KYLE MacLACHLAN - FBI Agent Dale Cooper

Agent Cooper has an almost prescient understanding of human motives. Calm and cool, he blends a methodical temperament with a taste for the unusual. He is entranced with the majestic country around Twin Peaks.

Kyle MacLachlan and director David Lynch began a long-term friendship and working collaboration during the filming of the science-fiction classic, "Dune," in 1983. Their creative relationship continued with Kyle's leading role in Lynch's next feature, the critically acclaimed "Blue Velvet." ABC's "Twin Peaks" represents the third teaming of the talented actor and preeminent director, and marks Kyle's debut as a television series lead.

Kyle was born and raised in Yakima, Washington, the eldest of three sons. In 1977, he entered the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied in the Professional Actor Training Program. Following graduation with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he immediately joined the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. He returned to Seattle in 1982 to perform at the Empty Space Theater. While appearing on stage there, he auditioned for the film "Dune," was brought to Los Angeles to meet David Lynch, and soon plunged into a arduous, year-long production schedule in Mexico City.

In addition to "Blue Velvet," Kyle also starred in "The Hidden." He recently co-starred in the soon-to-be-released "The Boyfriend School," and also co-starred in an off-Broadway play, "The Palace of Amateurs," at New York's Minetta Lane Theater.

Harry Truman grew up in Twin Peaks and heads the local sheriff's office.A reticent, self-sufficient man, he knows more about the people in the town than they probably know about themselves.

Michael Ontkean grew up in French Canada playing ice hockey. Learning the game at its source in Montreal at the age of four was "like an early call to some sort of sub-zero priesthood. I rarely spoke. I was in a state of constant motion with perpetually frozen toes."

Michael's father, who was born in the coal fields of Alberta, was able to escape a life in the coal mines by becoming a boxer. When he met the woman who was to become Michael's mother, then an 18-year old stage actress, he decided to marry her and take up acting.

Ontkean spent most of his childhood on the ice. When his father died, he was more than able to support himself at the age of 14 by playing hockey. "In those days, you could get money under the table in the Junior Leagues in Canada. The trade-off was you had to quit high school at a certain point because the season was so long, and those bus rides went on forever."

After a particularly successful season in Junior "A" (the top rung on Canada's hockey ladder), Ontkean received dozens of scholarship offers from U.S. universities. He chose the University of New Hampshire and played right wing for all four years on the Wildcats' first line. In his junior year, he and his two linemates led the entire nation in scoring, with a total of 178 points.

In April of his senior year, Ontkean hitched a ride with two girlfriends from Boston who were making a mad dash for Southern California so they could "swim in the Pacific before they hit 20." The girls returned home, but Ontkean stayed on because he wanted to see the inside of a movie studio. On a lark, he bluffed his way onto the old Goldwyn lot in Hollywood, where he spotted the name of director Norman Jewison, also a Canadian. The young athlete presented himself for some sort of job. "Norman was great. He threw a script at me and told me to read the part of the young revolutionary in 'Fiddler on the Roof.'" At the end of this impromptu meeting, Jewison decided to give Ontkean a screen test. The young man didn't get the role, but two weeks later he found himself in Louisiana making his debut in "Bayou Boy," a television movie for Disney. A few weeks after that, Ontkean began work on his first feature film role, a starring one in "The Toy Factory," with the legendary Orson Welles.

Three more movies and a half dozen television shows came in quick succession, followed by two full seasons on ABC's "The Rookies." At that point, says Ontkean, "I just stepped off the show biz bus and changed gears." He moved to a small town on the Maine seacoast. For the next two-and-a-half years, he played music in local bars and hockey on local rinks while earning a living repairing motorcycles.

It was an idyllic time, and Ontkean might still be there if he hadn't heard that they were casting for a movie about hockey players called "Slap Shot." It was irresistible. After auditioning five times, he finally won the role of Paul Newman's sidekick.

"Slap Shot" caromed Ontkean right back into a busy acting career. with the upcoming "Postcards From the Edge," starring Meryl Streep and directed by Mike Nichols, his other feature film credits include "Clara's Heart," with Whoopi Goldberg, "Maid To Order," with Ally Sheedy, "Voices," with Amy Irving, "Making Love," with Kate Jackson, Paul Mazursky's "Willie & Phil," and "The Blood of Others," directed by Claude Chabrol and co-starring Jodie Foster. Some of his television credits include roles in "Kids Don't Tell" for CBS, and in ABC's "The Right of the People," a drama about gun control.

After living in New York for seven years and in Paris for two years, Ontkean now makes his home in Los Angeles. He's built his own recording studio, where he plays drums and jams with other musicians. There are motorcycles in the garage in various states of repair.

Catherine Packard Martell is manager of operations at the Packard Sawmill and will do anything to wrest the valuable property away from her brother's widow, Jocelyn Packard. She is openly contemptuous of her husband, Pete. It seems that nothing can hurt her.

An Emmy Award-winner and triple Oscar-nominee, screen favorite Piper Laurie began her career at Universal Studios, where she made her film debut in "Louisa," playing Ronald Reagan's daughter. She starred in 22 other Universal pictures, among them, "The Prince Who Was a Thief," with Tony Curtis.

Adventuresome and ready for wider opportunities as an actress, Ms. Laurie made the extremely risky decision to break her star contract. She left the sheltered studio life and went to New York to seek serious roles on live television. Among the memorable shows she starred in were the original Playhouse 90 productions of "Days of Wine and Roses," co-starring Cliff Robertson and directed by John Frankenheimer, for which she received the first of many Emmy nominations; and "The Ninth Day," also directed by John Frankenheimer. In addition, she starred in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams," with Anthony Perkins; the Studio One production of "The Deaf Heart," directed by Sidney Lumet, for which she received another Emmy nomination; "The Road That Led Afar," which resulted in her third Emmy nomination; "Winterset," a Hallmark production with George C. Scott and Don Murray; "The Changing Ways of Love," directed by Sidney Lumet, with Jason Robards and Rip Torn; "Caesar and Cleopatra," opposite Maurice Evans; and "Something About Lee Wiley," directed by Sidney Pollack.

