Harry Dean Stanton dies

Stanton died Friday of common causes at a Los Angeles healing facility at age 91, his operator John S. Kelley said.

Lynch described him as a “great one” in a statement posted on the official Twin Peaks Twitter account. “He was an extraordinary performing artist (quite incredible) – and an awesome person”. Stanton joked that roles most successful Hopper had been declined by him (Blue Velvet and Hoosiers). He began attracting notice in higher-profile movies such as “Aliens”, “Private Benjamin” and “Escape From New York”, but it was with 1984’s “Paris, Texas” that he rose to star status.

He comes back and finds her in a Houston peep show, where he delivers a 10-minute monologue through a one-way mirror. If talking about his career he saw many new actors and directors coming in front of him and achieving the heights of success. The film went on to win the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and turned Harry Dean into big name overnight.

Director and actor Samuel West tweeted: “Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS”. A close friend of Hollywood luminaries Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Marlon Brando, the drinker and smoker worked with David Lynch on TV’s Twin Peaks. His long, distinguished career will stand as a monument to one of the greatest character actors to ever grace the screen. “Alfred Hitchcock was great”. It’s remarkable to me that he’s into his 70s and is still up all night. “Too much work”, he said.

Stanton also sang on the film’s Ry Cooder soundtrack, performing a haunting Mexicali waltz, “Cancion Mixteca”, in Spanish. Most recently he appeared in Twin Peaks: The Return, continuing the storyline of the character he portrayed in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and he will also be appearing in John Carroll Lynch’s Lucky, which arrives in theaters this fall.

He had his first leading role in “Paris, Texas”, playing a drifter trying to reconnect with family and friends.

After Stanton was cast as the leader of a gang in the 1966 western “Ride the Whirlwind”, he said Nicholson told him to “let the wardrobe do the acting and just play yourself”.

A native of Kentucky, Stanton served in the Navy during World War II then did his first acting work in a University of Kentucky production of “Pygmalion”.