The X-Files Episode Featuring Controversial Indiana Jones Star
Of all the stars who made one of their earliest screen appearances on The X-Files, perhaps the most controversial actor shows up in the Season 7 episode “The Goldberg Variation.” A relative unknown at the time, Shia LaBeouf–who would later become a star in blockbuster franchises The Transformers and Indiana Jones–guest stars in the episode as the ailing Richie Lupone.
A Very Lucky Man
In spite of Shia LaBeouf’s presence, the more central guest star in “The Goldberg Variation” is Willie Garson as Henry Weems.
Not unlike Peter Boyle’s character in “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” Henry is afflicted with a condition that he sees as a curse, but others would literally kill for–Weems has unnaturally great luck. If he buys a lottery ticket, he knows he’ll win. If he plays a hand of high stakes poker, he’ll have the entire pot in no time without trying.
He’s also practically impossible to kill. Mulder and Scully are attracted to the case in “The Goldberg Variation” when a pair of mafia thugs toss Henry off a rooftop. Due to a series of barely possible chances that occur during Henry’s descent, he survives.
The Downside
The reason Weems sees this unbelievable luck as a curse is that his good luck often leads to someone else’s bad luck. If you were to, say, shoot a gun at Weems he would probably survive–but the bullet would ricochet wildly and kill someone else.
In one scene in “The Goldberg Variation,” Weems buys a lottery ticket and wins $100,000, but discards it when he realizes he would only get the money in installments, and he needs it faster. Someone picks up the ticket and runs out of the store victoriously, only to be struck and killed by a car moments later.
Henry has kept to himself for years for fear of someone being hurt or killed because of his “good” luck. He only surfaces in “The Goldberg Variation” to save the life of his young neighbor Richie–Shia La Beouf’s character.
Richie
There’s a good chance if you didn’t know who he was beforehand, you wouldn’t recognize LaBeouf in The X-Files as Richie Lupone. He was only 13 when “The Goldberg Variation” aired, though already he was busy making a name for himself. That year, 1999, The X-Files was just one of four TV series he appeared in.
LaBeouf plays one of Henry’s only friends in “The Goldberg Variation,” and all of Henry’s misadventures with lottery tickets and mafia-run card games are in the service of getting the money to pay for the medical treatment the boy needs. His efforts eventually succeed, but not before things get hairy with the aforementioned mobsters.
Shia LaBeouf
LaBeouf continues to reach much greater heights than a guest spot in “The Goldberg Variation.” He stars as Sam Witwicky in the first three live-action Transformers films, and was the son of Harrison Ford’s eponymous hero in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
More recently, LaBeouf is part of the large ensemble of stars in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.
Willie Garson
The real star of “The Goldberg Variation,” Willie Garson, is sadly no longer with us. A visible character actor best known for his role as Standford Blatch in the Sex and the City TV series and films–including the sequel series And Just Like That…–Garson died in 2021 from pancreatic cancer. He was 57 years old.
