List of characters in Twin Peaks

The following articles are about the Characters of Twin Peaks.

Overview

Grouping	Name	Description	Played by
The FBI/DEA	Special Agent Dale Cooper	Investigates the murder of Laura Palmer using unorthodox methods, falls in love with Twin Peaks and all its rural life, fascinated with the paranormal. He practices Buddhism.	Kyle MacLachlan
	Albert Rosenfield	Abrasive forensics expert, whose façade hides a spiritual nature	Miguel Ferrer
	Chester Desmond	Investigates murder of Teresa Banks, mysteriously disappears	Chris Isaak
	Sam Stanley	Forensics specialist, assists Desmond in the investigation of Teresa Banks' murder	Kiefer Sutherland
	Phillip Jeffries	Long-lost FBI agent, who knows of the Lodges and their inhabitants	David Bowie
	Roger Hardy	Agent working for Internal Affairs who temporarily suspends Cooper from the FBI.	Clarence Williams III
	Gordon Cole	Stone-deaf Regional Bureau Chief, known to shout constantly	David Lynch
	Dennis/Denise Bryson	Transgender DEA agent who investigates drug allegations against Dale Cooper	David Duchovny
Sheriff's Department	Sheriff Harry S. Truman	Lover of Josie Packard and friend of Cooper. Helps him solve the Laura Palmer case.	Michael Ontkean
	Deputy Andy Brennan	Dorky deputy, lover of Lucy	Harry Goaz
	Deputy Hawk, Tommy Hill	Native American, expert tracker	Michael Horse
	Lucy Moran	Ditzy receptionist, on and off lover of Deputy Andy Brennan	Kimmy Robertson
	Cappy	Rarely-seen young, male assistant at the police station, possibly another deputy	Ron Kirk
Palmer family	Laura Palmer	Murder victim and the center of the story, linked to almost everyone in Twin Peaks	Sheryl Lee
	Leland Palmer	Laura's father, known for his compulsive singing and dancing, lawyer	Ray Wise
	Sarah Palmer	Laura's psychic mother	Grace Zabriskie
	Maddy Ferguson	Laura's identical-looking cousin	Sheryl Lee
Hayward family	Doctor William Hayward	Doctor of Twin Peaks, assists on the autopsy of Laura Palmer	Warren Frost
	Eileen Hayward	Doctor Hayward's wheelchair-using wife	Mary Jo Deschanel
	Donna Hayward	Laura's best friend, lover of James Hurley	Lara Flynn Boyle/Moira Kelly
	Harriet Hayward	Donna's younger sister	Jessica Wallenfels
	Gersten Hayward	Donna's youngest sister	Alicia Witt
Horne family	Benjamin Horne	Wealthy businessman, owns Great Northern Hotel, Horne's Department Store and a brothel on the Canadian border	Richard Beymer
	Jerry Horne	Ben's playboy brother and business partner	David Patrick Kelly
	Sylvia Horne	Ben's constantly-angry wife	Jan D'Arcy
	Audrey Horne	Ben's sultry teenage daughter	Sherilyn Fenn
	Johnny Horne	Ben's mentally handicapped son, tutored by Laura	Robert Davenport/ Robert Bauer
Packard/Martell Family	Josie Packard	Widowed sawmill owner with a dark past, lover of Sheriff Truman, tutored by Laura	Joan Chen
	Andrew Packard	Late owner of the Packard Sawmill and husband of Josie	Dan O'Herlihy
	Catherine Martell	Sister of Andrew, schemes with secret lover Ben Horne to burn down the sawmill	Piper Laurie
	Pete Martell	Long-suffering husband of Catherine, fishing and chess enthusiast, found Laura's body	Jack Nance
Briggs family	Major Garland Briggs	Intelligent and gifted Air Force officer involved in Project Blue Book, deep-space monitoring, and the woods surrounding Twin Peaks	Don S. Davis
	Betty Briggs	Unassuming, loving wife and mother	Charlotte Stewart
	Bobby Briggs	Rebellious teenager, captain of the football team, boyfriend of Laura Palmer, secret lover of Shelly Johnson	Dana Ashbrook
Hurley/Jennings triangle	Big Ed Hurley	Owner of Big Ed's Gas Farm, secret lover of Norma Jennings	Everett McGill
	Nadine Hurley	Ed's one-eyed, super-strong, curtain drape-obsessed wife	Wendy Robie
	James Hurley	Ed's nephew, secret lover of Laura Palmer, later lover of Donna Hayward	James Marshall
	Norma Jennings	Double-R Diner owner, lover of Big Ed Hurley, organizer of Meals on Wheels with Laura	Peggy Lipton
