Nick Pope, long-time contributor to the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and former U.K. Ministry of Defence official, has died at 60 after a battle with cancer.
Through his well-known work on UFOs and extraterrestrial phenomena, Pope became known as the real-life Fox Mulder, the main character in The X-Files.
Pope was survived by his wife, Elizabeth Weiss, who took to Twitter/X to break the news to the UFO expert’s many fans. “My heart is breaking,” she wrote. “Nick passed away this afternoon at our home. The last few weeks of his life, even as he suffered, he managed to do a few interviews from home. I was so lucky to have met and to have married Nick. He was a wonderful husband. I loved him dearly.”
Back in February, Nick Pope revealed that he had been battling esophageal cancer for some time and that, unfortunately, it had metastasized to his liver. In an emotional Facebook post, Pope explained his circumstances.
“While I know that it’s kindness and hope that leads people to suggest healers and supposed miracle cures, and to say things like ‘fight it,’ and ‘you can beat it,’ I’m afraid my diagnosis and my situation leave no doubt whatsoever: I can’t beat it.”
Pope went on to humbly describe his passion for his work on UAP, echoing his wife’s statement that he continued on with it for as long as he possibly could. He emphasized that he doesn’t view UFOs as paranormal conspiracies but “a fascinating science problem,” the investigation into which is a “defense, national security and safety of flight issue.”
Through his 21 years at the U.K. Ministry of Defence, Nick Pope worked on topics such as defense policy and counter-terrorism, as well as UAP. It was the latter, however, that catapulted him into the spotlight, making him a recognizable television figure. It also, of course, led to his recurring appearances on Ancient Aliens, the History Channel series covering all manner of extraterrestrial phenomena throughout human history.
The series joined the many voices paying tribute to Pope in the wake of his death. “He challenged us to look beyond what we know and question what may be possible,” the post on the official Ancient Aliens Facebook page reads. “He will be deeply missed.”
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