigarette Smoking Man as Mr. Hunt. This may be linking the character of Cigarette Smoking Man to a real life Cigarette Smoking Man, E. Howard Hunt, who was heavily involved in the Watergate Scandal.
During the first mytharc fifth season episodes, the Elder has decided that CSM is no longer useful, and orders MIB operative Quiet Willy to eliminate him. While in his apartment, CSM was ruminating over a photograph of Mulder and Samantha when an assassin firing through the window shot him in the chest. During this episode he also helps Mulder find a cure for Scully's cancer (which she learned about in season 4), and presents him with a Samantha clone, whom he purports is Mulder's sister. Despite this, Mulder refuses to work for him. CSM later appears hiding in a remote area of Quebec. Missing his talents, the Syndicate welcomes him back at the end of the season.
In the sixth season's full disclosure two-parter ("Two Fathers"/"One Son"), his name is revealed to be C. G. B. Spender. It is revealed that he was formerly married to Cassandra Spender, with whom he had a son, Jeffrey. Diana Fowley is revealed to be a subordinate of his; together, they escape the annihilation of the Syndicate. In the episode, his confidence in Jeffrey, whom CSM hoped would become greater than Mulder, wanes, and he confronts his son and apparently kills him. The episodes also presented further evidence suggesting CSM is Mulder's father. Eventually, Fowley also splits from CSM, siding with Mulder and Scully.
With the Syndicate dismantled, CSM still managed to keep the conspiracy going, and was presumably now free to operate as he wished. His cancer resurfaced about a year later and he became wheelchair-bound. He also acquired a trachea hole, though this in no way lessened his chain-smoking. At the end of the 7th season, after carrying out an operation at the behest of CSM, Krycek turns on him and throws him down a flight of stairs.
For about two years, CSM was presumed dead. During this time, Mulder was abducted, found and then disappeared on his own, Scully eventually left the X-Files division and had a child, William, and a new conspiracy, the New Syndicate, surfaced. In the episode "William", it is learned that CSM's attempted murder of Jeffrey Spender failed. Jeffrey was then subjected to experiments at the orders of CSM, which left Jeffrey horribly scarred. Also, it is revealed in this episode that he is Fox's biological father. In the two part Series Finale, Mulder and Scully travel through remote New Mexico, and reach a pueblo where a "wise man" reputedly lives. It is in fact CSM. He is shown to be in the same condition as when he disappeared, but has degenerated further and is now quite unkempt. He has a shock of long white hair, and is living a primitive life in hiding from the New Syndicate. He reveals to Mulder and Scully all he has left to tell (including the fact that the aliens are scheduled to invade in 2012) and shortly after is finally killed, shot by a black helicopter rocket.
His known subordinates have included Marita Covarrubias, Scott Blevins, Alex Krycek, X, Crew Cut Man, The Gray Haired Man, Luis Cardinal, and Black Haired Man.
[edit] Trivia
- CSM has a lighter with the inscription, "TRUST NO ONE".
- He is a good water skier. This is not as unusual as one might expect: Bill Davis is a former national champion water skier himself.
- Bill Davis appeared in the 1st season episode, "Young at Heart". Though the character he portrayed is almost certainly CSM, in the credits the character is listed as "CIA Agent".
- Because Bill Davis felt it would add more realism to CSM, he at first smoked real cigarettes. However, he had not smoked since the 1970's, and found that he might slowly be developing an addiction, and so immediately switched to herbal cigarettes, which he smoked for the rest of the show.
- Actor Chris Owens for a time portrayed CSM as a young man. He later plays CSM's son, Jeffrey Spender. Young CSM was first played by Craig Warkentin, with Davis's voice dubbed over ("Apocrypha").
