US character actor Harry Dean Stanton has died from natural causes at a Los Angeles hospital. "He's one of those actors who knows that his face is the story," his friend Sam Shepard, the playwright and actor, once said.
Image: Reuters/D. Moloshok
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Harry Dean Stanton's career spanned six decades, during which time he had supporting roles in films such as "Cool Hand Luke" (1967), "The Godfather Part II" (1974), "Alien" (1979), "Repo Man" (1984), "Pretty in Pink" (1986) and most recently David Lynch's new season of the cult TV series "Twin Peaks."
In "Paris, Texas," written by playwright Sam Shepard, who died in July, and helmed by German director Wim Wenders, Stanton played an emotionally broken man trying to put his life and family back together.
His final on-screen role is in the upcoming film "Lucky."
Stanton (left) filmed 'Paris, Texas' with Nastassja Kinski (center) and Wenders in 1984Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
Worked with Scorsese, Scott, Coppola
Stanton worked with many of Hollywood's most notable directors, including Frances Ford Coppola ("The Godfather Part II" and "One From the Heart"), Sam Peckinpah ("Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid"), Martin Scorsese ("The Last Temptation of Christ"), Ridley Scott ("Alien"), and Lynch ("Wild at Heart," "The Straight Story," and "Inland Empire").
Stanton could be taciturn to the point of mystery. When asked in the documentary "Partly Fiction" how he would like to be remembered, Stanton replied: "It doesn't matter."
Stanton was born July 14, 1926, in West Irvine, Kentucky, to a tobacco farmer father and hairdresser mother who divorced when he was a teenager.
Stanton, who served as a cook at the Battle of Okinawa during World War II, became interested in acting at the University of Kentucky.
He never married but once told an interviewer he had "one, maybe two" sons.
The weird, wacky and wonderful world of Twin Peaks
With a brand new season of the cult series about to launch, we revisit the town where 'the owls are not what they seem."
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'Dead, wrapped in plastic'
The mystery of "Twin Peaks" starts with the grisly discovery of the body of prom queen Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee). The entire town appears to be traumatized by the loss of the popular high-school girl. But things aren't necessarily what they seem, and underneath Laura Palmer's polished veneer lurks the story of a severely troubled girl, as investigators learn.
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'Fire Walk With Me'
The 16-year-old Laura was numbing her pain and problems with drugs, and financing her habit with prostitution and pornography. The sleepy town of Twin Peaks apparently harbors all these secrets and much more, as the series reveals. The dark underbelly of the fictive small town is later explored in even greater depth in the cinematic prequel movie, "Fire Walk With Me" (pictured here).
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Secrets behind white picket fences
Things weren't always difficult in Laura Palmer's life, viewers learn. What drove the blonde girl from this sleepy little place in the Pacific Northwest of the US into leading a scandalous double life? As the audience tries to piece her story together, the role of her parents moves into greater focus. Laura's father Leland (Ray Wise) is apparently keeping a dark secret.
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A demonic villain
And then there is Bob - one of the creepiest characters to ever be featured on television. With a spine-chilling stare and a sinister lust for blood, we learn that Bob (Frank Silva) is a demon who uses humans as vessels to feed on their fear. As the series progresses, it is revealed that there is a portal to a shadowy world - the Black Lodge - in Twin Peaks, where such evil spirits dwell.
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Donuts, pie and 'damn good coffee'
As if the occult world of Twin Peaks weren't strange enough, FBI Special Agent Dale B. Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, right) is another surreal character with lovable idiosyncrasies, including some less-than-orthodox investigation methods and his childlike enthusiasm. Detective Cooper bonds with local Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) over donuts and "damn good coffee" while solving the case.
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Underage femme fatale
Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), whose father owns the hotel where Agent Cooper stays, also develops feelings for the dapper FBI man in town to solve the crime. However, as a classmate of Laura Palmer's, Audrey is too young to really be considered a serious love interest for Cooper. The tender exchanges between the two characters nevertheless make for some of the best lines of the show.
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Visions of a dark place
The truth about the murder reveals itself to Agent Cooper incrementally, mainly in dreams and visions that offer but glimpses into other worlds like the Black Lodge. By the end of the series, Cooper ventures out into the place where the evil demons of Twin Peaks hide, only to return with a surprise that has kept fans hanging on a cliffhanger for 25 years. Will the new series resolve this?
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Ahead of its time
Twin Peaks wasn't only visionary in the way it told its narrative, it was ahead of its time through the important social issues it addressed. The series introduced the first transgender character on television, played by David Duchovny. Fans of the show were quite excited to find out that Duchovny would indeed be returning in the role of Special DEA Agent Denise Bryson in the new season.
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David Lynch's stroke of genius
The show's award-winning director David Lynch has kept all details surrounding the plot of the new "Twin Peaks" series a well-hidden secret, adding massively to the hype that has been building up on social media in anticipation of the relaunch. While some fear that after a quarter century the revival may flop, fans around the world await the start of the new series with great excitement.
