Best "Twin Peaks" characters
by JohnSlash | created - 02 Jun 2012 | updated - 28 Nov 2012 | PublicThis is a character list, so my ranking of the characters mainly has to do with the written character.
1. Kyle MacLachlan
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
The "boy next door, if that boy spent lots of time alone in the basement", is how Rich Cohen described Kyle MacLachlan in a 1994 article for "Rolling Stone" magazine. That distinctly askew wholesomeness made MacLachlan a natural to become famous as the alter ego of twisted director David Lynch.
...
Special Agent Dale Cooper
2. Don S. Davis
Actor | A League of Their Own
Don S. Davis was born on August 4, 1942 in Aurora, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for A League of Their Own (1992), The Fan (1996) and Twin Peaks (1990). He was married to Ruby Fleming-Davis and Sondra Sue Davis. He died on June 29, 2008 in Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada.
Major Garland Briggs
3. Al Strobel
Actor | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Al Strobel was born on January 28, 1940 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was an actor, known for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Twin Peaks (1990) and Megaville (1990). He died on December 2, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Phillip Michael Gerard
4. Kenneth Welsh
Actor | The Day After Tomorrow
This latterly white-haired Canadian character actor had a natural predilection for portraying historical figures. Kenneth Welsh was born in Edmonton, Alberta. After college he studied drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal. He then acted on the Shakespearean stage in Ontario for several ...
Windom Earle
5. Lara Flynn Boyle
Actress | Happiness
Lara Flynn Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa on March 24, 1970 to 21-year old Sally Boyle. For Sally and young Lara, money was not plentiful so Sally was required to work three jobs in addition to raising baby Lara by herself. Since Lara was mostly around Sally, they developed a bond that still ...
Donna Hayward
6. Russ Tamblyn
Actor | West Side Story
Russ wasn't discovered, he discovered show business at the age of 5 when, with other youngsters at Inglewood, California, he went to Saturday matinees at the Granada Theatre. One afternoon while waiting for the show to start he got on the stage and did an impromptu dance which the kids loved. He ...
Dr. Jacoby
7. Lenny von Dohlen
Actor | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Lenny von Dohlen was born in Augusta, Georgia. As a child, he wished to become a jockey, but grew too tall for his dream. He graduated from the University of Texas/Austin and majored in drama at Loretto Heights College.
His film debut was in the Academy Award-winning Tender Mercies (1983), starring ...
Harold Smith
8. Sherilyn Fenn
Actress | Of Mice and Men
The sultry, versatile, petite (5' 4") beauty Sherilyn Fenn was born Sheryl Ann Fenn in Detroit, Michigan, into a family of musicians. The youngest of three children, her mother, Arlene Quatro, played keyboard in rock bands, her aunt is rock-star Suzi Quatro, and her grandfather, Art Quatro, was a ...
Audrey Horne
9. Sheryl Lee
Actress | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
"Dead, wrapped in plastic" is how Sheryl Lee entered onto the scene as Laura Palmer, the doomed homecoming queen on the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990).
Lee was born April 27, 1967 in Germany. She grew up in Boulder, Colorado, spending much of her youth studying dance before knee injuries ended her...
Laura Palmer; then, Maddie Ferguson
10. Miguel Ferrer
Actor | Traffic
Miguel Ferrer was an American actor known for playing Morton from RoboCop, Shan Yu from Mulan, Martian Manhunter from Justice League: The New Frontier, Slade Wilson from Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Death from Adventure Time, Sesa Refumee from Halo 2 and Vice President Rodriguez from Iron Man 3...
FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield
11. Frank Silva
Actor | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
A native of central California, Frank Silva majored in theater at San Francisco State University where he received a master's degree in light design. He worked with director David Lynch on several of his movies (Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) as a prop master and set decorator. While Silva was ...
BOB
12. Ray Wise
Actor | Batman: The Killing Joke
Raymond Herbert "Ray" Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor. Some of his best-known roles include Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990), henchman Leon C. Nash in RoboCop (1987), Jack Taggart Sr. in Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), the Devil in the CW television series Reaper (2007), Donald ...
Leland Palmer
13. Everett McGill
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
Everett McGill was the leader of a popular Kansas City dance band prior to becoming an accomplished stage actor with more than 1300 performances on Broadway to his credit. He first acquired wide attention in film with his starring role in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Oscar-winning saga of primitive man, ...
Big Ed Hurley
14. David Lynch
Writer | Twin Peaks
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...
FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole
15. Jack Nance
Actor | Eraserhead
Born in Boston of Irish ancestry and raised in Dallas, Jack Nance traveled throughout the country doing children's theater. For eight years, he performed with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Later, he became involved with avant-garde theater. He first met David Lynch in the ...
Pete Martell
16. Mädchen Amick
Actress | Dream Lover
Born and raised in Sparks, Nevada, Mädchen Amick was encouraged by her parents to follow her own creative instincts where she learned the skill of playing the piano, bass, violin and guitar as well as being able to do tap, ballet, jazz and modern dancing. In 1987 at the age of 16, she traveled to ...
