Unfortunately, there has been another big, big death in The X-Files family. Ken Hawryliw, prop master for TXF seasons 1-5, passed away a few days ago.
Kenneth Harvey Hawryliw headed the props team: he designed and realized the props seen on the show. There’s a lot that the props team did: all the files and paperwork handled by Mulder and Scully, all the badges and guns, all the alien implants. In many cases the prop was a star of the episode, with perhaps the most iconic being the alien stiletto, with its simple and elegant design. But there’s a lot more we can mention: the alien fetus from The Erlenmeyer Flask; the sea shell from Fresh Bones; the demon drawings and sculptures from Grotesque; the Martian rock from Tunguska; the alien Rebels’ firewand from Patient X; the doll from Chinga; and many, many others, big or small.
The props department was also responsible for all the documents, newspaper clips, crime scene photos, or photos as part of the set design, all meticulously created to fit in with the item’s use within a scene. The UFO photo from Deep Throat; the DAT tape from Anasazi; the thought photos from Unruhe; young Fox and Samantha’s photo that the CSM had from Redux II; etc, etc.
In the late 90s, the “Unrestricted Access” CD-ROM showcased his work, with photos and videos and detail that was not visible on the few seconds these things are visible on the screen (although retrospectively this was very low-resolution!).
Ken also had a cameo appearance in the show as Byers’ co-worker in Unusual Suspects. He contributed with a script for the show, season 6’s Trevor. And he was also someone full of stories to tell, about his creative process and the behind the scenes adventures that went into making the show. Apart from TXF, he worked on “Battlestar Galactica” and many other shows shot in Vancouver. We covered here some of his long and detailed recent interviews (Conspiracy, TXF docu) and we reposted some behind the scenes photos he published on his social media Sci Fi Props Guy.
Please consider donating to the GoFundMe set up to support his wife and two minor children during this devastating time — his last credited work dates back to 2020, and the page explains Ken’s family’s situation. If you’re unable to donate, please share.
The image above was sent from Ken to Jesse J. Adams who shared it with me.
I also want to take this opportunity to share a piece of work from Ken, along with his assistant Jim Pate. I cannot tell you how elated and nervous I was when I acquired this recently. I have in my possession Scully’s medical file in the Strughold Mine from 3X02: Paper Clip, and this is the screen-used item. It is an excellent example of an expertly created prop fit for purpose. The paperwork, the numbers pointing to an archiving system, the pages design mimicking medical forms with fields to fill in, additional material such as a WHO vaccination card, and of course the biological sample box containing Scully’s DNA sample. An iconic prop for an iconic scene.
