The tension between Mulder and the Cigarette Smoking Man has increased steadily as the nameless man with the pack of Morleys increasingly involves himself in Mulder's work. In "One Breath," Mulder blamed The Cigarette-Smoking Man for the abduction of Dana Scully, and came within a trigger-pull of killing him. In "Anasazi", we learned that his involvement goes back to the beginning, all the way to Fox Mulder's father.
He may be responsible for Bill Mulder's murder, and he is certainly responsible for several attempts on the life of the X-Files agents. His menace may be fading, however, as both the Well-Manicured Man he answers to and Alex Krycek, his tool who has turned against him, threaten to bring upon him a justice Mulder and Scully cannot.
Cigarette Smoking Man/Cancerman/CSM "appeared" on 20th August 1940 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father was executed for treason having aided the Nazis. His mother died of lung cancer leaving him an orphan. He joined the army meeting Bill Mulder for the first time. He started smoking after Kennedy's asssasination and smokes Morleys and his lighter is inscribed "Trust No One". In "Talitha Cumi" we find out he has Lung Cancer though was cured by Smith in return for his freedom. The fact that he is Mulder's father has been hotly debated, go the detailed information.
The name "Cancerman" is first used by Mulder in "One Breath." ("Black-lunged son-of-a-bitch" is his other favourite name for him, and Mulder calls him "Old Smoky" in "The End") Later, Scully and even Skinner have come to use it.
The pseudonym he uses himself is Raul Bloodworth, and Lee Harvey Oswald calls him "Mr Hunt".
His real name is still unknown, although his son's name is "Jefferey Spender". Though he has also used C.G.B. Spender as an alias.
He "appears" on 20 August 1940 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father was executed for treason, having aided the Nazis. His mother, a smoker, died of lung cancer, leaving him an orphan. He then grew up in orphanages around the country. He then joined the army, which is where he met Bill Mulder.
In "Redux" he complains that he was "cut out of the loop" on surveillance of Mulder. Seeing his influence slip away, he tells the Elder that they need his expertise, and that Mulder is his alone. They are not convinced, for he is later shot and (apparently) killed - by an assassin called Quiet Willy .
He resurfaced in "The Red and the Black", hiding out in a cabin in a place called North Hatley, in Quebec. "The End" sees him reunited with the rest of the Consortium, both sides prepared to forgive and forget.
He speaks fluent German, but needs a translator to help him with the Japanese.
Address
900 W Georgia Street (One Breath) Did he move after Mulder found him? Perhaps, but the room does look rather similar in "Apocrypha". It is a barren room - television, and not much else. In "Musings of a CSM" the letter from the publisher is addressed to Mr. Raul Bloodworth / 555 Brooksbank Ave, Apt. 24 / Washington, D.C. / 20091"
Cigarettes
His mother died of lung cancer, and he himself refused to smoke when he was young. He started smoking after Kennedy's assassination, picking up Lee Harvey Oswald's cigarettes. These are Morleys, Just the sight of a Morley wrapper is enough to tell Mulder that CSM is involved in something, even when he thinks CSM is dead, as in "The End") His lighter is inscribed "Trust no one".
In "Talitha Cumi" we find that he does indeed have lung cancer, but he is then cured by Jeremiah Smith, in return for his freedom. This is nice example of Cancerman putting his own interests above the "project," despite what he says to the contrary.
Interests
He is a good water-skiier. In "Talitha Cumi" he reminds Mrs Mulder that he used to go water skiing with Bill Mulder at their summer house. Bill Mulder was good, he says, but he was better.
He is also, if Musings is to be believed, a thwarted author. He writes novels (typing on an old-fashioned type-writer) which no-one wants to publish. "Take a Chance" was brutally rejected in 1968. "Second Chance", about alien assassination, was eventually published it is in a seedy magazine ("Roman a Clef"), but the ending was changed.
The few times we see him in his apartment, he is sitting alone, watching television, despite the fact that he expresses a decided preference for reading books over watching movies.
Relation to Mulder
The fact that Cancerman could be Mulder's father, or maybe Samantha's father, has been hotly debated. "Redux II" offers some sort of answer, but we have no way of knowing yet if this is the final one, so all other possibilities are still open.
"Talitha Cumi:" Cancerman to Mrs Mulder: "I thought we might at least allow ourselves to reminisce," he says, with a puff of smoke. "We used to have so much to say to each other - so many good times at the Mulders' summer place. Your kids, young and energetic. I remember water skiing down there with Bill. He was a good water-skier, your husband. Not as good as I was, but then that could be said about so many things, couldn't it?" She looks odd, and firmly tells him she's "repressed all that."
Later in "Talitha Cumi" he tells Mulder "I've known your mother since before you were born, Fox," before enquiring after her health. In "Herrenvolk" he sits by her bedside stroking her hand, and gets her healed, though he makes up some cover story about this being for the benefit of the project.
Then, in "Musings...."Cancerman is seen carrying around a picture of Mrs Mulder and little Fox, and says he's going to visit "family" before lurking at Mulder's office door. He also cries over a picture of Samantha and Fox, when he believes Mulder is dead (in "Redux") and is carrying the same picture later when he is shot.
By the time of "Demons", even Mulder seems to have considered the possibility that Cancerman is his father. He asks his mother outright, but earns only a slap rather than an answer.
"Redux II" seems to settle the question. Cancerman introduces Mulder to Samantha - or, at least, a woman whom he claims to be Samantha, and whom Mulder believes to be Samantha. Samantha calls Cancerman her father, and says that he and Mrs Mulder had protected the rest of the family from this truth. Cancerman seems to be a fond father - he strokes her hair and she doesn't flinch away or anything - although he has lied to her, pretending to be searching hard for Fox, while all along, of course, he has known exactly where he is.
What we do know now, though, is that various Mulders are not the only children he may have fathered in his young and virile days. In "The Red and the Black", he is seen writing a letter to his son, Jeffrey Spender, writing as if Spender is supposed to know who he is (it's signed "your loving father", and says he is hoping for a reconciliation) - a letter that Spender refused to read. However, although his father lived with him and his mother until he was 11, Spender doesn't recognise CSM in "The End", when CSM tells him he's his father and urges him to join him.
And the Navajo story he goes on about - about two warrior brothers seeking out their father.... Could this be Spender and Mulder....?
By the time of "The End", CSM seems to have given up on Mulder and be focusing on Spender instead as the person he wants to join him. In "The Beginning", he calls Spender "son" liberally, and congratulates him on doing everything he asked. He is now positively gleeful about destroying Mulder, saying how "You can kill a man, but you can't kill what he stands for. Not unless you first break his spirit. That's a beautiful thing to see."
But, then, by "Two Fathers", barely months later, he's slapping Spender around, saying how he pales to Fox Mulder and how pathetic he is and then he apparently kills Spender!!