Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '70s. He is the father of actress Melora Hardin.

Trivia: Canadian character actor Donnelly Rhodes made his first American film appearance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1970). Rhodes gained a daytime-drama following as Phillip Chancellor on The Young and the Restless. In TV's nighttime hours, he was seen as Dutch in the serial spoof Soap (1977-81), as Charlie in Report to Murphy (1982) and as the father of twins Jean and Liz Sagal in Double Trouble (1984). From 1985 to 1992, Donnelly Rhodes starred as Grant "Doc" Roberts in Danger Bay, a Canadian-based adventure series which ran in the U.S. on the Disney Channel cable service.

Trivia: Joined the Tamahnous Theatre Workshop in 1972, where he worked as a resident actor, writer, musician, director and technician for six years. Appeared in The Portrait, a 1992 feature film in which both of his daughters are also credited with small roles. Stumbled serendipitously into the part of Melvin Frohike on The X-Files while working on the series as a first assistant director and during a casting session it was jokingly suggested they needed someone slimy "like Braidwood," at which point he was asked to do it. Goes by the nickname "Trudy."

Trivia: Started acting as a child, working in summer stock with the Straw Hat Players in Ontario. Served as assistant director of England's National Theatre for six years, working under acting legend Laurence Olivier. Was artistic director of the National Theatre School's English Acting Program in Montreal. In 1989, he opened the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study—which counts Xena star Lucy Lawless among its former pupils—in Vancouver. An avid water skiier, he has been Canadian national champion in his age division several times. Contrary to his X-Files character, who was known as the "Smoking Man" or "Cancer Man," ex-smoker Davis is a Canadian Cancer Society spokesperson; he quit smoking in the 1970s and used herbal cigarettes on the show. Published his memoir, Where There's Smoke....The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, in 2011.

Trivia: Rocketing from obscure bit player to TV's resident über-sex god thanks to his role as FBI agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files, David Duchovny can claim to have had one of the 1990s' more remarkable career metamorphoses. Although his initial attempts to translate his TV stardom into celluloid success proved less than memorable, the tall, classically handsome actor has continued to enjoy a great deal of popularity, evidenced in particular by the countless estrogen-drenched internet shrines erected in his honor.Born in Manhattan on August 7, 1960, to a Jewish father and a Scottish mother, Duchovny did his undergraduate work at Princeton and then went on to pursue a Master's degree in English Literature at Yale. While working toward his degree, he began commuting to New York to study acting, and he was soon appearing in a few off-Broadway plays. His interest in acting ultimately eclipsed his dedication toward earning his degree, and Duchovny dropped out of Yale to pursue a career as a performer. He got his first break starring in a beer commercial, and in 1988, he made his film debut with a breathtakingly abbreviated appearance as a party guest in Mike Nichols's Working Girl. Work in a number of diverse and usually obscure films, including starring roles in Julia Has Two Lovers (1991), The Rapture (1991), and Kalifornia (1993), followed, but the actor was able to command a more steady paycheck from his TV work. Before The X-Files debuted in 1993, Duchovny was best-known to TV viewers as Dennis/Denise, Twin Peaks' resident transvestite detective. As The X-Files steadily grew from cult favorite to mainstream success, becoming recognized as one of the most groundbreaking shows of the decade, Duchovny also began to enjoy both industry respect and huge audience popularity. Dubbed as the latest in a long line of thinking women's sex symbols, he would also appear in films like Playing God and Return to Me.Duchovny would The X-Files during the show's seventh season, much to fans' dismay, returning only for the series finaly. Post X-files, Duchovny would continue to act on screen, most notably in films like Trust the Man and another X-Files movie, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, as well as on the debaucherous TV series Californication.

