ByJennifer M Wood|Jan 16, 2024, 11:09 PM EST
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It didn’t take long for The X-Files to make household names of its stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, after its original premiere in September 1993. But take a look back at the beloved sci-fi series’ original run and you’re bound to see a lot more familiar faces.
1. BRYAN CRANSTON // PATRICK CRUMP IN “DRIVE” (NOVEMBER 15, 1998)
Thirteen years before he starred in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Bryan Cranston starred in a sixth season episode of The X-Files with the same title. He plays Patrick Crump, a desperate man who has been infected with a deadly pathogen and takes Mulder hostage while Scully rushes to find an antidote. Though cast in the role of antagonist, Cranston quickly established his knack for balancing virtues with vices—a talent the episode’s writer, Vince Gilligan, recalled when he was casting the role of Walter White in Breaking Bad years later. “I worked with a lot of great people on The X-Files, but one of the absolute highlights was Bryan, and I knew I wanted to work with him again,” Gilligan told The Star-Ledger. “So when [Walter White] came along, I knew he had the chops.”
2. AARON PAUL // DAVID WINKLE IN “LORD OF THE FLIES” (DECEMBER 16, 2001)
After one-off roles on Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, and 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cranston’s future Breaking Bad co-star made a memorable appearance during The X-Files’ ninth (and final) season as the leader of a Jackass-like crew of pranksters who may have a monster-of-the-week among them.
3. JANE LYNCH // ANNE LOKENSGARD IN “LORD OF THE FLIES” (DECEMBER 16, 2001)
Jane Lynch appeared in the same episode as Aaron Paul, playing the mother of Dylan Lokensgard, Paul’s frequent bullying target. But both Lynch and her on-screen son have a secret, which is the episode’s big twist.
4. AND 5. JACK BLACK AND GIOVANNI RIBISI // BART LIQUORI AND DARIN PETER OSWALD IN “D.P.O.” (OCTOBER 6, 1995)
Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi played friends and video game virtuosos in The X-Files’ third season, one of whom may have learned how to harness the power of lightning. Mulder and Scully make their way to Oklahoma to investigate.
6. RYAN REYNOLDS // JAY “BOOM” DEBOOM IN “SYZYGY” (JANUARY 26, 1996)
In season three, Ryan Reynolds made a brief appearance as a high school jock who learns the hard way that bad things can happen when you hang around with teenage Satanists.
7. FELICITY HUFFMAN // DR. NANCY DA SILVA IN “ICE” (NOVEMBER 5, 1993)
Early on in the premiere season, Mulder and Scully are sent to Alaska to investigate the unexplained deaths of a team of geophysicists. They’re accompanied by a team of doctors, Felicity Huffman among them. In a very The Thing-like turn of events, it’s determined that someone in the group may have been infected by the same parasite that likely killed the team of researchers.
8. SHIA LABEOUF // RICHIE LUPONE IN “THE GOLDBERG VARIATION” (DECEMBER 12, 1999)
Long before he trapped himself in an elevator in the name of art, Shia LaBeouf was a cute kid actor with some surprisingly sophisticated chops. In season seven’s “The Goldberg Variation,” he plays Richie, a sickly kid whose neighbor (played by Sex and the City star Willie Garson) endangers his own life in order to help pay for Richie’s medical bills.
9. BRADLEY WHITFORD // DR. DANIEL TREPKOS IN “FIREWALKER” (NOVEMBER 18, 1994)
In season two’s “Firewalker,” Bradley Whitford plays the somewhat unhinged head of team of scientists who are studying the inside of a volcano. But weird things start happening after a former team member intercepts a transmission which shows the project’s chief seismologist being killed inside of the volcano, and a shadowy figure inside the cave with him (which would be impossible—at least humanly—given the uninhabitable temperatures).
10. LUCY LIU // KIM HSIN IN “HELL MONEY” (MARCH 29, 1996)
A series of mysterious deaths in San Francisco’s Chinatown find Mulder and Scully (unsurprisingly) divided on exactly what’s happening: Mulder thinks it’s paranormal, Scully thinks it’s the work of a cult. Their investigation leads them to Lucy Liu, the leukemia-stricken daughter of an immigrant the agents are looking to question.
11. JOHN HAWKES // PHILLIP PADGETT IN “MILAGRO” (APRIL 18, 1999)
Rumor has it that The X-Files creator Chris Carter had this sixth season episode written specifically for Oscar-nominated actor John Hawkes, and it’s easy to see why. His trademark ease in front of the camera—even when the script calls for him to rip out his own beating heart—can elevate any material.
12. BOKEEM WOODBINE // SAMMOM ROQUE IN “THE LIST” (OCTOBER 20, 1995)
In The X-Files’ third season, Fargo star Bokeem Woodbine played a prison inmate who is keeping a list of the five people a recently-executed inmate promised to come back and kill after his death. His attempt to use the list as collateral for being transferred to another prison doesn’t work out the way he planned.
