Jimmy Bond is a
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...
in the American
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
television shows ''
The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
'' and ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...
'', two
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
shows about
government conspiracies to hide or deny the truth from the people. Portrayed by
American actor
Stephen Snedden, Jimmy was a main character
in the first and only season of ''The Lone Gunmen'' and made one appearance in ''The X-Files''.
He was an associate of
The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
, he worked with the group and helped to finance their newspaper through his family's wealth. In contrast to the cynical, intellectual, world-weary Gunmen, Jimmy is portrayed as a somewhat naive, idealistic all-American man wanting to make a difference. Though his lack of book smarts and occasional clumsiness exasperates the Gunmen at first, he eventually proves himself useful by offering an outsider's perspective on certain cases, and remains dedicated to the Gunmen even after their death. He is also known for his mostly-unrequited love for the Gunmens' chief competitor and sometimes-collaborator,
Yves Adele Harlow
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
. His fate after the Gunmens' funeral in ''The X-Files'' episode, "
Jump the Shark" is unknown.
Character arc
The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
first encountered Jimmy while pursuing a lead in the death of a well known hacker. They find him on a football field coaching a practice game of American football with a twist: the entire team is blind. The Lone Gunmen believe that Jimmy's charity organisation is a front for arms dealers and they had first thought Jimmy was the mastermind, thinking that "
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
" was an obvious pseudonym. However, after speaking to him they realise their mistake, Jimmy is a charming, idealistic young man with no clue as to where his patronage really comes from. After they solved the case of the death of the hacker, Jimmy decided he would like to help The Lone Gunmen and paid for the copies of the latest issue of The Lone Gunman that they could not afford to retrieve from the printers.
Jimmy truly believed in the work The Lone Gunmen were doing in searching for and printing the truth. He loved the three conspiracy theorists, though he annoyed them when he was a bit slow to pick up on things. When The Lone Gunmen were searching for a water powered car in a disused military bunker they appeared to become trapped beneath a pile of reinforced concrete when these bunkers were blown up. Jimmy wouldn't listen to reason from Yves and kept trying to sledge hammer his way down through a demolished missile silo to reach The Lone Gunmen. They turned up shortly afterward, having found a way out through ventilation shafts that came out above ground under a portable toilet. Despite the fact they were covered in toilet contents Jimmy was overwhelmed to see them alive and hugged all three of them at once. This incident was a perfect example of his love for his friends.
He was the one who figured out why the intelligent chimp that they had helped escape from a test lab had really gotten out. He helped Simon the chimp (slave name Peanuts) switch places with a chimp in a zoo, so he could be re-united with his girlfriend. It was Jimmy who realised the real reason why Simon wanted to escape whereas The Lone Gunmen were following the idea that the chimps were being trained as assassins. Jimmy often became the heart of the group as he was more inclined to see the good in people, particularly
Yves Adele Harlow
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
and
senator Jefferson. Contrary to Frohike and Langly, he also showed no disgust or prejudice towards Byers' transgender college roommate.
As Jimmy worked with The Lone Gunmen he also encountered Harlow and became enamored of her. She looked on his affection mainly with scorn but now and again she was obviously touched by the fact that he cared. Jimmy was the one who always gave her the benefit of the doubt anytime The Lone Gunmen questioned what she was doing. He believed that even though she was a thief and usually only out for profit that she was a good person. After Yves disappeared following her capture by
Morris Fletcher
On ''The X-Files'' television show, the term Men in Black refers to a group of enforcers employed by the Syndicate to execute assassinations, cover-ups and other clandestine operations. It is clear that most, if not all, of them are former members ...
, Jimmy spent a year tracking her all over the world. He only came back to The Lone Gunmen when he ran out of money and could no longer follow her. They were later re-united when he and The Lone Gunmen finally caught up with Yves and was persuaded to stay by
John Doggett
FBI Special Agent John Jay Doggett is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction- supernatural television series ''The X-Files''. With his FBI partners Dana Scully (season 8) and Monica Reyes (season 9), they work on the X-Files togethe ...
and
Monica Reyes
Monica Julieta Reyes is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction- supernatural television series ''The X-Files''. She is portrayed by Annabeth Gish. At first a Field Agent before becoming a Special Agent with the FBI, she works with he ...
.
Conceptual history
After looking at the
"Pilot" episode, the series' writers realized that they needed one more character because
The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
, even though the writers had staked out different positions for all three of them, were essentially very alike and had similar knowledge so they needed someone to explain their knowledge to, because having this interaction on-screen would simultaneously help relate to the audience what The Lone Gunmen knew and what was happening in each episode. Hence, the writers created Jimmy Bond, a character who would not only serve this function but also be different from The Lone Gunmen in that he was classically good-looking, an attribute that would also allow him to serve as a potential love interest for Yves Adele Harlow. The potential of this relationship was also unlikely for the three Lone Gunmen, additionally helping to differ the new character from the series' already created protagonists.
Actor
Stephen Snedden was subsequently cast in the role. He was at first unsure of what reactions his work on the character would invoke, because the role was slightly absurd, but he nevertheless went ahead with filming "
Bond, Jimmy Bond", accepting the situation and hoping that everyone would like his performance. Even though he knew he would return in other episodes, many members of the production crew were under the erroneous impression that he was only a
guest star
In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...
in this single episode. Consequently, even after this episode was filmed, the actor was approached by several of the crew who voiced their appreciation of his character but were acting like it would be unlikely that they would see him again, since they believed it would be.
References
External links
{{X-Files
Bond, Jimmy
American television spin-offs