During this time, she also appeared on the New York stage in "Rosemary" and "The Alligators," two one-act plays by Molly Kazan that were directed by Gerald Freedman. Ms. Laurie starred as well in the 20th anniversary Broadway production of "The Glass Menagerie." She returned to Hollywood to make "Until They Sail" with Paul Newman, the starred with Newman again in the film classic "The Hustler," in a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

After "The Hustler," Ms. Laurie retired from acting for a number of years and lived in Woodstock, New York, where she raised a daughter, Annie. In 1973, John Guare asked her to appear in his new play, "Marco Polo Sings a Solo," and thus she returned to the stage. She played in "The Innocents" in Chicago and in "Biography," the S.N. Behrman comedy, at the Manhattan Theater Club.

In 1976, Ms. Laurie returned to feature films in Brian De Palma's "Carrie," winning her second Academy Award nomination for her performance in that movie. She earned her third Oscar nomination for her work in "Children of a Lesser God." She starred opposite Mel Gibson in the Australian film, "Tim," and won Emmy nominations for portrayals on "The Thorn Birds," "St. Elsewhere" and "The Bunker." She received an Emmy for her performance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, "Promise," with James Garner and James Woods. Among her latest feature film credits are "Appointment With Death," "Tiger Warsaw," with Patrick Swayze and "Dream a Little Dream," with Jason Robards.

Recently, Ms. Laurie has been touring with "The Last Flapper." The one-woman play by William Luce is based on the life and writings of Zelda Fitzgerald and is directed by Charles Nelson Reilly.

Josie Packard now owns and runs the Packard Sawmill. She is locked in a power struggle with her embittered sister-in-law, Catherine Martell, for control of the company's interests. Josie is a determined woman, but her status as an outsider in Twin Peaks makes her vulnerable.

Joan Chen is perhaps best known in the West for her Academy-Award-nominated portrayal of Empress Wan Jung in Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning "The Last Emperor." But she is also a film star phenomenon to millions of people in her native China, where she was dubbed by one writer, "China's Elizabeth Taylor."

Raised in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, Joan was invited as a young girl to attend a two-year training course at the Shanghai Film Studio. She studied with famed actress Zhang Rei Fang and describes her experience there as "a great time for me. Each week we had three days of professional training and three days of political training - to teach us not to pursue personal fame or glory, but to work hard for the cause and do films for the good of the country and the people." Halfway through her classes, at the age of 14, she was selected to make her film debut in "Youth," and became an instant megastar.

Joan's parents, both doctors, insisted she complete her high school education by being tutored at home. After passing her college entrance examination (which only five percent of the applicants ever pass), she was in school a brief ten days before she was offered a role in the film, "Little Flower," for Beijing Studios. An overwhelming success, the film won the 18-year-old star China's equivalent of the Oscar, known as the Golden Rooster, and she was declared in nationwide balloting as the country's best-loved actress. Her first trip out of China, to Japan to promote the film, was an eye-opening exposure to a completely different culture.

Joan completed three more films in her homeland before moving to the United States in 1981. She enrolled with a scholarship at California State University, Northridge, where she majored in film production. Following graduation, she resumed her acting career, playing a wide variety of roles for such television series as "Miami Vice." It was not an easy transition, says Chen: "Americans have a fixed idea of what a beautiful Asian girl looks like - I had to start from zero."

Joan was discovered in the Lorimar parking lot by Dino De Laurentiis, who told her he wanted to make her a star. Ironically, she had previously been turned down for a role in De Laurentiis' "Year of the Dragon." Joan was cast as May May, a foreigner's concubine, in the epic "Tai-Pan," and returned to China to make the mini-series. She returned to China again for "The Last Emperor," a sweeping saga about the last Chinese emperor, in which she co-starred with John Lone and Peter O'Toole. She will next be seen in "Salute to the Juggler," co-starring with Rutger Hauer.

Shelly Johnson works as a waitress in the Double R Diner. The kind of woman who's always attracted to the wrong guy, she married roughneck truck driver Leo Johnson fresh out of high school. She is mortally afraid of Leo.

If anyone is the exact opposite of the character she plays, it's Mädchen Amick. Attractive and self-assured, with an infectious sense of humor, Mädchen was raised in a freewheeling household in Reno, Nevada. The high desert town was the kind of community where people never had to lock their doors, and a great place to grow up. Her mother, a businesswoman, and her father, a widely traveled musician who took his daughter with him on his trips, encouraged Mädchen as a child to follow her own creative inclinations.

Beginning at the age of three, she studied piano for 12 years, as well as learning to play the bass, violin and guitar. She trained in tap, ballet, and jazz and modern dance. Mädchen also started painting in oils while she was still in school, and has sold some of her work.

But most of all, she has always wanted to become an actress. Roberta Fluke, a drama teacher at McQueen High School in Reno, first gave Mädchen the inspiration to make acting her future. At 16, she left home for Los Angeles. She made her screen debut in 1988. She guest-starred on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and has appeared in several commercials. She has also, as she laughingly explains, "played everybody's girlfriend" in music videos with Julio Iglesias, Dweezil Zappa, Rick Astley and others. Mädchen starred in NBC's "Baywatch" in a leading role as a mentally imbalanced young woman obsessed with a handsome lifeguard, and in ABC's "Jury Duty: The Comedy" as a spoiled heiress. Most recently, she was Kyle MacLachlan's girlfriend in the upcoming feature film, "The Boyfriend School," directed by Malcolm Mowbrey with Shelly Long and Steve Guttenberg.

As for her first series regular as Shelly Johnson on "Twin Peaks," Mädchen muses: "All my roles have been like me, someone who's in control. This is the first part I've played where someone else is in charge, which makes it a real acting exploration for me."

