Dick Wolf, the TV superproducer behind "Chicago P.D.," didn't have to look too hard to find star Jason Beghe -- he'd been kicking around Hollywood for years.

That may sound a little dismissive, but it's not meant to. Beghe has been busy in that time, with more than 100 titles on his resumé so far.

But it's the side elements of his career that are more interesting.

Just as you're wondering how the show's producers found Beghe, people often ask how he got his distinctive, growling voice. It's a normal thing to say when confronted by something so rare and distinctive, but interestingly enough, there's an answer to the question.

"In 1999 I was in a serious car accident," Beghe told the New York Daily News. "I was intubated, and I kept pulling this tube out of my throat. That's how I got the voice."

Another interesting thing about Beghe is that we would never have had "The X-Files" without him, even though he never appeared in the show. He and star David Duchovny have been friends since they were young, and Beghe was the one who encouraged Duchovny to pursue acting. The two studied together at the prestigious Collegiate School in Manhattan (along with a young man named John F. Kennedy Jr.). Beghe was also best man at Duchovny's wedding to Tea Leoni.

If you are interested in looking up some of Beghe's other roles, you have plenty to choose from. He has, of course, appeared as his "Chicago P.D." character in a number of other shows in the growing Dick Wolf universe ("Chicago Fire," "Chicago Med," "Chicago Justice" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit").

But as I said, he was established in the biz before Wolf came calling. He's probably most recognizable for his various long-running guest arcs, such as eight episodes of the late '00s show "Cane," a run in the dearly departed CW drama "Everwood" and, more recently, a long run as Richard Bates in his buddy Duchovny's show "Californication."

Prior to all of that, though, he's known to horror fans as the star of the cult classic "Monkey Shines" from way back in 1988.

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