- Among CSM's many pseudonyms and epithets are: Smoking Man, as he was initially credited, Cancer Man, as he was first called by Mulder and the preferred name of CSM by some X-Files fans, Cigarette Man, Black-lunged Son of a Bitch, and Old Smokey, names Mulder later uses, Mr. Hunt, the name he gave to Lee Harvey Oswald (possibly a reference to E. Howard Hunt), and Raul Bloodworth, a penname used by CSM when attempting to publish serial fiction. His real name is possibly C.G.B. Spender.
- CSM speaks German. He is also shown as a Nazi officer in Mulder's vision of a past life ("The Field Where I Died"), and delusional states ("Triangle," The X-Files: Resist or Serve).
- During the first flashback sequence in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", the meeting between a young CSM and the top military brass, who want him to assassinate JFK, is an homage to a similar meeting in the 1979 film, Apocalypse Now.
- In the Half-Life series he looks like the mysterious man you first see when the trolley you are riding in is broken down.
[edit] Cultural influences
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It is almost certain that CSM was inspired by the Men in Black element of UFO lore. The CSM may also have been partially inspired by the real-life individual Vannevar Bush, as they look somewhat alike, (especially in photos of Bush as an old man) and also since Vannevar Bush was allegedly one of the members of MJ-12. Some fans have also pointed to Henry Kissinger as a possible influence, as he is seen by many as a man who had a hand in the secret goings-on of the US government during the 1970s. Another possible influence comes from the real life Deep Throat, who also often drank scotch and smoked. Another influence is The Grand Inquisitor from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov, whom CSM actually quotes in the episode "Talitha Cumi". Darth Vader is also a possible influence, given the Vader/Luke relationship that he and Mulder have throughout the series.
Davis himself has defended CSM as a heroic figure in many of his interviews, and has said that he based his performance off of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, among others.
In the context of the X-Files, just as the Syndicate were an archetypal representation of the shadow government depicted in numerous conspiracy theories, so the CSM was also a very pure manifestation of the American public's (and possibly the world's) archetypal perception of the American intelligence community.
William B. Davis was a correspondent, as the Smoking Man, for the syndicated video clip series Real TV. These mostly humorous appearances are almost certainly non-canon.
In a short comic version of the ABC cartoon The Mighty Ducks, seen in an issue of Disney Adventures magazine, two agents named "Sculder" and "Mully" were sent to investigate a UFO sighting, accompanied by someone known as "Lollipop-Licking Man."
He is also mentioned in the Barenaked Ladies song One Week, with the line (referring to X-Files) "I hope the Smoking Man's in this one."
[edit] Appearances
The following is a list of X-Files episodes in which the CSM appears.
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Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
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Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 9
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He also appeared in the The X-Files: The Game which is FMV game. If the main character fails to escape from the Gordon's Hauling house, a cut-scene will show him after the house explodes lighting a cigarette. It is unknown why he is there. Though this is his only appearance in the game, William B. Davis is listed in the opening credits.
[edit] External link
| The X-Files | |
|---|---|
| The X-Files |
The X-Files film (Fight the Future) | TBA film sequel | DVDs | Soundtracks: The Truth and the Light, Songs in the Key of X, The Album | Books | The Magazine | Video games: The Game, Resist or Serve, Unrestricted Access
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| Main Characters | |
| Conspiracy |
Cigarette Smoking Man | Deep Throat | X | Alex Krycek | Alien Bounty Hunter | Well-Manicured Man
First Elder | Second Elder | Marita Covarrubias | Conrad Strughold | Knowle Rohrer The Syndicate | Purity Control | Black oil | Colonists | Men in Black |
| Other Characters |
Eugene Victor Tooms | Flukeman | Donnie Pfaster | Robert Modell | "Monsters of the week" | Jose Chung
Byers | Langly | Frohike | Duane Barry | Samantha Mulder | William Mulder | Teena Mulder | Baby William Agent Pendrell | Cassandra Spender | Jeffrey Spender | Diana Fowley | Alvin Kersh | Leyla Harrison |
| Cast and Crew | |
| Related | |
