Category: Twin Peaks

Best known by Twin Peaks fans as Bobby Briggs; the ever conniving, former boyfriend of Laura Palmer (and Shelley Johnson) who’s turned his life around; Dana Ashbrook has enjoyed a rich and fulfilling career as a television and movie actor for the past 25 years before reprising his role.
 
In his spare time, he likes playing sports like baseball and tennis, and enjoys playing harmonica.

Background

Ashbrook was born in San Diego, California on May 24^th 1967 to parents his D’Ann and Vernon L. Ashbrook. He has two siblings, both of whom have made a name for themselves in their own right: Taylor Ashbook who is a writer and Daphne Ashbook who is an actor. On 2015 he married his wife Kate Rogal in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

From a young age, Ashbrook was around theatre which sparked his interest in the craft. His father, Vernon, was the director of Palomar College Department of Performing Arts and his mother is a teacher/performer in a local theatre.

Ashbrook made his film debut while still in his teens in the 1978 cult hit, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes in an uncredited role. He was discovered while performing in a high school play when his sister’s agent discovered him.
 
In addition to this, Ashbrook has a couple of guest roles of television shows: Knots Landing (1987), ABC Afterschool Special (1987), 21 Jump Street (1988) among others, before landing the role of Bobby Briggs.

 

Despite the on air persona of the young thug Bobby Briggs, Ashbrook has always been a thoughtful, well-spoken person who’s never taken his fame for granted. Ashbrook respects and admires Lynch greatly and considers Twin Peaks to be his big break. He’s said that Lynch is the person who taught him how to be cool and has been quoted saying the following; “’Twin Peaks’ is the one thing in my career that I can really look back on, that I really respect and love and honor as something that’s different.
 
The one thing that I can hang onto.” Ashbrook wrote a script for a travel movie with his friend Robert Bauer called “Driven To It” which Lynch offered to executive produce and help out with. Unfortunately, the project fell apart when the pair were unable to secure financing. He and Robert Bauer created the film company Bauerbrook Films.

 

TV and Other Roles

In the past 25 years he’s had a number of recurring roles on television shows: Officer Gary McDermott on Crisis Center (1997), Rich Rinaldi in Dawson’s Creek (2002-2003), Tony in The Kill Point (2007), and Jimmy in Crash (2009).

In addition to these television roles and others, Ashbrook has appeared in a number of movies: Tom Essex in Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988), Tony in Waxwork (1988), Lloyd in The Aggression Scale (2012), Westmark in Late Phases (2014), and Gary in The Opposite Sex (2014) etc. As well, he’s been involved in a number of films set for release later this year and 2018.

In the years leading up to the official announcement of the revival of Twin Peaks the cast members were just as abuzz as the general public wanting to know whether or not a revival was happening. He recalls texting with Sheryl Lee before boarding a plane on his way to the UK Twin Peaks festival, the two were making plans to meet up once they arrived.
 
On her way to the airport, Lee spoke with Lynch who confirmed the Twin Peaks revival was in fact happening and told her to let Ashbrook know.

 

In the 25 years since we last saw Ashbrook in his role, a lot has changed for Bobby Briggs who is now who has really turned his life around and is now an esteemed member of the Twin Peaks community and deputy in the Sheriff’s department working alongside Deputy Hawk and Sheriff Truman. As a special message about Special Agent Dale Cooper (who has long been missing) arrives from the late Major Garland Briggs, Bobby’s father, Bobby’s fate as a new found hero of Twin Peaks is cemented as only he can decipher what the message means.

He has active social media accounts on Twitter (@DanaAshbrook) and Instagram (@danaashbrook).

 

Mädchen Amick is best known for playing Shelly Johnson in Twin Peaks. She was born in Sparks, Nevada on December 12^th to Judy and Bill Amick (medical office manager and musician, respectively) in 1970 and has been been an actor since she was 16 years old when she moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career.
 

Background

Her unusual name, Mädchen, was chosen by her parents who wanted a unique name for their daughter. Mädchen translates from German to ‘girl’. She is also of Norwegian, Swedish, English and Irish descent.