Shelly Johnson
17. Billy Zane
Actor | Titanic
William George Zane, better known as Billy Zane, was born on February 24, 1966 in Chicago, Illinois, to Thalia (Colovos) and William Zane, both of Greek ancestry. His parents were amateur actors and managed a medical technical school. Billy has an older sister, actress and singer Lisa Zane. Billy ...
John Justice Wheeler
18. Richard Beymer
Actor | West Side Story
Born in Avoca, Iowa and moved with his parents to Hollywood, California in the late 1940s, Richard Beymer acted in various films while attending North Hollywood High School. He enjoys making his own films and has a film used in a PBS series on the civil rights movement.
Benjamin Horne
19. Michael Horse
Actor | Twin Peaks
Michael Horse was born on December 21, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Twin Peaks (1990), The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) and North of 60 (1992). He has been married to Pennie Opal Plant since 2009. He was previously married to Sandra Horse and Linda ...
Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill
20. Catherine E. Coulson
Actress | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Catherine E. Coulson began her professional association with director David Lynch when she worked as assistant director on Lynch's legendary feature debut Eraserhead (1977). This is when the two began discussing the idea of a woman who carried a log around with her. Coulson spent much of her career...
Log Lady
21. Heather Graham
Actress | Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Heather Joan Graham was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Joan (Bransfield), a schoolteacher and children's book author, and James Graham, an FBI agent. She and her sister, actress Aimee Graham, were raised by their strictly Catholic parents. They relocated often, as a result of their father's ...
Annie Blackburn
22. David Patrick Kelly
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
Compact, feisty and fierce character actor David Patrick Kelly was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Margaret Elizabeth (Murphy) and Robert Corby Kelly, Sr., an accountant. He burst onto the acting scene in 1979, playing the devious leader of the leather-clad gang "The Rogues" in Walter Hill's ...
Jerry Horne
23. Michael J. Anderson
Actor | Mulholland Dr.
Michael Anderson was born in Denver, Colorado, at 10:30 P.M., on Halloween night. Subject to a genetic anomaly known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta, he grew up in a wheelchair. After graduating high school, he traveled America, singing for tips and living in his car. For six years, he attended the ...
Man From Another Place
24. James Marshall
Actor | A Few Good Men
James Marshall was born James David Greenblatt in Queens, New York, USA, to Charlotte (Bullard), a dancer, and William R. Greenblatt, a producer and director. His father is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and his mother has English and Irish ancestry.
James grew up in Bergen County New Jersey. At the ...
James Hurley
25. David Duchovny
Actor | The X Files
David William Duchovny was born on August 7, 1960, in New York City, New York, USA. His father, Amram Ducovny, was a writer and publicist who was from a family of Jewish immigrants (from Ukraine and Poland), and worked for the American Jewish Committee. His mother, Margaret (Miller), was a ...
DEA Angent Dennis/Denise Bryson
26. Dana Ashbrook
Actor | Twin Peaks
Growing up in San Diego, becoming an actor came naturally to Dana Ashbrook. His father is the director of the Palomar College Department of Performing Arts, and his mother is a teacher who performs in local theater. His sisters, Daphne Ashbrook and Taylor Ashbrook, are also working actresses. His ...
Bobby Briggs
27. Michael Ontkean
Actor | Slap Shot
Michael Ontkean, best known for playing the minor league hockey player Ned Braden in the cult classic Slap Shot (1977), was born on January 24, 1946 in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents, Leonard and Muriel (née Cooper) Ontkean, were actors. Michael was raised Catholic and attended Catholic ...
Sheriff Harry S. Truman
28. Hank Worden
Actor | The Searchers
American character actor, mainly in Westerns in comic or rustic roles. Born Norton Earl Worden in Rolfe, Iowa, during his parents' visit to a relative's home there, he was raised on a cattle ranch near Glendive, Montana. Educated at Stanford and the University of Nevada as an engineer, he trained ...
Waiter
29. Carel Struycken
Actor | Men in Black
Carel Struycken was born in the Hague, The Netherlands. When he was four years old his family moved to Curacao, an island in the Caribbean. At age sixteen, he returned to his home country, where he finished high school. He graduated from the directing program at the film school in Amsterdam, ...
Giant
30. Ian Buchanan
Actor | The Bold and the Beautiful
Buchanan was born June 16, 1957 in Hamilton, Scotland. He worked at a local hotel as a bellhop while still a teenager. By the time he turned 14 his parents, both of whom fought alcoholism, died suddenly. He and his five siblings were left alone and his dreams of moving to the U.S. were put on hold....
Dick Tremayne
31. Michael Parks
Actor | Red State
Michael Parks is known as an actor's actor by his peers with a breadth of astonishing range that has allowed him to portray stunning contrasts--sometimes in the same film, like in Tusk (2014), starring in dual roles as an erudite serial killer opposite Justin Long, and as a feeble rube opposite ...
Jean Renault
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