Trivia: When actress Gillian Anderson landed the role of Agent Scully for the Fox television series X-Files (1993- ) she could not have foreseen that within two years she would become an internationally known cult phenomenon. She was born in Chicago, but moved to London at age two and remained there until she was in her early teens. She and her family then moved to Grand Rapids, MI, where she rebelliously got heavily into the punk rock scene complete with spiky, brilliantly colored hair and body piercings with safety pins. When she was 14, she became romantically involved with a 20-year-old punk singer and occasionally sang in his band. Her punk period lasted through high school. Following graduation, she got involved in local theater and from there studied fine arts at the Goodman Theater School of Drama at Chicago's DePaul University. Following graduation, she moved to New York where she waited tables and appeared in off-Broadway plays, most notably in Absent Friends, in which she had a starring role that won her a Theater World Award. Anderson made her film debut in 1992 with the low-budget drama The Turning. She then appeared in a theatrical production of The Philanthropist and after that moved to Los Angeles. Though she was frequently courted for television roles, Anderson disdained the medium until the X-Files audition came along. Though the producers were looking for a brainy version of a Baywatch girl, the beautiful but more natural looking (having long passed her outrageous days) Anderson got the role thanks to the insistence of the show's creator Chris Carter. The show became a smash hit within two seasons and Anderson found herself an international star, as did her co-star David Duchovny, the subject of numerous pages on the Internet, and the recipient of such awards as a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In addition to continuing work on the X-Files, Anderson hosted a couple of television specials, including More Secrets of the X-Files and the BBC documentary series Future Fantastic. She also lent her voice as a documentary narrator on Spies Above and as animated characters on shows like The Simpsons and Reboot and films like the English version of Princess Mononoke.Anderson would spend the next several years working extensively in British television, starring in series like Bleak House, Any Human Heart, Moby Dick, and The Fall, as well as appearing in numerous UK films, like The Last King of Scotland and Shadow Dancer.

Trivia: While significant mainstream recognition has eluded Robert Patrick, with two notable exceptions -- he all but replaced David Duchovny in the waning days of The X-Files and admirably portrayed "the liquid metal cop guy" in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) -- he has nonetheless built an impressive resumé with over 60 television and film appearances since the mid-'80s. The eldest of five children, Patrick didn't choose to pursue a career in acting until his mid-twenties, despite having a bona fide diva moment during a third-grade production of Peter Pan, for which he refused to wear the required green tights. Rather, after a successful stint as a linebacker for Bowling Green University, Patrick became a house painter and may have continued as such were it not for a serious accident in the waters of Lake Erie, where he nearly drowned. The accident served as a revelation of sorts for Patrick, who promptly quit his day job and moved from Ohio to Los Angeles. It took more than a few sacrifices -- a then 26-year-old Patrick lived in his car and tended bar for his major source of income -- but the young actor found himself playing small roles in various low-budget films, which he credited to his tough-looking exterior and motorcycle-riding abilities.Though Patrick spent most of the late '80s paying his dues, his breakout performance landed him opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in director James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Patrick readied himself for the role of the T-1000 android in a rather unique fashion; in addition to martial arts, endurance, and strength training, he observed the movements of cats, eagles, and praying mantises. Odd as that may have sounded at the time, it certainly enhanced one of the most memorable roles in one of the most memorable films of the decade. After T2, Patrick was able to leave the world of B-movies and hold his own alongside some of the most established actors in Hollywood, including a second performance with Schwarzenegger in Last Action Hero (1993) and a more prominent role opposite Demi Moore in Striptease (1996). Patrick also expressed a fondness for martial arts films, and starred in both Double Dragon and Hong Kong 97 in 1994. However, it was his 1993 performance as a stoic regular-guy-turned-UFO-believer in Fire in the Sky that caught the attention of X-Files director Chris Carter. Carter immediately thought of Patrick when David Duchovny distanced himself from The X-Files, and, after auditioning 70-odd actors for the role of John Doggett, became determined to initiate Patrick into his long-running world of conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomena. To the surprise of fans and critics alike, Patrick was received quite well on The X-Files, and quickly found himself gracing the covers of many a genre magazine -- he was even anointed one of the Ten Sexiest Men of Sci-Fi by TV Guide.By the time The X-Files aired its last show, Patrick had developed a solid reputation within the industry; critics, fans, and co-stars alike praised him for his work ethic, personality, and consistent performances. Rather than fading into the scenery, Patrick starred as the mysterious Mr. Lisp in Spy Kids (2001), and later starred as a reclusive wilderness tracker in Pavement (2002). After making appearances in Richard Shepard's Mexico City (2002), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), and the sci-fi spin-off series Stargate: Atlantis, Patrick filmed director Jay W. Russell's Ladder 49 (2004). A memorable performance as Johnny Cash's distant father Ray in Walk the Line followed in 2005, with a subsequent role as a security expert in the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall preceeding a return to weekly television in the David Mamet-created series The Unit in 2006. Later in 2006, Patrick would incur the wrath of WWE superstar John Cena with his role as a ruthless kidnapper in the explosive action thriller The Marine. Patrick lives with his wife, Barbara, whom he married during the filming of T2, and their two children.

