Twin Peaks actor Dana Ashbrook called David Lynch a “father figure” while reflecting on his first interaction with the late director.
Ashbrook played the wayward hotshot Bobby Briggs on the show, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. His character was one of the prime suspects in the murder of his girlfriend, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee).
The brooding Briggs was, in many ways, an early villain in the world of Twin Peaks but when the show returned in 2017, for Twin Peaks: The Return, the character had joined the sheriff’s department.
Speaking to The i Paper, Ashbrook, who was just 22 when Twin Peaks started, admitted that David Lynch was unlike any person that he had encountered in his life until that point.
“He definitely felt like a father figure to me,” said the 58-year-old. “He brought us into his room after work one night and showed us this art he was making with chicken s***. I was not sophisticated in the slightest so it just blew my mind. I thought, ‘Oh my god, this guy’s crazy!”
Lynch, who co-created Twin Peaks with Mark Frost, was heavily involved in season one but by season two, which was extended to 22 episodes, had taken a step back, and directed just four episodes.
Ashbrook says that despite this, the time the cast got to spend with Lynch was “better for us”, adding: “We would come in on our days off just to hang out and watch him work.”
Ashbrook’s comments arrived after the British Film Institute announced a new season celebrating Lynch’s career five months after his death.
During a Q&A with frequent Lynch collaborator Kyle MacLachlan, BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts announced that, in January, the BFI will be showing a wide range of the directors work, including his feature films, shorts and music videos.
MacLachlan, described Lynch’s work as “essential”, adding: “There's nobody like him and there will never be anyone like him. He saw the world in a very particular way.
“I had my personal relationship with him, and I love him dearly and I miss him dearly, and he really started me off. His message, his art – film, art, television, painting, sculpture, everything – is so special and I think speaks to a deeper part of us in a way that no one else does. He's just magic.”
Lynch, whose other acclaimed works include Mulholland Drive (2001), Blue Velvet (1986) and Eraserhead (1977), died in January 2025, aged 78.
His immediate immediate cause of death was credited to a cardiac arrest due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The director had been diagnosed with emphysema in 2020.
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