9. Cigarette-Smoking Man (X-Files)
Maybe one of the most perplexing TV characters not created by David Lynch, the man known simply as the Cigarette-Smoking Man is an enigma wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in a haze of cigarette smoke. Though we learn scant more details about him as the series continued-- he was named C.G.B. Spender and may have been Fox's biological father-- he still remains one of the most mysterious aspects of a show chock-full of mystery. The Cigarette-Smoking Man has a complex relationship with the protagonists Mulder and Scully, but is generally considered to be one of their main antagonists. A member of the government group known as the Syndicate, the Smoking Man is one of the puppeteers in the conspiracy to cover up the existence of aliens. But he also believes that his job serves greater good, protecting the people from the evils and horrors he knows exist in the world, ours and others. But given the amount that he knows, we would have loved to had a Cigarette-Smoking Man spinoff before he met his untimely (or, given the amount of tobacco abuse, timely) demise.