Trivia: A solid character actor whose balding head and craggy face are perfect for playing any number of stuffy bureaucrats, Mitch Pileggi gradually came to attention in the television world as FBI Deputy Director Walter S. Skinner, the man directly in charge of Special Agents Mulder and Scully in their investigations into The X-Files. At first played mainly as a brick wall for Mulder to run into periodically, Skinner has gradually taken on depth and nuance, as well as a certain mysterious quality -- he appears to be somehow involved with the mysterious Elders, yet has stood against them, and the Cigarette Smoking Man (William D. Davis) on more than one occasion. Skinner has also been the primary focus of several episodes, and has been tied directly into the mythology of the series. Neither Mulder nor Scully seem to have a firm idea of where Skinner stands and his position was supposed to be revealed in the 1998 X-Files motion picture.Pileggi is the son of a former Department of Defense contractor who took his family all over the world during Pileggi's youth. Pileggi himself also went to work, very briefly, for the Department of Defense, but abandoned that career track in favor of theater when he was 27 years old. He quickly graduated from the theater to parts in television and motion pictures, always playing relatively small, low-key parts. He had a recurring part in Dallas for a while. During his career he had lead billing only in Wes Craven's Shocker, in which he played a serial killer who manages to cheat the electric chair by becoming electrical energy himself. A couple of Pileggi fan clubs have been created since his first appearance on The X-Files, and his AudioBook readings of the various X-Files novelizations have done very well for HarperCollins. While Skinner's ultimate fate is unknown, he seems likely to survive the 1998 X-Files movie -- though one should be mindful of the ultimate fates of earlier characters Deep Throat and Mister X.

Trivia: Worked as a librarian before his acting career took off. A founding member of the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver. Initially a recurring character on The X-Files, he was spun-off as a regular on the short-lived The Lone Gunman.

Trivia: Inventor of the Chill Pak, a cooling product for laptop computers, which also won him a silver medal at the International Inventors Expo in Geneva. Previously served on the advisory board Sci-Fest, a Science Fiction One-Act Play Festival in Los Angeles that began in 2014. Co-hosts a podcast with Phil Leirness called Chill Pak Hollywood Hour, in which he discusses happenings within the entertainment industry.

Trivia: Though actress Annabeth Gish is not, as has frequently been reported, related to silent-film legend Lillian Gish (she is decidedly not the never-married Lillian's granddaughter!), Annabeth does have one thing in common with her famous namesake: she began acting at a very early age, and achieved film stardom before she was 20. Born in Albuquerque, Annabeth moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, when her college-professor dad accepted a position there. From age eight onward, Gish was active in local community and children's theatre; by the time she was 11, she was a professional model. Her first film appearance was in 1986's Desert Bloom, in which, as a troubled preteen plagued by family squabbles and nuclear testing, she all but stole the show. Gish's career went into Drive when she starred in the cult favorite Mystic Pizza, though when the film is now shown on television, the supporting appearance of Julia Roberts is the focus of ad-campaign attention. A most attractive young lady, Gish scored as one of four beautiful vacationing teens in 1988's Shag (her screen chums were Phoebe Cates, Bridget Fonda and Paige Hannah). In 1993, Annabeth Gish briefly interrupted her film career to earn a BA in English; within a year, she was back at work in the theatrical film Wyatt Earp and the made-for-TV Scarlet. In 1997, Gish appeared alongside Angelina Jolie and Dana Delaney for a starring role in the TV movie True Women; however, she would find more significant success on the small screen in 2001, when she joined the cast of The X-Files to play feisty FBI Agent Monica Reyes. Gish and Robert Patrick effectively became the lead characters during the show's 8th and 9th seasons, though ratings indicated that their onscreen chemistry couldn't compete with that of Duchnovy and Anderson, who had become beloved as the characters of Mulder and Scully. In 2006, Gish took on the starring role of Eileen Caffee in Brotherhood, a drama from Showtime, and joined the cast of A&E's TV miniseries Stephen King's Bag of Bones in 2011, and played a therapist with demons of her own in ABC's Pretty Little Liars the same year.