The talented teenager has already established a career in Hollywood, something many older actors only aspire to do someday. "All my life I've wanted to be in the arts," she confessed. "It took a long time to prove it to my mother. Once I did that, she gave me all her support." When she's not working in a movie herself, Mädchen and her boyfriend, singer-songwriter David Alexis, go to the movies almost constantly. She loves all animals (in Reno, the family had four dogs, three cats, three hamsters and a bird). She now has her "city dog," a miniature dachshund named Einstein. He's portable and likes to go out to the movies and to restaurants.

The son of a repressive military father, Bobby Briggs is a high school senior with an explosive temper who tends to mix up doing what's right with doing whatever he wants. He was deeply in love with Laura Palmer.

Dana Ashbrook came into acting naturally; he grew up in a theatrical household in San Diego. His father is head of Palomar College's drama department, and his mother is a teacher who still acts in local theater. His two older sisters, Daphne and Taylor, are both actresses working in the film industry.

It was through Daphne that Dana got his first professional break. She urged her agent to come to San Diego to see her brother in a high school production. The agent signed Dana up, and at 18 the young actor made his television debut on an episode of "Cagney & Lacey." Soon after that, he made a guest appearance on "21 Jump Street," on an episode that explored the abortion issue. Within a year, he appeared on the "ABC Afterschool Specials" presentation, "Just a Regular Kid: An AIDS Story," playing a high school class president with a vicious temperament. His film credits include appearances in "Waxwork"; "She's Out of Control," in which he played the boyfriend of Tony Danza's daughter; and "Ghost Dad," as the would-be boyfriend of Bill Cosby's daughter.

In "Twin Peaks," Dana is something else again. He describes his character, Bobby Briggs, as "the football hero in a town where high school football is the big thing, and because of that, he gets away with whatever he wants. He can't stand hypocrisy. You want to stay on his good side."

In his free time, Dana is a nonstop basketball and tennis player. He travels as much as he can and goes off-road biking. He also likes to jam on the harmonica with friends and to sing.

Benjamin Horne is the kingpin of Twin Peaks. He owns the Great Northern Hotel, a department store and several other investment properties. He has great plans for the town's future - and for his own.

Actor, filmmaker and artist Richard Beymer has intertwined multiple careers in his eventful life. He has gone from an acting career, which began when he was 10 years old, to shooting a riveting documentary during the momentous days of the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964, to directing and editing his own prize-winning avant-garde film, "The Interview," to emerging as a prominent cinematographer on a number of independent feature projects.

Born in the Iowa corn country in the small town of Avoca, Beymer moved with his family to Hollywood in the late 1940s. He made his acting debut in 1949 on a local television show, "Fantastic Studios Ink." Throughout his teenage years, he acted sporadically in various films, among them, "Indiscretions of an American Wife" and "So Big," while attending North Hollywood High School. At 19, his acclaimed performance in "The Diary of Anne Frank" won him a long-term contract at 20th Century Fox. He starred in such Fox productions as "Bachelor Flat," "Five Finger Exercise," "Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man," "The Longest Day," and the classic film musical, "West Side Story."

Throughout this period, Richard developed an interest in becoming a filmmaker. In 1964, he went to Mississippi as part of the voter registration drive and made his own film, "A Regular Bouquet," part of which was later used in the PBS series, "Eyes on the Prize," about the civil rights movement. The business of making his own film projects took off, although he continued to act, mostly in television guest starring roles. Richard wrote, directed and shot some educational films for Universal, and began his own feature film, which took six years to complete. Shot in black and white Super 8 and 16mm., and filmed in locales ranging from Big Sur to New York, "Innerview" weaves together images, landscapes, intimate conversations, thoughts and vignettes in a dreamy, surreal collage. Richard also composed his own music for the film, and since then has constantly been creating music pieces, largely on synthesizers.

Beginning in 1974, Beymer has been in heavy demand as a cinematographer and editor on films for television with actors such as Meg Tilly, Judge Reinhold, Joan Chen, Emilio Estevez, and Laura Dern. Among his assignments are "The Soup Man," "Who Loves Amy Tonight?," "Girl on the Edge of Town," "A Step Too Slow," "To Climb a Mountain," "The Trouble with Grandpa," "Leadfoot," "Hang Tight, Willy Bill" and "Clay Feet."

In 1983, he returned to acting, playing a role in the feature film "Cross Country." Shortly after that, he starred as a regular on the ABC series, "Paper Dolls," on which he played a dress company owner with an ex-model as his wife. Some of his other recent credits include guest starring roles on "Murder, She Wrote," "Dallas," "Buck James," "Generation," "Moonlighting" and "The Bronx Zoo."

During whatever time he has off, Richard devotes himself to music. He is a vegetarian and meditates regularly. He is currently putting the finishing touches to a screenplay adaptation for a 35mm. feature he will direct this summer in New York.

Doc Hayward's oldest daughter and a senior in high school, Donna learned early how to nurture others from caring for her wheelchair-bound mother. She tends to get caught up in her emotions. After the death of her best friend, Laura Palmer, she discovers that she is in love with James Hurley.

At the tender age of three, when she was first contemplating her future, Lara Flynn Boyle thought she might like a career as a disco queen. A little later, she considered becoming mayor of Chicago, her hometown. Ironically, it was a learning disability that led the beautiful and vivacious teenager to become an actress.

Ms. Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa, and raised in the Rogers Park and Lincoln Park neighborhoods in Chicago. In grade school, she discovered that she had trouble processing information while reading. (This is a condition known as integration disorder.) She was sent to Loyola University for training in various study methods. In the meantime, as a way of helping herself develop other avenues of expression, Lara began attending the prestigious Piven Theater, an improvisational workshop for young actors. There, she found out just exactly what she wanted to do with her life.

She won a scholarship to the Chicago Academy for the Arts, a small, elite, private high school for the performing arts. She loved the school, and like most of the kids there, would find reasons to stay late for rehearsals or creative jam sessions. She also wrote and acted in several local theater productions.

