Way before he was famous - or infamous for that matter - a young Shia LaBeouf guest starred on an episode of The X-FIles, during season 7. Running for nearly a decade straight, The X-Files played host to lots and lots of up and coming actors before they became famous. This was especially true in the first five seasons for Canadian performers, since The X-Files shot in Vancouver. Beginning with season 6 though, The X-Files moved production to Los Angeles, California, at the behest of LA resident David Duchovny.
That opened the door for someone like LaBeouf, born and raised in Los Angeles, to land a guest role in The X-Files season 7's "The Goldberg Variation." LaBeouf was still a couple years away from beginning his journey up the ladder of stardom, first as a Disney Channel child star on the sitcom Even Stevens. Sadly, in more recent years, LaBeouf's personal problems have become an anchor around his career's continued ascent, but hopefully he'll get the help he clearly needs to turn things around.
Offscreen actions aside, LaBeouf can act, and while it's a small part, he does well enough with what The X-Files gives him. Here's what his character did and how things resolved for him.
As is fairly obvious from the photos seen above, Shia LaBeouf's character in "The Goldberg Variation" isn't exactly in great condition. One of the more comedic episodes of The X-Files, but not quite a farce on the level of Darin Morgan's material, "The Goldberg Variation" stars Willie Garson as Henry Weems, seemingly the luckiest man in the world, and possibly incapable of dying. Even when thrown off a building by a mobster, he doesn't die, with Henry surviving unscathed.
Henry, a man obsessed with Rube Goldberg machines, hence the episode's title, was playing poker with the mobster to try and get his hands on $100,000 to pay for a life-saving medical treatment for LaBeouf's character, Richie Lupone. Richie, a neighbor of Henry's, needed a liver transplant and couldn't find a donor matching his rare blood type, requiring the expensive treatment. By Henry's odd luck, the mobster gets killed while trying to execute him, and ends up being a perfect organ match for Richie, who does indeed survive the episode. It's a nice, happy ending for The X-Files with no major casualties of likeable characters, a nice change from some of the dark conclusions the iconic show often provided.
source https://screenrant.com/xfiles-tv-show-shia-labeouf-role-explained-survival-death/
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