	Hank Jennings	Norma's husband, criminal on parole, conspirator with Josie Packard	Chris Mulkey
	Vivian Niles	Norma's mother, doesn't get along with Norma	Jane Greer
	Ernie Niles	Vivian's new husband, did time with Hank	James Booth
	Annie Blackburn	Younger sister of Norma, an ex-nun with a troubled past	Heather Graham
The Johnsons	Leo Johnson	Brutish trucker and drug-runner, had a sexual relationship with Laura Palmer	Eric Da Re
	Shelly Johnson	Abused young wife of Leo, waitress at Norma's diner, secret lover of Bobby Briggs	Mädchen Amick
One-Eyed Jack's/ Renault family	Jacques Renault	Canadian croupier, drug-runner, and bartender at the Roadhouse. Had sexual relationship with Laura Palmer	Walter Olkewicz
	Bernard Renault	Youngest Renault brother, mules drugs over the border	Clay Wilcox
	Jean Renault	Oldest and most dangerous Renault brother, veteran criminal, insurance agent.	Michael Parks
	Blackie O'Reilly	The madame of One-Eyed Jack's	Victoria Catlin
	Nancy O'Reilly	Blackie's sister, lover of Jean Renault	Galyn Gorg
Other locals	Ronette Pulaski	Former employee of Horne's Department Store and One-Eyed Jack's, was with Laura the night she died	Phoebe Augustine
	Dr. Lawrence Jacoby	Eccentric former psychiatrist of Laura with an obsession for Hawaii	Russ Tamblyn
	Mike Nelson	Bobby's best friend, high school wrestling champ, ex-boyfriend of Donna.	Gary Hershberger
	Margaret Lanterman a.k.a. "The Log Lady")	Mystic, widow who divines through a log she carries with her everywhere	Catherine E. Coulson
	Harold Smith	Agoraphobic horticulturist, Laura's Meals on Wheels friend	Lenny Von Dohlen
	Emory Battis	Store manager of Horne's Department Store, recruits girls from the perfume counter to work at One-Eyed Jack's	Dan Amendola
	Dick Tremayne	Pretentious employee of Men's Department at Horne's, ex-lover of Lucy	Ian Buchanan
	The Elderly Room Service Waiter	Elderly bellhop at the Great Northern with a link to the Lodges and the Giant in particular	Hank Worden
	Randy St. Croix	Employee of the Great Northern hotel	Ron Blair
	Roadhouse Singer	Angelic singer at the Roadhouse, known for her dream-like voice	Julee Cruise
	Mayor Dwayne Milford	Long-time mayor of Twin Peaks, has an ongoing feud with his brother Dougie	John Boylan
	Dougie Milford	Publisher of the Twin Peaks Gazette local newspaper, known to marry often	Tony Jay
	Lana Budding Milford	Seductive fiancée of Dwayne, and widow of Dougie, known to charm almost any man that's around her	Robyn Lively
Outsiders	Evelyn Marsh	Rich woman who James Hurley runs into, and who is beaten by her husband	Annette McCarthy
	Jeffrey Marsh	Evelyn's wife-beating husband	John Apicella
	Malcolm Sloan	The Marsh family driver	Nicholas Love
	Thomas Eckhardt	Former business partner of Andrew Packard, obsessively in love with Josie Packard	David Warner
	Jones	Thomas Eckhardt's assistant	Brenda Strong
	Teresa Banks	First victim, found almost exactly one year before the murder of Laura Palmer	Pamela Gidley
	Windom Earle	Psychotic but brilliant ex-partner of Cooper, desires the powers of the Lodges	Kenneth Welsh
	RCMP Officer Preston King	Canadian police officer involved with Jean Renault's drug trafficking	Gavan O'Herlihy
	John Justice Wheeler	Friend of Ben Horne and later falls in love with Audrey Horne	Billy Zane
Lodge Inhabitants	The Man from Another Place	Enigmatic dwarf, inhabitant of the Red Room.	Michael J. Anderson
	MIKE	Spirit, former associate and now opponent of BOB, inhabits shoe salesman Phillip Gerard, "The One-Armed Man"	Al Strobel
	Killer BOB	Malevolent spirit, haunts the woods and inhabits humans, killer of Laura.	Frank Silva
	The Giant	A supernatural giant who appears at key moments and provides Cooper with cryptic clues.	Carel Struycken
	Mrs. Tremond/Chalfont	Link to the Lodges and intentions unclear	Frances Bay
	Pierre Tremond/Chalfont	Mrs Tremond/Chalfont's grandson, link to the Lodges and intentions unclear	Austin Jack Lynch/ Jonathan J. Leppell