In 1985, at the age of 15, she auditioned for the role of daughter to the Robert Urich character on ABC's controversial miniseries, "Amerika." Director Donald Wyre thought Ms. Boyle was so perfect for the part that he lowered the character's age in order to cast her. She spent nine months on location in Nebraska and Toronto. Lara Flynn recalls her movie debut with affection: "I suppose everyone always has the fondest memories of their first film. I was treated like a queen. Donald Wyre gave me a diamond pendant for my birthday, and in Nebraska, I got invited to five proms. I was also necking passionately on screen for the first time with a 25-year-old actor."

Ms. Boyle also notes gleefully that she was still a full-time student while working in "Amerika," and as a result flunked her acting and directing classes. She went home to Chicago, took the courses again, and continued with both her school work and acting. She guest starred on the pilot episode of ABC's "Jack and Mike," and on ABC's "Sable." Her feature film credits include roles in "Poltergeist III" and "How I Got into College." She most recently starred as Jennifer Levin in the ABC docudrama, "The Preppie Murder."

Audrey Horne is used to getting her own way. Possessed of a tantalizing sexuality beyond her adolescent years, she still believes in the goodness in people, but has much more fun bringing out the bad in them. She loathes her father, Benjamin Horne.

A captivating, brown-eyed beauty, actress Sherilyn Fenn is perhaps best known for her starring role in the film, "Two Moon Junction," in which she gave a provocative performance as a vulnerable debutante who is corrupted by her passion for an unlikely man.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ms. Fenn had an unconventional childhood. She and her two older sisters and a young half-sister and half-brother spent their growing-up years moving from place to place with their mother, who played keyboards for various rock bands. Sherilyn got used to changing schools and sets of friends. She recalls that "it was a little unsettling always being the 'new girl,' but I developed an instinct for knowing who my friends would be immediately."

At 17, Fenn and her mother moved to Beverly Hills. The teenager decided to pursue an acting career and studied for a year with various teachers. After a brief stint as a Playboy bunny at the Century City (L.A.) Playboy Club, Ms. Fenn appeared in a number of small features, including "Out of Control," "The Wraith," opposite Charlie Sheen, and "Prep School," with Virginia Madsen. She played supporting roles in the television movies, "Silence of the Heart," "Divided We Stand" and "Death of a Sibling," and guest starred on "21 Jump Street."

Doc Hayward has birthed or buried just about everybody in Twin Peaks. At one time or another, both young and old have taken him into their confidence.

An actor, director, playwright, acting teacher and Ph.D., Warren Frost was raised in upstate Vermont until he was 17 years old. He left home to serve in Europe with the U.S. Navy during World War II. On his return, he attended Middlebury College, from which he graduated with a B.A. degree. He immediately headed for the bright lights of Broadway, and in 1949, married the woman who has been his wife for over 40 years, Virginia. Mr. Frost was hired by NBC as stage manager on the legendary, live "Philco TV Playhouse," a job in which he remained for three years. When his acting career began to burgeon, he moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in numerous television shows and programs in a wide range of roles.

After a decade in Hollywood, Mr. Frost took his family to Minneapolis so that he could get back into the theater. Once there, he earned a doctorate in theater arts from the University of Minnesota. He performed all over the country, in regional theaters from Minnesota to Texas to Florida. He also had a busy career as a director and ran a theater in nearby St. Paul. At the end of the '70s, Mr. Frost returned full time to acting, which he has since been doing almost constantly. A trip to Manhattan to prepare for a one-man show about Eugene O'Neill led to his relocating once again to New York, and to a recurring role on the daytime series, "As the World Turns." Mr. Frost has also guest starred on "Tattinger's," "Beauty and the Beast," the CBS movie, "So Proudly We Hail," and ABC's "Capital News." "Twin Peaks" marks his debut as a series regular. Among his feature film credits are appearances in "Slaughterhouse Five" and "That Was Then! This Is Now."

A published playwright with four plays to his credits, Mr. Frost recently completed writing his first novel. He loves to cook and is an avid tennis player. He is waiting to compete in the over-75 division at Wimbledon, and holds out strong prospects of winning the championship.

Norma Jennings owns the Double R Diner, and through sheer hard work, has made it a success. She is a strong woman, though life has dealt her an unfair hand: Her ne'er-do-well husband, Hank, is in jail, and the man she really loves, Ed Hurley, is married to another.

For five years, 1968-73, Peggy Lipton starred as Julie Barnes, one of a trio of television's hippest underground cops, on the hit series, "The Mod Squad." She won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy four times. Beautiful and fragile, she stole everybody's heart. Then, just as suddenly as she had arrived, Peggy Lipton was gone.

But just as always, Ms. Lipton knew exactly where she was going. The daughter of a corporate lawyer and an artist mother, with whom she was very close, Lipton was born in New York and grew up on Long Island. She realized early that she wanted to escape the stifling suburban life. She also had a nervous stutter, which sometimes got so bad that she couldn't pronounce her own name. But her older brother Robert's choice of an acting career gave her an idea.

At the age of 15 1/2, Peggy was signed on as a model by the celebrated Eileen Ford. She commuted from her home on Long Island, working modeling assignments, attending a private school, and studying with acting teacher Herbert Berghof.

Ms. Lipton moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was 17. Almost immediately, the ultracool blonde actress went under contract to Universal. The head of talent there, Monique James, became a mentor to Peggy and helped launch her career.

Peggy took speech lessons and appeared on numerous TV shows and specials, on which she both acted and sang. One of her feature roles was in a Western for Paramount, "Blue," with Terence Stamp; her brother was also featured in that movie. The she rocketed to fame on ABC's "The Mod Squad." In that series' final year, Peggy met her future husband, record producer Quincy Jones. They were married in 1974.