Taking after her father, Amick was naturally talented and drawn to music, and with the encouragement of her parents she learned to play the the piano, bass, violin and guitar. In addition to this, she is trained in a number of dance forms including: tap, ballet, jazz and modern dance.

If you haven’t seen the movie Sleepwalkers, here’s that scene where Mädchen does some fabulous dancing with her broom. Girl can sure bust a move!

 

Family

She is married to David Alexis and has two children: Sylvester Time Amick-Alexis, and Mina Tobias Amick-Alexis. As well, Amick is an active social media user with accounts on Twitter (@madchenamick) and Instagram (@madchenamick).

Twin Peaks Actress

Before her role on Twin Peaks, Amick appeared as in guest roles on episodes of Baywatch and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Once Mädchen got on Twin Peaks, her career skyrocketed and took her into another world, basically. Mädchen’s Twin Peaks character Shelly Johnson, who was married to psychopath / vegetable Leo Johnson, was a perky waitress at the Double R Diner in the town of Twin Peaks was a fan favourite character in the show.
 
Like most of the Twin Peaks girls, she spawned a million nationwide crushes on her Twin Peaks character, who, in Shelly’s case, was a down-to-earth and yet naughty vixen who was married to a maniac, and seeing the high school bad boy on the side.
 
Fun to watch!

Connection to David Lynch

As well, Amick’s role as Shelly really helped her career to get off the ground and Amick considers working with David Lynch as being a paramount part of her career and has since remained good friends with Lynch since working with him.
 
She considers Lynch to be a very genuine and approachable person, which, by all accounts, he is.

When she took the role of Shelly, it basically involved David asking Mädchen if she wanted to do a show with him, to which she responded “yes”. As the show progressed, David Lynch even managed to write himself (or Gordon Cole, rather) kissing Mädchen (Shelly) into the Twin Peaks script.
 
Smooth move, David!

 

In 1990, herself, Sherylin Fenn, and Lara Flynn Boyle appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine to promote Twin Peaks. As Gordon said, Twin Peaks seems to be filled with beautiful women for some reason.

Post-Twin Peaks Roles

Since appearing in Twin Peaks, Mädchen has appeared in a number of TV shows and movies, mostly notably as Alice Cooper in Riverdale (2017-Present), Mrs Ellison in American Horror Story, Wendy Beauchamp in Witches of East End, Sherry Tinsdale in Gilmore Girls and Dutchess Catherine Beaton in Gossip Girl.

In addition to these roles, and others, much like a couple of her her Twin Peaks co-stars (Sherylin Fenn and Dana Ashbrook) , Amick has had a role on Dawson’s Creek. In Dawson’s Creek, Amick plays a characters named Nicole Kennedy. Nicole Kennedy is a recurring character during season 2, and arrives to Dawson’s Creek as a teacher who’s arrived to town after working in Hollywood. Her history piques Dawson’s interest but she has a romance with Dawson’s father.

In addition to her television roles, she has appeared in a number of movies. Most notably, she reprised her role as Shelly Johnson for Twin Peak Fire Walk with Me but she has also appeared in the following films: Megan in The Borrower (1991), Sarah Collins in Trapped in Paradise(1994), and Shannon Pace in Priest (2011).

Return to Twin Peaks

Recently, Amick has been doing interviews, to speak about her excitement to work with her friend, David Lynch, and, to reprise her role as Shelly Johnson once again. Amick never thought that Twin Peaks would see a reboot, denying that she even thought it would be possible to recapture the magic of the first two seasons but was thrilled to learn that when the reboot was announced that it was on Showtime and would give David Lynch and Mark Frost much more creative control and less restrictions than the original run had experience.

When she received her lines for the new season of Twin Peaks, she notes that rather than receiving a full script, she only received lines for scenes which she was directly involved in. The only Twin Peaks cast member to receive the full script was Kyle MachLachlan (Special Agent Dale Cooper).
 
Mädchen was surprised to learn how much has changed for Shelly Johsnon since the original Twin Peaks took place 25 years ago.

Since the original series, Shelly Johnson has given birth to a daughter and is still working at the Double R diner. While she never thought she would return to this role, Mädchen is thrilled for the chance to be playing Shelly Johnson again.