13. LUKE WILSON // SHERIFF HARTWELL IN “BAD BLOOD” (FEBRUARY 22, 1998)
In the same year that he appeared in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, Luke Wilson co-starred in what Gillian Anderson called one of her favorite episodes of The X-Files. “Bad Blood” was a comedic take on the very different perspectives of Mulder and Scully, most memorably seen in the way that Gillian Anderson saw the episode’s guest star versus Mulder’s view of him (as seen in the video above). Bonus points for Wilson being a vampire.
14. OCTAVIA SPENCER // NURSE OCTAVIA IN “MILLENNIUM” (NOVEMBER 28, 1999)
Blink and you might just miss Octavia Spencer. Thirteen years before she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Help, the actress had a tiny role—playing a nurse, also named Octavia—in The X-Files’ seventh season.
15. SETH GREEN // EMIL IN “DEEP THROAT” (SEPTEMBER 17, 1993)
Seth Green guest starred on the second episode of The X-Files as a teenage stoner who has his own theories about what the UFO he saw really is.
16. KATHY GRIFFIN // BETTY TEMPLETON/LULU PFEIFFER IN “FIGHT CLUB” (MAY 7, 2000)
Kathy Griffin had audiences seeing double when she played doppelgängers who create mayhem whenever they’re in close proximity to each other.
17. DONAL LOGUE // SPECIAL AGENT TOM COLTON IN “SQUEEZE” (SEPTEMBER 24, 1993)
Early on in the series, Donal Logue—as FBI Special Agent Tom Colton—pays a visit to Scully, his former colleague, to warn her what working with “Spooky” Mulder could do to her professional reputation. She seems to have survived the ordeal.
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David Lynch’s Extremely Reliable Daily Routine
The filmmaker’s work was anything but predictable—but his daily habits were the foundation of his frequent creative ventures beyond the edges of ordinary reality.
ByEden Gordon|Nov 3, 2026, 10:00 AM EST
In his work, David Lynch plundered the depths of the bizarre, trawling the underbelly of the American psyche and translating it into dreamlike and disorienting cinema and television. But in his daily life, he made sure his days were as predictable as possible.
The filmmaker behind masterpieces like Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive relied on daily routines, which allowed his limitless creativity to wander far beyond the edges of what most people could dream up. “If you have a habit pattern,” Lynch told The New Yorker in 2021, “the more conscious part of your mind can concentrate on your work, and you can get ideas and do those things, and the rest sort of takes care of itself in the background.”
David Lynch’s morning ritual: coffee and meditation
Lynch’s days always began with one thing: coffee. Like Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, Lynch shared an unshakable love for the stuff, and typically started his days with a cappuccino. “I like to get going with the coffee right away. That’s just the way it is with me,” he shared with Vice in 2020. “You know how in a hospital they put an IV in your arm? I pretty much have a drip going all day long.”
After his first cup of joe, he would sit for meditation—a non-negotiable cornerstone of the filmmaker’s life for decades. Lynch began practicing Transcendental Meditation in 1973 and continued to do so daily until his death in 2025, claiming to have never missed a session. The practice involves sitting for 20 minutes twice a day and mentally reciting a mantra, which is provided by a certified teacher at an official Transcendental Meditation course and kept secret for life.
Lynch was a major advocate for the technique, which he often said was key to his happiness and creativity. The practice inspired his book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, and in 2005, he established the David Lynch Foundation, which aimed to spread Transcendental Meditation around the world.
After Lynch finished his morning meditation, he’d head to work. That could look quite different each day, depending on whether he was searching for new ideas, filming on set, promoting a film, or something else. Still, no matter what, and even on set, he always made time for his afternoon meditation session.
David Lynch’s eating habits
Lynch preferred to eat the same meals many times in a row, and sometimes stuck with one dish for months at a time. After meditating, he would typically have a small breakfast—“either some amrit nectar or a small smoothie with protein powder and blueberries and peaches,” he once shared. In a 1997 interview with Marie Claire, he said that at the time, his favored lunch meal consisted of tomatoes, tuna, feta cheese, and olive oil. For dinner, he cited a preference for chicken and broccoli with soy sauce.
Some food habits endured longer than others. His longest-lasting daily meal, he said, was a Bob’s Big Boy chocolate milkshake, which he had at 2:30 p.m. every day for seven years. He also aimed to eat at the same times every single day, no matter what.
Lynch preferred not to cook at home, however. “I don’t allow cooking in my house. The smell. The smell of cooking—when you have drawings, or even writings— that smell would go all over my work,” he said in a 1990 interview with Time. “So I eat things that you don’t have to light a fire for. Or else I order a pizza. The speed at which I eat it, it doesn’t smell up the place too bad. The smell doesn’t last too long.”
For the filmmaker, routine was the foundation that allowed his creativity to fly as freely as it did. “When there’s some sort of order there, then you’re free to mentally go off any place,” he said in a 2000 interview with the journalist Charlie Rose. “You’ve got a safe sort of foundation and a place to spring off from. It is very important for me [in the creative process]…The purer the environment, the more fantastic the interior world can be, it seems to me.”
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