Peggy left acting to raise a family and have a home life. She had two daughters, now in their teens, and except for a reunion TV movie in 1979, "The Return of the Mod Squad," she didn't step before the camera again for the duration of her marriage. Then she and James divorced. Ms. Lipton made the decision to return to the screen, with the support and encouragement of her acting coach, Sandra Seacat. Her return performance was in Franc Roddam's "War Party," in which she played a reporter. She next starred as a district attorney on ABC's television movie, "Addicted to His Love," and appears in the upcoming features, "Kinjite," with Charles Bronson, and "Fatal Charm."

While away from work, Peggy loves to spend time with her daughters. The three are always accompanied by the family's two golden retrievers, Shanti and Maha, who were a gift from Oprah Winfrey. Peggy still studies acting, takes dance lessons, does yoga and meditates.

A high school senior, James Hurley has a reputation as something of a loner. He has a touch of the poet in him. James will take whatever risks there are to know the truth, especially for the sake of the people he loves, like Donna Hayward and the dead Laura.

James Marshall has the kind of intensity and screen magnetism that some compare with the qualities of James Dean. At the moment, though, he's perfectly willing just to work on getting his acting career established and spend some spare time tinkering with his new Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Born in Queens, New York, Marshall and his younger sister, a folk-rock musician, were brought up in Bergen County, New Jersey. His father is a film producer ("Da," "Judgment in Berlin") and his mother is a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette. James describes himself as a kid who spent most of his spare time alone in his room, playing his guitar. At the age of 13, he started designing and painting portraits on the back of denim jackets for his friends. Most of the portraits were likenesses of rock and movie stars, such as the first one he ever made: A picture of his idol, Jimi Hendrix.

When James was 15, he moved with his family to the Los Angeles area, where he attended Santa Monica High School. He was always intent on becoming an actor, and after earning his diploma, immediately began attending acting classes. At first, he led the classic life of a struggling young tyro, sleeping nights in the teacher's studio and working minimum wage day jobs between auditions.

In 1985, Marshall made his professional debut on "Murder, She Wrote." This was followed by leading roles on two CBS "Schoolbreak Specials": "No Means No," a story about date rape; and "My Past Is My Own," a drama about racism starring Whoopi Goldberg. He also guest starred on two episodes of ABC's "China Beach," playing a severely wounded infantryman. He will soon be seen in his first feature film, "Cadence," directed by Martin Sheen. In this military prison drama set during the Vietnam era, Marshall stars as a sympathetic stockade guard who knows that his black prisoners have been railroaded.

Tall and quietly compelling, Ed Hurley runs the local gas station in Twin Peaks. He's seen his share of the world and has had the kinds of experiences that make him sympathetic to the plight of others. He is deeply divided on the matter of loyalty to his wife, Nadine.

He's barked commands at Clint Eastwood; starred on Broadway - in an award-winning production - as half-man, half-horse; and picked a mean guitar as leader of his own rhythm-and-blues band. You might say Everett McGill has always been willing to go out on the edge.

McGill never expected to become on actor. Born and raised in a rural community near Kansas City, he describes himself as a kid who tended to get into trouble until a high school teacher turned his life around. The teacher, Jim Shepherd, said he had a big favor to ask: He needed McGill to take over a part in a school production. The ruse worked, and opened a new world for the youngster.

Music, though, came first. McGill formed a hard-driving r & b band, and for the next several years, played guitar and keyboards six hours a night, six nights a week. Eventually, he gave it up to return to acting. After studying at the University of Missouri, he went to London for training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and "saw every attic and cellar production I could see."

Returning to New York, he led the life of a typical struggling young actor and performed in numerous off-off-Broadway productions. Then he won the role of the imaginary half-man, half-horse in the original production of "Equus," in which he played over 500 performances. He also starred in the Broadway productions of "A Texas Trilogy" and "Whose Life Is It, Anyway?"

McGill made his feature film debut in "Union City," with Debbie Harry. His major break came when he was cast as the lead in Jean-Jacques Annaud's modern classic, "Quest For Fire." Then came starring roles in other features: "Dune," which marked his introduction to David Lynch; "Field of Honor," by Dutch filmmaker Henk Bos; "Licence to Kill"; the lead in Monte Hellman's production of Alberto Figueroa's "Iguana"; the role of Clint Eastwood's superior officer in "Heartbreak Ridge"; and the recently completed "Jezebel, It Was You," co-starring Malcolm McDowell. On television, he has guest starred in "Tour of Duty" and "Werewolf," and has co-starred on NBC's "Three on a Match" and "Drug Wars: The Camarena Story."

The kindly, easygoing foreman of the Packard Sawmill, Pete Martell is seemingly dominated by his power-obsessed wife, Catherine. Pete has his own reasons for wanting to thwart her schemes.

Jack Nance's introduction to director David Lynch in 1970 seemed simple enough at first. The young filmmaker was looking for someone to play the lead in a short project for the American Film Institute. It was supposed to take six weeks. Instead, it took five years, and sealed a friendship that has lasted to this day. The film was Lynch's first feature and phenomenal cult hit, "Eraserhead." It also led to a turning point in Nance's life.

Nance created the role of Henry, the strange, tormented central figure in Lynch's nightmare vision. "Henry was a full-blown character before we even cranked a foot of film," said Nance. But what seemed unforgettable to many were the disturbing depths suggested by his performance.

Of Boston-Irish stock, Jack Nance was raised in Dallas. He began his acting career at the Dallas Theater Center, and traveled the country performing in children's theater. He moved to Los Angeles to train and study at the Pasadena Playhouse, but wound up instead in San Francisco, where he spent eight years performing with the prestigious American Conservatory Theater. He later became deeply involved in avant-garde theater, performing in a number of Brecht plays.

Jack starred in the title role in "Tom Paine," a late '60s radical theater production that became a major West Coast hit. Soon after that, he made his screen debut in the critically acclaimed "Bushman," a cinema verite film.

