Kyle MacLachlan

Birthday: 22 February 1959, Yakima, Washington, USA

Birth Name: Kyle Merritt McLachlan

Height: 181 cm

The "boy next door, if that boy spent lots of time alone in the basement", is how Rich Cohen described Kyle MacLachlan in a 1994 article for "Rolling Stone" magazine. That distinctly askew wholesomeness made MacLachlan a natural to become famous as the alter ego of twisted director David Lynch.MacLachlan was born and raised in Yakima, Washington, to Catherine Louise (Stone), a public relations director, and Kent Alan McLachlan, a lawyer and stockbroker. He has Scottish, English, Cornish, and German ancestry. MacLachlan graduated from the University of Washington in 1982. The darkly handsome actor made his feature film debut when he starred in the big-budget David Lynch adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune (1984), but only enjoyed real success after appearing in a second Lynch project, the moody and perverse classic, Blue Velvet (1986).The following year saw MacLachlan appearing as an otherworldly FBI agent in the cult classic sci-fi film, The Hidden (1987). This turned out to be a sign of things to come, as MacLachlan soon took on another oddball G-man, "Special Agent Dale Cooper", on Lynch's cryptic ABC-TV series, Twin Peaks (1990), perhaps, along with Blue Velvet (1986), his most famous role. MacLachlan's remarkable work as Agent Cooper earned him a Golden Globe award and a pair of Emmy nominations, as well as steady work in television and films, including a part as Ray Manzarek in the Oliver Stone film, The Doors (1991), and villain "Cliff Vandercave" in the live action version of The Flintstones (1994).His career took a hit after he appeared in the infamous flop, Showgirls (1995). However, MacLachlan returned to prominence in the early 2000s with a re-occurring role on HBO's Sex and the City (1998), as well as a starring role in the TV movie, The Spring (2000), and a turn as "Claudius" in director Michael Almereyda's version of Hamlet (2000). MacLachlan later took advantage of his resemblance to Cary Grant, when he played the classic actor's spirit in Touch of Pink (2004).MacLachlan has remained a popular actor with independent filmmakers, and he has also been a familiar face on television, appearing on the ABC-TV shows, In Justice (2006) and Desperate Housewives (2004). Show less «

[Further speculating on why Dune (1984) failed]: It had kind of a throwback quality, at a time when ...Show more »

[Further speculating on why Dune (1984) failed]: It had kind of a throwback quality, at a time when we were just getting used to science fiction. We were just seeing shiny "Star Wars" stuff. I appreciated "Alien" because it felt like that ship had been in space God knows how long. It was kind of beaten up and dirty. This was something that was even different than that. This was like made from the '30s, kind of. It was just at the wrong time. Add to the fact that it was very difficult to follow, it was a bit stilted, it was just not what people wanted at that time. Now you go back and revisit it and you're sort of stunned at the beauty of some of the scenes. It doesn't pull together but, to me, it's like a Blade Runner (1982). I like to go and watch "Blade Runner", which made no sense but which I loved going into that world. I think people loved going into the world of "Dune" with all of its problems. Show less «

[on whether or not the failure of Dune (1984) was deserved]: I think yes and no. We made it in '83 a...Show more »

[on whether or not the failure of Dune (1984) was deserved]: I think yes and no. We made it in '83 and it came out in '84 [with] 'Dino De Laurentis', who had a habit of over-hyping all of his pictures and saying it was the biggest budget ever seen - an over-the-top kind of salesmanship. It was a book that was incredibly popular but was impossible to translate. David did an okay job. Now you'd do a "Lord of the Rings" thing - you'd break it into three and you'd hope that it would recoup. But that would be the book, would be three movies. I think it was ill-fated from the get-go. There was no way you were going to make sense of this. There were just too many things going on. Add to the fact that special effects were sort of in an infancy. I know we'd had Star Wars (1977), that was '77 and this was '83, [but] blue screen was still pretty rudimentary. You couldn't use the computer on any of this stuff and that would have been a tremendous help. Show less «

(On seeing Showgirls (1995) for the first time) It was about to première, I hadn't seen it yet, and...Show more »

