Robert Patrick Rated 'X'

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/20/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

It's official: Robert Patrick, best known for playing the mercurial evil cyborg battling Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," will be at Gillian Anderson's side on "The X-Files" next season. Fox TV announced on Thursday that the actor, 40, will play skeptical FBI agent John Doggett, a former policeman assigned to help in the search for agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) after he is abducted, reports Variety. Patrick's Doggett is being called a new character, not a replacement for Mulder, who will be seen in only 11 of the 20 episodes next season. At the end of last season, Duchovny re-signed to the 8-year-old series as a part-time player.