Relocated back in Los Angeles, Nance has had a busy career appearing in unusual and widely praised films that are not always considered mainstream Hollywood. He has acted in three other Lynch films: "Dune," the critically acclaimed "Blue Velvet" and the upcoming "Wild at Heart." Among his other credits are roles in Dennis Hopper's new feature, "Hot Spot" [sic]; Hopper's controversial "Colors"; "Barfly," directed by Barbet Schroeder; "Hammett," directed by Wim Wenders; "City Heat," "Ghoulies," "Johnny Dangerously" and "Kiki's Story." For television, he has guest starred on "Crime Story." His role on "Twin Peaks" is his first as a series regular.

As switchboard operator for the sheriff's department of Twin Peaks, Lucy Moran has her finger on the pulse of the town. It may take her awhile to explain what she means, but Lucy misses nothing. It would be a mistake to underestimate her.

In the course of one season, Kimmy Robertson has created an indelible character, the delightful Lucy Moran, on ABC's "Twin Peaks." Lucy, who holds sway over coffee and doughnuts in the sheriff's office, has won the hearts of viewers everywhere.

The younger daughter of a pharmacist/aerobatic pilot and a special education teacher, Ms. Robertson was born and brought up in Los Angeles. From the age of four, she studied dance, piano and voice. During her high school years, she spent her weekends singing at weddings and funerals all over Southern California. But her real love was ballet, in which she trained for years. She performed and toured with Burch Mann's American Folk Ballet for five years before getting into acting.

Ms. Robertson's screen debut was in the Cannon picture, "The Last American Virgin." It was her first taste of the acting profession and she immediately took to it. She devoted two-and-a-half years to study with the highly regarded Groundlings improvisational theatrical group, and worked with such coaches as Eugene Butler. Her other feature film work includes roles in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Trust Me," and "Bad Manners." Kimmy also has guested on such television series as "Webster," "9 to 5," "Married ... With Children" and "Perfect Strangers." More recently, she was set to co-star with Christina Applegate in the independent feature comedy, "The Real World." "Twin Peaks" marks her first engagement as a series cast regular.

For her latest project, Kimmy gets to fulfill "a dream of mine to be in a cartoon." She was signed by Hanna/Barbera Productions to "voice" one of the major characters on its new, animated, Saturday morning children's show, "Rick Moranis in Gravedale High." Kimmy's distinctive voice will be heard along with those of Jonathan Winters, Shari Belafonte, Tim Curry and Eileen Brennan. Kimmy's role is that of Duzer (Medusa), a punk-rocker ghoul whose hair is arranged in a ponytail of snakes.

In her free time, Kimmy races on every kind of ski - water, jet, and snow. She looks forward to dining out with friends, going to movies, and riding on the backs of Harleys.

Leland Palmer works exclusively for Benjamin Horne as his attorney, a job which often puts him in a moral quandary. He possesses an excellent legal mind, But [sic] his excessive nervous energy makes him prone to temperamental extremes.

Ray Wise has played a lumberjack and a terrifying assassin; the head of a modeling agency and a transvestite; a talk show host on LSD and the King of England. He won the 1983 Obie Award (other recipients have been Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich) for his performance as Hoss in the off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's "The Tooth of Crime." For six years, he reigned as handsome heartthrob Jamie Rollins on the daytime series, "Love of Life." He adores his family, is a born raconteur and plans to live in Ireland some day.

Probably one of the most versatile actors working today, Ray Wise knew where he was going from an early age. The Akron, Ohio, native (he still roots for the OSU football team) developed a passion for acting while in junior high school. He studied drama at Kent State University while appearing in summer stock and community theater productions. Within two weeks of moving to New York, he had a starring role on "Love of Life," while working nights in the theater. He has since appeared in over 90 plays across the country.

In 1978, Ray moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Kass McClaskey, a producer of television commercials. Among his many guest starring television credits are roles on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," ABC's "Moonlighting," "Beauty and the Beast," "Hunter," "Stingray," "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," "Hart to Hart" and "Lou Grant." He starred in recurring roles on "Dallas" (as Blair Sullivan), "Knots Landing," "L.A. Law" and "The Colbys." Among his TV movie credits are roles in "Seduced," with Cybill Shepherd; "Condor" and the acclaimed "The Taking of Flight 847."

Ray has also starred in some celebrated feature films. In the popular cult film, "Swamp Thing," he played a scientist who is transformed into an [sic] heroic monster. He was seen in Paul Schrader's remake of "Cat People"; in Paul Verhoeven's hit thriller, "Robocop," with Peter Weller; and as the father in Disney's "The Journey of Natty Gann." Most recently, he starred in "Race for Glory," a drama about Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and in a Dino De Laurentiis production, "The Rift."

In Ray's life, his family comes first. At home, he is the doting father of two young children: A five-year-old son, Gannon, and a two-and-a-half year old daughter, Kyna. Ray enjoys helping his wife select handcrafted pieces from all over the world for her folk doll collection. Perhaps owing to his half-Romanian heritage, he loves horror stories. He owns an original 1897 edition of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," and would like to make a film someday that is more faithful to the book than the Lugosi version was. Every New Year, he makes a dish of pork-stuffed cabbage rolls passed down from the Romanian side of the family. He regularly plays catcher on a fast-pitch softball team in Burbank, California, works out with weights and a mini-trampoline, and can, upon provocation, drop to the ground and do 50 push-ups. He and his wife have formed a fond attachment to a village in the west of Ireland, and they occasionally call up the local pub there to see how everyone's getting along.

Dr. Jacoby is the town's only practicing psychiatrist, a wildly eccentric character with a sense of humor bordering on the bizarre. It's possible that he knows too many secrets.

A native of Hollywood, Russ Tamblyn has enjoyed a prolific acting career that has spawned four decades of motion pictures, television and theater. In 1945, when Tamblyn was 10 years old, he was discovered by Lloyd Bridges for the play, "Stone Jungle." That launched him into a life in the entertainment business which has seen him grow from a child star into a widely acknowledged screen presence.

Tamblyn made his film debut playing a supporting role in "The Boy With Green Hair." He caught the attention of legendary producer Cecil B. DeMille, who immediately cast him as young Saul in the epic, "Samson and Delilah." Many other movie parts followed, including the title role in "The Kid From Cleveland."