(On seeing Showgirls (1995) for the first time) It was about to première, I hadn't seen it yet, and I wanted to. So I went to see it and... I was absolutely gobsmacked. I said, "This is horrible. Horrible!" And it's a very slow, sinking feeling when you're watching the movie, and the first scene comes out, and you're like, "Oh, that's a really bad scene." But you say, "Well, that's okay, the next one'll be better." And you somehow try to convince yourself that it's going to get better... and it just gets worse. And I was like, "Wow. That was crazy." I mean, I really didn't see that coming. So at that point, I distanced myself from the movie. Now, of course, it has a whole other life as a sort of inadvertent... satire. No, "satire" isn't the right word. But it's inadvertently funny. So it's found its place. It provides entertainment, though not in the way I think it was originally intended. It was just... maybe the wrong material with the wrong director and the wrong cast. Apart from all that, it was great. [Laughs.] It has a couple of moments in it that are pretty wild. And I gotta say that, when I was watching the actual shows that they created, I was like, "Hey, this is a Vegas show!" I was watching it from the audience, and it was amazing, what they were able to create. But reduced down to its elements, it was, uh, not one of my finer attempts. But it was done initially for all the right reasons; it just didn't turn [out] to be what I anticipated. Everybody has one of those in their repertoire, I think. It's just that this one has stayed around. Even Ishtar (1987) eventually disappeared. But this one keeps coming back! [Laughs.] Show less «

After the series finished, I was reluctant to return for the film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (19...Show more »

After the series finished, I was reluctant to return for the film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). I was pretty naive about it. At the time, I felt like I was trapped in this stale role, but looking back, Dale Cooper was one of the best things that happened to me. I went on to make some film choices that were rather strange - made with the best intentions, but not necessarily coming out the way I wanted them to. I certainly can't pretend that I didn't do Showgirls (1995). But I've been around for a while now, I'm of a certain age and I'm still doing what I love to do. There's some good work in there and there's some work that's questionable. Show less «

(On Dune (1984)) First film, first big break. It was a book that I loved when I was 15, when I read ...Show more »

(On Dune (1984)) First film, first big break. It was a book that I loved when I was 15, when I read it for the very first time in '74 or '75, whenever I first came to it. It was kind of a fairytale that it ended up being me, because I was nowhere near Los Angeles when it happened. I was in Seattle, working in the theater, and I'd been out of school for less than a year. Looking back, it was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience: seven months on a film in Mexico City in a giant, super-sized scale movie. It was the beginning of my working relationship and friendship with David Lynch. It was the highest highs and the lowest lows when the film came out and was sort of panned and critics really hated it; it meant that I really had to sort of start again. Which I did with David and Blue Velvet (1986). Granted, I had the exposure and I'd been in a big film, so that was sort of helpful, but ultimately it was a very difficult two years before Blue Velvet (1986) began filming. But it remains some of my fondest ever memories of working. I have a lot of photographs and writings and memories of that period of time, but 1983... that was a long time ago. [Laughs.] Show less «

There's not very many filmmakers like David [David Lynch], particularly in America. He's so brave an...Show more »

There's not very many filmmakers like David [David Lynch], particularly in America. He's so brave and courageous. He creates from a place that is unknown. He's not following any blueprints. He's following an unconscious urge and that's hard to do nowadays when people want to know how much you're going to make on this film on the first day of filming. They want to know what they can recoup by day 90, or day 120, or day 180, or whatever. And David just doesn't work that way and that just doesn't exist anymore. Show less «

(On Showgirls (1995) "That was a decision that was sort of a tough one to make, but I was enchanted ...Show more »

(On Showgirls (1995) "That was a decision that was sort of a tough one to make, but I was enchanted with Paul Verhoeven. Particularly RoboCop (1987), which I loved. I look back on it now and it's a little dated, but it's still fantastic, and I think it's got some of the great villains of all time in there. It was Verhoeven and [Joe] Eszterhas, and it seemed like it was going to be kind of dark and edgy and disturbing and real." Show less «

Kyle MacLachlan

Kyle MacLachlan's FILMOGRAPHY

Kyle MacLachlan'S roles

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