Cult Spy Icon: Milo Rambaldi ('Alias')

For all five seasons of Alias, the beady eye of Italian visionary Milo Rambaldi loomed large - even though he snuffed it back in the 15th Century and was never seen on screen. His artwork, inventions and predictions played a vital part in megavillain Arvin Sloane's plans for world domination, and contained much that crossed the boundaries of normal science and understanding.

A combination of Leonardo da Vinci and Nostradamus (or alternatively Rolf Harris and Mystic Meg), Rambaldi's prophetic and cryptic artefacts were scattered around the globe and sought by both the evil Sloane's group and Sydney Bristow's do-gooders - and in later seasons by their united powers. Often bearing mind-boggling technological ideas that defied the time period, these relics were very dangerous when entering the wrong hands.

Rambaldi's most notable brushstroke was arguably his painting of 'The Chosen One' - a beautiful brunette lady who was the spitting image of Sydney Bristow. This dramatic revelation, uncovered by both Sloane and Sydney's evil mother Irina Derevko, was on the forty-seventh page of a Rambaldi manuscript and stated that she would "render the greatest power unto utter desolation".

Fortunately this wasn't the case, although Sydney and the team had to work hard to ensure that contraptions such as the Rambaldi-designed Mueller Device didn't turn humanity into ultra-aggressive zombies - a fate that ultimately befell Sloane's daughter Nadia.

'Be careful what you wish for' was the ultimate lesson learnt by Sloane on his blinkered quest to fulfil Rambaldi's prophecy and gain immortality. Upon finding the Italian's tomb, his endgame was in sight when he found a vat of red liquid that enabled him to return to life shortly after Sydney put a bullet in his brain.

Soon though, an angry Jack Bristow returned to blow the tomb up and leave Sloane trapped several hundred feat beneath the ground for the rest of eternity. Perhaps Rambaldi knew immortality was a curse all along, hence his own very mortal existence? Poor Arvin certainly won’t see the funny side.