Lenny Von Dohlen, star of Twin Peaks and Electric Dreams, has died. He was 64.
He died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after a long illness, according to his longtime manager Steven J. Wolfe.
Von Dohlen made his film debut in Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies, a performance that landed him the leading role in MGM/UA’s Electric Dreams.
He also scored leading roles for Under the Biltmore Clock, Blind Vision, Jennifer 8, Ed Zwick’s Leaving Normal, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and the title role in Billy Galvin, where Von Dohlen starred opposite Karl Malden.
Born in Augusta, Georgia, and raised in Goliad, Texas, Von Dohlen grew too tall to realize a childhood dream of becoming a jockey.
So after majoring in drama at the University of Texas, he turned to theater. In New York, he created roles in Asian Shade, The Team, Twister, Vanishing Act and The Maderati. Von Dohlen also starred in Caryl Churchill’s hit play Cloud 9, directed by Tommy Tune, which was followed by The Roundabout Theater’s revival of Desire Under the Elms opposite Kathy Baker.
Von Dohlen’s flair for physical comedy came through as he played a bumbling bad guy in 20th Century Fox’s Home Alone III.
That followed roles in indie films like Tollbooth, Bird of Prey, Entertaining Angels, Frontline, Cadillac, One Good Turn, and Beautiful Loser.
In TV, Von Dohlen starred in Kent State, Thirtysomething, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Lazarus Man, The Pretender, CSI Miami, and Don’t Touch, directed by Beau Bridges.
His best-known TV role is playing the agoraphobic orchid-growing Harold Smith in Twin Peaks.
Von Dohlen most recently appeared with Sally Kirkland, Jennifer Tilly, and Keith Carradine in the upcoming indie comedy Sallywood, now in post-production.
Von Dohlen is survived by his partner, playwright James Still, his mother Gay Von Dohlen, siblings Mary Gay, Catherine, and John David, as well as his daughter, Hazel.