His riveting performance in Warner Brothers' "Retreat Hell" won him a long-term contract with MGM Studios. There, he starred in the classic musical, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," which brought him world-wide fame. He rose to stardom when he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the film, "Peyton Place." He subsequently starred in "Tom Thumb," "Don't Go Near the Water," "High School Confidential," "The Long Ships," "The Haunting," "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," and eventually, Robert Wise's triumphant film version of the musical, "West Side Story."

In 1964, searching for deeper self-expression, Tamblyn turned his attention to the fine arts. His art work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and at the L.A. Institute of Contemporary Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Samples of his art and poetry can also be found in many international arts publications.

Russ returns to the stage as often as he can. He has starred in productions of "Bye Bye Birdie," with Chita Rivera, "Cabaret," "George M.," "Follies" and "The Music Man." In the early '80s, he co-starred in, co-wrote and choreographed the Rock Noir movie, "Human Highway," in collaboration with longtime friends Neil Young, Dean Stockwell and Dennis Hopper.

Tamblyn has been acting on television for as long as he can remember. He started by dancing on "The Ed Sullivan Show," and was seen on the final episode of the series, "Fame," in a role written especially for him. Some of his other TV credits are roles in "Quantum Leap," "Rags to Riches," "Grizzly Adams," "Love, American Style," "Gunsmoke" and "The Greatest Show on Earth."

Deputy Andy seems to possess an almost childlike innocence. The more serious the case, the more devoted he becomes to protecting and helping Truman and Cooper.

Tall, lanky and handsome, Harry Goaz figures he owes his role as Deputy Andy Brennan on "Twin Peaks" to a chance meeting with director David Lynch and to their mutual love of cars.

Goaz was born and brought up in a rural Texas community. He always knew he was going to become an actor. "From the time I was two years old, standing on a picnic table with a sheet wrapped around me," he recalls in a soft drawl, "it just never occurred to me to do anything else." As kids, he and his younger sister would go playing in the local graveyard. They pretended that the dead were all people they knew, and argued about who knew the most. Later on, he performed in some high school stage productions.

Harry attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied lithography and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. After graduating, he won a scholarship from Kodak to study for two years with photographer Jean Meizure in Norman, Oklahoma. Goaz then went to Europe for a year. Spending most of his time in Rome, he fulfilled a childhood fantasy that he was, at heart, Italian.

Deciding it was time to get into acting as a career, Harry traveled to Los Angeles, where he studied at The Loft with renowned acting coach Bill Traylor, whom in considers a major influence on his life. During this period, Harry was supporting himself working as a driver. One day, he just happened to pick up director David Lynch, who was on his way to a memorial tribute for singer Roy Orbison. The two struck up a conversation, initially about cars, and the next thing he knew, Harry was offered a part on "Twin Peaks." The series marks his professional debut.

In his free time, Goaz is deeply immersed in art, and is busy applying photo emulsions to wood sculptures. He enjoys reading, especially fiction and the short stories of Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Paul Bowles. He travels as often as possible and knows just about anything there is to know about cars.

The Hawk knows things. A watcher and a warrior, he understands the forces of good and evil moving beneath the surface in Twin Peaks.

An actor and an award-winning, internationally known American Indian artist, Michael Horse was born and raised near Tucson, Arizona. Of Zuni, Mescalero Apache, and Yaqui descent, with some Swedish and Hispanic extraction for good measure, he grew up in a traditional household where he was taught to know and honor his people's religion, languages and culture. When he was 10, he moved with his family to the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. His mother and aunts were widely known as potters and painters, so at an early age Horse began designing and making silver jewelry. It is a craft he has been perfecting all his life. He completed his studies at the American Indian Art Institute in Santa Fe. Today, he creates both contemporary and traditional pieces from gold and silver - some inlaid with precious gems - that are shown in galleries and museums all around the country and abroad.

For several years, Michael also traveled and worked all over the West. He was a roustabout in the Texas oil fields, a wrangler, a cowboy and rodeo rider, and a premier fiddle player with bluegrass and country-music bands. A Vietnam veteran, he served a tour as a gunner in the Mekong Delta and was wounded twice. Eventually, he returned to the Los Angeles area to concentrate full-time on his career as a silver artisan.

Horse became an actor almost by chance. He was renting his studio space from an agent, who offered him the role of Tonto in the feature film, "The Lone Ranger." He enjoyed his screen debut enough to take up acting studies with a number of coaches, noteworthy among them: Joan Darling. Horse has appeared in several movies, most of them of the action-adventure variety. He is particularly fond of a musical comedy he appeared in, called "Rented Lips," in which he played a character named Bobby Leaping Mouse. "Most people don't realize that American Indians have an outrageous sense of humor," Michael remarks. "I had a great time playing someone who showed that side."

Michael has guest starred on "Airwolf," "Knight Rider," "Paradise," and "Hollywood Beat." He recently co-starred with Glenn Ford in the upcoming "The Law at Randado" for the Turner Network. He is particularly pleased about his latest work, a role in "The Legend of Seeks to Hunt Great," one in a series of television films for children that recount Indian myths and lore.

Children, in fact, are an important part of Michael's life. When he is not working, he is a volunteer counselor for inner-city children, especially Indian teenagers. "Los Angeles has the largest urban Indian population in the country," explains Michael. "I want to help the kids feel proud of who they are and look to the future."

Madeleine Ferguson bears a shocking resemblance to her murdered cousin, Laura Palmer, with whom she was secretly obsessed. Madeleine has almost come to replace Laura - in more ways than one.

Husky-voiced Sheryl Lee vividly recalls her first meeting with director David Lynch. Auditioning in Seattle for the role of the dead Laura Palmer, Sheryl was asked: "How do you feel about being wrapped in plastic in the cold?" Fate took a hand. Not only did she win the part, but she was also cast in another role, that of Madeleine Ferguson. One way or another, Ms. Lee belonged in "Twin Peaks."