Here’s a touching scene from back in season 2 of Twin Peaks featuring Shelly Johnson and Norma Jennings.

 

Additional Mädchen Amick Links

Mädchen Amick maintains her own blog over here, which has tons of interesting info for fans, including her masterclasses (held in L.A.). She also has a Facebook page that she posts on.
 
You can also find her on Snapchat and Whosay.

 

I’ll leave you with this music video she directed for her son Sylvester Alexis, aka Sly Beetz. It’s cool to see Mädchen direct a rap video that looks she’s been directing rap videos for years (!?), but it also shows influence from her experience in cinema.

 

Kyle MacLachlan is an American actor born February 22, 1959. Quite possibly best known for his role as the mysterious, yet welcoming agent Special Agent Dale Cooper in in Twin Peaks, Kyle MacLachlan has enjoyed a successful acting career spanning decades. His career has been spread across television, movies, theatre, and even videos games.

It may be a surprise for most to learn that MacLachlan voiced Donald Love in Grand Theft Auto III (2001). When asked about MacLachlan’s role in Twin Peaks, Lynch has commented that “Kyle plays innocents who are interested in the mysteries of life.
 
He’s the person you trust enough to go into a strange world with.” which is exactly who Special Agent Dale Cooper is and what he does for the both the audience and the town folk of Twin Peaks. In addition to Twin Peaks, he’s worked with David Lynch on other projects as Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet and as Paul Atreides in Dune.

 

Apart from his work with Lynch, MacLachlan has had a successful film and television career. Notably, you may recognize him from some of his more popular television roles such as Trey MacDougal from Sex and the City (2000–2002), Orson Hodge from Desperate Housewives (2006–2012), he played The Captain in How I Met Your Mother (2010–2014), the Mayor of Portland in Portlandia (2011–2017), and Calvin Zabo in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2014–2015).

Apart from Television, MachLachan has been involved in a number of Hollywood movies including: The Doors, a 1991 biopic film about the band; in the 1994 film adaptation of The Flintstones he played Clifford Vandercave; he played Zach Carey in Showgirls (1995); Claudius in Almereyda’s Hamlet 2000; and most recently on the big screen he played Riley’s Dad in Pixar’s 2015 film, Inside Out.

Despite his success on the screen, MacLachan has remained somewhat active in theatre. Notable roles include Damis in Tartuffe at the Empty Space Theatre in 1983, Terrence Beebe in The Palace of Amateurs at the Minetta Lane Theatre in 1988, Jack in On An Average Day at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2002, and Aston in The Caretaker at the American Airlines Theatre in 2003.

MacLachan was introduced to acting at a young age by his mother. She was the director of a youth theatre program in Yakima which she had helped to set up. Additionally, he learned piano and became to study classical singing. And throughout his teenage years, he was involved in class plays and school musicals.

While he may be a fan favourite, his work has caught positive attention from critics and he has received a number of awards and nominations. Mostly notably he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for his role as Special Agent Dale Cooper.
 
As well he’s received nominations for two Emmy Awards (also for his work on Twin Peaks).

Outside of acting, MacLachlan leads a fulfilling life with his wife Desiree Gruber. The two were married in 2002 and have a son, Callum Lyon MacLachlan who was born July 25^th, 2008. MacLachlan was born and raised in Yakima, Washington and is the eldest of his brothers (Craig MacLachlan and Kent MacLachan). MacLachlan maintains a website for his family’s two dogs: a mixed Chihuahua-Yorkie breed and a Jack Russel terrier called mookieandsam.com.
 
In addition to the website, the dogs have their own personal Youtube channel with the username FullPic.

 

In addition to this, he owns a vineyard and winery with business partner Eric Dunham. His winery is named ‘Pursued by Bear’ which is in reference to stage directions in Shakespeare’s The Winter Take, “Exit, pursued by bear” and was suggested to him one evening by Fred Savage.

MacLachan’s reason for this business venture was for his well known love of wine and to spend more time with his recently retired father. Before acting, MacLachlan attended the University of Washington and in 1982 graduated with a bachelors degree in Fine Arts with a focus on acting.
 
Presently, he has two places of residence: one in Los Angeles, California and one in New York City, New York.

