The Cinescape X-FILES Yearbook

This magazine has a complete episode guide (through season 5). In the "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man" description, there's this comment: "The gamble paid off, though, and resulted in THE X-FILES debut of Canadian actor Chris Owens, who portrayed the young CSM. Owens would, of course, continue to have a close association with the character. During Season Five, he was cast as a new recurring character, Agent Jeffrey Spender, who is the alleged son of the Smoking Man." And there's a little picture of Chris with the description of "The End."

There's even a little interview with Chris:

"I don't know what Jeffrey should be called," Owens says with a smile. "The mutated smoking FBI agent?"

If you consider Spender's odd pedigree, however, the name doesn't seem so peculiar. Before joining THE X-FILES' cast as the resolute young agent, the baby-faced 36-year-old starred in two of the series' juiciest guest roles:

The young CSM in "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoling Man" and the lonely Mutato in "The Post-Modern Prometheus." "I keep pinching myself," he says. "I always thought I'd do some television series work and I always prayed it would be on a show I liked."

Although Owens is unsure what lies in the future for Spender, who'll be a recurring character, writer/producer Frank Spotnitz says the agent "in many ways lies somewhere between Mulder and Scully." Still, the actor says he had no complaints about remaining slightly in the dark about the role, although he has been accustomed to preparing more thoroughly for his previous X-FILES appearances.

"I quickly became a Cher fan [for 'Post-Modern Prometheus']," he jokes. For his turn as young CSM, the actor studied episodes featuring William S. Davis and his ubiquitous cigarette. "I bought a Zippo and started practicing with my herbal cigarettes," he says. "I wanted to work on it so it wouldn't look too cheesy." And the secret? "He doesn't hold it between the index and middle finger. He holds it with the index and thumb. And he takes those slow drags."

Owens' success is particularly impressive considering he's only lived in Vancouver for less than two years. Before moving west, he worked out of Toronto in "everything from church-basement Tennessee Williams to pilots that never made it." Now he's bracing himself for the fame that inevitably comes with a plush X-FILES role, although he points out he's already getting recognized. "I'll be in the record store and someone will come up and ask, 'Did you shoot JFK?'" he says. "And I'll say,'Yes. That was me.'"

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