Trivia: African-American character actor James Pickens Jr. sustains one of the longest and fullest Hollywood resumés in recent memory, just in terms of sheer volume of work. Soap opera devotees may remember Pickens for one of his earliest achievements -- his portrayal of Zack Edwards on the long-running daytime drama Another World, from 1986 through 1990. Pickens subsequently divided his time between characterizations on such prime-time programs as Roseanne and Murder, She Wrote, and small roles in A-list Hollywood features. At least in the early years, these films were often, though not always, action vehicles with predominantly black casts, such as the Ice-T and Ice Cube action thriller Trespass (1992), the Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper cop picture Boiling Point (1993), and the bullet-ridden Hughes Brothers pictures Menace II Society (1993) and Dead Presidents (1995). Back on the small screen, Pickens could be seen on such popular series as The X-Files, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Six Feet Under, and Philly. Also, in spring 1998, he joined episode writer Larry David and co. as the detective who threw Jerry and his cronies in the slammer on the much-anticipated series finale of Seinfeld; David and Pickens re-teamed several years later for two 2005 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Pickens drew his greatest attention and acclaim, however, when he ascended from bit player to a prominent supporting role as Chief of Surgery Richard Webber on the blockbuster medical drama Grey's Anatomy. This series premiered in 2005 to sensational ratings and quickly became an American institution, thanks in no small part to Pickens's work.

Trivia: Met her husband, director-producer R.W. Goodwin, on the set of the early-'70s drama Men at Law. Hired for her role as Margaret Scully on The X-Files without letting the casting office know she was married to Goodwin, the show's executive producer. Since 1993, has lived in Washington state, where she has performed in local theater. Has a psychotherapy practice; majored in both psychology and theater in college.

Trivia: Laurie Holden took one of her first on-camera bows as a teenager, in Michael Anderson's sex farce Separate Vacations (1986), then forked off into a series of programmers that included the 1989 Burt Reynolds cop drama Physical Evidence; the 1996 historical saga The Pathfinder, based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper; and the 2004 animal picture Bailey's Billion$. Holden also found some success on the small screen, playing a memorable recurring role on the seminal sci-fi series The X-Files, that of Marita Covarrubias, a mysterious government worker who becomes an informant to Special Agent Fox Mulder starting in the fourth season of that show through the final one (1996-2002). She also had a supporting role, as Mary Travis, on the shortlived Western series The Magnificent Seven (1998-2000). Holden achieved her cinematic big break in 2001 -- when producers tapped her to appear as the sunny romantic interest of Jim Carrey in Frank Darabont's colossal fantasy The Majestic; Holden followed it up with an equally lucrative and exciting part in yet another A-list film: Debbie McIlvane in the effects-heavy summer blockbuster Fantastic Four (2005). She also essayed a prominant role, as a police woman, in the critically panned but fiscally successful horror opus Silent Hill (2006), adapted from the popular video game of the same title, and re-teamed with Darabont for both the 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist (2007), and the hit AMC zombie series The Walking Dead. In addition to her film and television work, Holden is active with such children's charities as Planet Hope and Feed the Children.

Trivia: British lead actor, onscreen from 1960.