Concepts

Creation of BOB

Frank Silva was a set decorator who worked on the pilot episode. One day, when he was moving furniture in Laura Palmer's bedroom, a woman remarked to Silva not to get locked in the (Laura Palmer's) room. The image of Silva trapped in the room sparked something in Lynch, who then asked Silva if he was an actor. Silva replied "Yes", and Lynch told him that he had a part in mind for him on the series. Silva accepted, and Lynch shot footage of him behind Laura's bed with no real idea of what he would do with it.

When Lynch shot the scene of Sarah Palmer's frightening vision, Silva's reflection was accidentally caught in the footage. Silva can be seen in the mirror behind Sarah Palmer's head. Lynch was made aware of this accident, but decided to keep Silva in the scene.

MIKE, the One-Armed Man

MIKE's appearance in the pilot episode was only originally intended to be a "kind of homage to The Fugitive. The only thing he was gonna do was be in this elevator and walk out." However, when Lynch wrote the "Fire walk with me" speech, he imagined MIKE saying it in the basement of the Twin Peaks hospital – a scene that would appear in an alternative version of the pilot episode, and surface later in Agent Cooper's dream sequence. MIKE's full name, Phillip Michael Gerard, is also a reference to Lieutenant Philip Gerard, a character in The Fugitive.

The Man from Another Place

Lynch met Michael J. Anderson in 1987. After seeing him in a short film, Lynch wanted to cast the actor in the title role in Ronnie Rocket, but that project failed to get made. While editing the alternate ending of the foreign version of the pilot episode, an idea occurred to Lynch on his way home one day: "I was leaning against a car — the front of me was leaning against this very warm car. My hands were on the roof and the metal was very hot. The Red Room scene leapt into my mind. 'Little Mike' was there, and he was speaking backwards... For the rest of the night I thought only about The Red Room."

Laura Palmer

To save on money, Lynch intended to cast a local girl from Seattle "just to play a dead girl". The local girl ended up being Sheryl Lee. "But no one — not Mark, me, anyone — had any idea that she could act, or that she was going to be so powerful just being dead." Indeed, the image of Lee wrapped in plastic became one of the show's most enduring and memorable images. And then, while Lynch shot the home movie that James takes of Donna and Laura, he realized that Lee had something special. "She did do another scene — the video with Donna on the picnic — and it was that scene that did it." As a result, Sheryl Lee became a semi-regular addition to the cast, appearing in flashbacks as Laura, and becoming a recurring character—Maddy, Laura's cousin who also becomes another victim of BOB.