Most excitingly, you can see Kyle MacLachlan reprise his role of Dale Cooper in the new season of Twin Peaks.(2017)

 

With the long-anticipated Twin Peaks Showtime reboot just around the corner (set to premiere April 2017), it seems no one can get enough of director and transcendental meditation advocate David Lynch.

Whether looking to attend his highly anticipated, sold-out Festival of Disruption, or merely re-watch some of their favorite movies such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive, his fans are lining up by the dozens to know more about him. But as rumors and chatter that the legend may soon retire flourish the media, his fans may wonder, who will carry on his legacy once he’s gone?

Well fear not, David Lynch has two wildly talented up-and-coming sons named Austin and Riley, both whom are film makers and just starting to make a name for themselves.

 

Riley Sweeney Lynch

Riley Sweeney Lynch is the younger of the two brothers. He was born in 1992 to David Lynch and Mary Sweeney who worked extensively together (on the original Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, and Blue Velvet to name a few).

Riley has an active social media presence on Twitter (riley_s_lynch), vimeo (rileysweeneylynch) and Instagram (rileylynchofficial). And while you may not have seen any of Riley’s film work, he has studied and the School for the Art Institute of Chicago has made a number of short films.

In February, 2013 Riley launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a then untitled film project with two of his class mates. The film was funded in 10 days and surpassed its goal of $5000 from backers all over the world.

Not much was known about what the film would entail, other than a brief description that was included on Kickstarter: “A young man is unable to recall his dreams. Losing his source of inspiration, he seeks refuge in the home of a desert dwelling woman.” The film, ‘Meanwhile, the Night,’ was unleashed to the world a few months later at a Chicago Screening in August 2013 and is now available on Vimeo for those interested to see Riley’s work.

We’ll also embed it here, if we can.

Riley is credited for his behind the scenes work for Inland Empire (2006); as well fans can expect to see Riley in the new Twin Peaks in an acting role in the premiere and has a production role for the rest of the show’s run.

Austin Jack Lynch

Born ten years earlier than Riley, on September 7, 1982, is his older brother Austin Jack Lynch.

He is the son of David Lynch and Mary Fisk. He is best known for known for Interview Project (2009) which he is the creator and director.

Interview Project (2009) was shot over 70 days across the United States and features brief interviews with hundreds of different Americans. He also shot a film that documented the making of Terrence Malick’s ‘The New World’ entitled Making ‘The New World’ (2006). As well, you may know him from his acting role Inland Empire (2006) as Devon Berk’s Driver. Before that he had a brief screen role in the second season of Twin Peaks (1990) as a character only called Little Boy.

His character was Mrs Tremond’s grandson.

Following in the foot steps of his younger brother, Austin created a Kickstart his film ‘Gray house’, later in 2013. His film ‘Gray House’ was much more bigger and ambitious that his younger brother’s, and Austin set a goal of $25,000 USD.

In less than a month of crowdsourcing, his film had reached his goal. According to the description on Kickstarter: “Gray House is an exploration of domestic space that frames a conversation about nature, identity, consumerism and progress.” And despite the numerous stake holders, as 2016 the film has not yet been released nor are any public updates available.

Austin’s directorial style is somewhat comparable to his father’s. With a focus on narrative he provides audiences with highly empathetic characters. Austin’s films tend to be slightly less dark than his father’s. In addition to film-making Austin is an avid painter, with his interest in visual art starting in high school and continuing through college. From there he gained an interest in photography and attending classes at North Carolina School of The Arts.

The Return Of Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks fans held their breath throughout 2016. This year marked the famed 25 years later that promised Bob’s return. While everyone was hopeful that it may be a Twin Peaks relaunch, no one dared hope. However, much to everyone’s surprise, with a new run of Twin Peaks announced there will be a new generation of Twin Peaks fans and David Lynch fans.

Surely his younger sons are more than fit to carry the torch and carry on David Lynch’s legacy through creating new films for this new generation of Lynch fans to enjoy. Be sure to watch out for Riley Austin in the upcoming pilot of the new Twin Peaks and be sure to keep an eye out of the release of Austin’s Gray House. These two have already shown so much potential in their lives, and with their talent the sky’s the limits.