Rebekah Del Rio, the singer-songwriter who delivered a brief but unforgettable performance in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, has died at the age of 57.
Her nephew, Dan Coronado, posted the news on Facebook, writing: “Just found out my Tia Becky passed away, and we literally just saw her on Father’s Day. So grateful the kids got to hear her sing, and also that I didn’t listen to her and secretly recorded the moment.”
He said she had a “God-given talent” for singing, adding: “Her most famous song is titled ‘Llorando’ which is named after Roy Orbison’s song ‘Crying’ which I’m doing right now as I type this out. Thank you for sharing your beautiful gift with the world Tia. We love you.”
Del Rio died on 23 June at her residence in Los Angeles. No cause of death has been revealed.
Her sorrowful performance of the Spanish version of Orbison’s “Crying” came during a pivotal scene in Lynch’s 2001 film.
In the sequence, Del Rio appears to be singing live at Club Silencio, but her voice carries on playing even after she has fainted and fallen to the floor.
Watching on, the film’s two leads Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring burst into tears.
Although the song that plays out in the film is a covertly recorded version from Lynch and the singer’s first ever meeting, Del Rio previously admitted she had sung along with every take.
“There were many takes. And with every take, I sang along, because I felt I had to produce that same feeling with the vibrato in my throat so the audience could see it,” she told IndieWire in a 2022 interview.
“I also wanted the beautiful girls in the balcony, [the film’s stars] Laura Harring and Naomi Watts, to experience it live. They were present while I was doing my scene, so I sang to them.”
As Lynch’s musical muse, Del Rio worked with the filmmaker more times over the years. She performed “No Stars”, her song based on a poem of Lynch’s, with Moby in Showtime’s revival series Twin Peaks: The Return, and also participated for touring performances of The Red Room Orchestra Plays the Music of Twin Peaks.
Del Rio, who grew up in San Diego and was of Mexican, Italian and Sephardic heritage, performed live at a charity screening of Mulholland Drive in LA just two weeks before her death.
After her breakout role in Mulholland Drive, Del Rio sang in the 2006 Richard Kelly sci-fi Southland Tales, and appeared on the soundtracks for the movies Sin City, Man on Fire and Streets of Legend.
In a 2022 interview, Del Rio told The Guardian: “My voice lends itself to that sadness because I carry a lot of that grief inside.”
Del Rio suffered the death of her son, Phillip DeMars, from cancer at the age of just 23 in 2009.
In recent years, she endured other hardship, with a botched biopsy for a skin tag leaving her unable to climb stairs and forcing her to leave her home. “I had to sleep in a converted rented van on the street,” she told The Guardian.
Her death comes just five months after that of Lynch, who died in January at the age of 78.
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