Roy Thinnes

Although the 1965-66 TV drama spinoff "The Long, Hot Summer" and 1967-68 science-fiction series "The Invaders" are largely forgotten today, they made an instant star out of leading man Roy Thinnes and led to his marriage with "Invaders" co-star Lynn Loring. Ironically, many decades after playing on the latter show as a man trying to convince fellow townsfolk of the impending arrival of space aliens, Thinnes was cast as extra-terrestrial Jeremiah Smith in the 1990's on "The X-Files." In between, Thinnes enjoyed more than his fair share of TV series regular work, thanks to 1970's "The Psychiatrist," 1980's "From Here to Eternity," and beginning in 1982 the nighttime soap opera "Falcon Crest" as character Nick Hogan, whose 1983 on-air marriage to Vickie Gioberti (Jamie Rose) was a major ratings event.

He also was a regular on the 1991-92 NBC drama "Dark Shadows." Ideally, Thinnes would have been able to parlay his success on the small screen into more of a feature-film sideline career, but that never happened. His highest-profile, though fleeting, contemporary appearance in the movies was as the governor in Ron Howard's Oscar-winning 2001 biopic "A Beautiful Mind." He also played Colonel Glenn Ross in the 1969 adventure film "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun."