Jack Nance

Jack Nance was not a conventional actor. His face, dominated by an eternal forehead and a permanently bewildered gaze, defined the cinema of David Lynch long before the world understood what that universe meant. In 1970, he arrived in Los Angeles looking for theater but ended up trapped on a shoot that would consume five years of his life.

Eraserhead was filmed between 1972 and 1977 in the stables of the American Film Institute. Nance agreed to practically live on set while maintaining his impossible hairstyle. That teased hair was not a wig (Lynch shaped it every morning with sugar and hairspray so it could withstand the long days under dim light).

It was a voluntary aesthetic sentence.

The Trusted Man Behind the Scenes

After playing Henry Spencer, his career became tied to the Montana director. He appeared in nearly all of his major projects. In 1984 he took part in Dune, and two years later he played a pathetic villain in Blue Velvet. But Spanish audiences in particular remember him mostly for finding a fish in the coffee maker.

In 1990, he debuted in Twin Peaks as Pete Martell. His character brought a strange, down-to-earth humanity to a town full of secrets. He played him with a unhurried calm that drove network executives to despair but fascinated audiences. Because Nance understood the rhythm of silence better than anyone in Hollywood.

His relationship with Lynch was not the typical one between an actor and a director. They were friends who shared hamburgers in dive joints while talking about life. So when success came knocking, he preferred to stay on the fringes of the system.

The tragedy off camera

Nance's life away from the cameras was far grayer than his scripts. In 1991, his second wife, Kelly Jean Van Dyke, died by suicide while they were talking on the phone during a storm. That event sent him into an alcoholism that had already taken hold during his youth in Texas.

Alcohol was his only steady refuge.

In 1996, he shot his last collaboration with Lynch on Lost Highway, where he played a mechanic. Shortly after finishing the job, he got caught up in an absurd fight at a donut shop in South Pasadena. Some young men beat him up after an argument over change or a dirty look in the parking lot.

The next day, he complained of a severe headache while having breakfast with some friends. He went home to rest and never woke up again. He died alone in his apartment on December 30, 1996, from an internal subdural hematoma.

He was 53 years old. The autopsy revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.24 at the time of the altercation that preceded his death.