Sheryl was brought up in Boulder, Colorado, in a creative household, her mother being an artist, her father an architect and her older sister a professional pianist. Sheryl wanted to become a dancer, and spent endless hours training in modern and jazz dance. But knee injuries forced her to look around for other diversions. She tried out for a school play, and knew instantly that she had found what she wanted to do in life.

After graduation from Fairview High School, Ms. Lee attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California, and summer programs at the North Carolina School of the Arts and the National Conservatory Theater in Denver. She briefly attended Colorado University, then moved to Seattle to look for stage work. She appeared in several plays, worked in some educational videos and performed in professional acting workshops.

Sheryl made her screen debut in "Twin Peaks," which ultimately led to her relocation in Los Angeles. She has recently acted in two feature films, David Lynch's "Wild at Heart," in which she plays a good witch, and "I Love You to Death," playing one of the many love interests of Kevin Kline's character.

In her free time, Sheryl reads, favoring biographies and historical fiction; continues to dance as much as possible and is learning how to sculpt in clay. She loves animals and likes hiking and the outdoors. She also enjoys working as a volunteer with young children.

Ms. Lee makes her home in Los Angeles with her cat, Ochay, named for a little boy acrobat she met on Venice Beach.

THE PRODUCTION

MARK FROST - Executive Producer, Creator, Writer, Director

Mark Frost served for three years as writer, story editor and executive story editor on the popular hit series, "Hill Street Blues," for which he won a Writers Guild Award and an Emmy nomination.

Frost grew up in his native New York and in Minneapolis and L.A., then studied acting, directing and playwriting at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh. He left college in his junior year to work with Steven Bochco at Universal Pictures, where he wrote episodes of "Sunshine" and "The Six Million Dollar Man." He then returned to Minneapolis, where he became literary associate at the prestigious Guthrie Theater and playwright-in-residence at the Midwestern Playwright's Lab. During this time, his play, "The Nuclear Family," was produced at Chicago's St. Nicholas Theater, and another play, "Heart Trouble," was staged by Mark Medoff's workshop at New Mexico State University.

Frost additionally became involved in making television documentaries for the Public Broadcasting System. He wrote, produced and directed the widely praised "The Road Back," which was about a rehabilitation program for young felons. Following his stint on "Hill Street Blues," he wrote and served as associate producer of his first feature, "The Believers," a bone-chilling thriller about voodoo cults in modern New York, which was directed by John Schlesinger and released in 1987. He is currently preparing to make his feature film directing debut on "Storyville."

Academy Award nominee David Lynch is acclaimed as one of the cinema's most exciting and visionary directors for his films, "Eraserhead," "The Elephant Man," "Dune" and "Blue Velvet."

Born in Missoula, Montana, Lynch moved several times while growing up, until his family settled in Alexander, Virginia. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to study painting and sculpture. A benefactor funded Lynch to create an experimental short film, "The Alphabet," which led to a grant from the American Film Institute. Ultimately, he was accepted into the AFI's Center of Advanced Film Studies. It took him five years, from 1971 to 1976, to complete his first feature, "Eraserhead," while he supported himself with a newspaper delivery route. Now a cult classic, "Eraserhead" was shown in Los Angeles at Filmex and launched Lynch's career.

After some time out, Lynch joined the screenwriting team of "The Elephant Man" and was eventually chosen by Mel Brooks to direct it. Brooks' new company, Brooksfilm, produced it. It was a success. Lynch turned his attention to writing the screenplay for "Blue Velvet." Then, producer Dino De Laurentiis called and offered him the opportunity to write and direct the screen adaptation of "Dune," the science fiction best-seller. The enormously complex production was filmed in Mexico City and took over a year to complete. It also resulted in the introduction of Lynch to actor Kyle MacLachlan, who starred in Lynch's next feature, the controversial but widely praised "Blue Velvet," a dark, sensuous mystery set in a small American town.

Born and raised in the "Twin Peaks" country of Spokane, Washington, Harley Peyton attended Harvard and Stanford Universities. He worked as a rock music director at the campus radio stations of both colleges, with every intention of becoming a radio disc jockey in real life after graduating. But Peyton got into doing movie reviews on the radio, and when a mentor at Harvard left to produce a film, something connected. Peyton transferred to Stanford to study film and earned a B.A. degree in communication arts. To this day, he is officially on leave from Harvard.

After the usual part-time jobs, Peyton entered the graduate program at the California Institute of the Arts. From there, he segued into a successful stint as a script reader. He worked freelance for several production companies. Eventually, he sold his own screenplay, which got him an agent. Within two months, he was writing a film script for Kirk Douglas, with Douglas' son, Peter, as producer. For the next two years, he scripted for various studios, working mostly on book adaptations. Out of this period came his screenplay for the feature film, "Less Than Zero." In addition, he has written two television pilots. He presently is producer/writer on "Twin Peaks."

Robert Engels was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Northern States Power Company, and his mother was the first woman architect to graduate from the University of Minnesota. Intending to become an actor, Engels earned a master of fine arts degree in theater from the University of Minnesota. He won the prestigious Bush Fellowship, which enables him to continue his acting training at Minneapolis' renowned Guthrie Theater. There, he trod the boards for two years, performing in classical and modern stage productions, then moved to New York.

For the next six years, Engels appeared in over 200 commercials. He also played recurring roles on two daytime soaps, "The Edge of Night" and "Another World." "It turned out to be great preparation for writing 'Twin Peaks,'" he notes. At about the same time, he began directing plays off-Broadway. He also directed one memorable production on Broadway, called "Tykes." He recalls, "It came close to being the first Broadway play ever to close at intermission."

Nevertheless, he turned to full-time work as a director, and in 1980 was appointed Associate Artistic Director of The Cricket Theater, a regional theater in Minneapolis. During his three-year association with The Cricket, Engels also continues to work in New York and Los Angeles. In 1983, at the Los Angeles Public Theater, he directed the popular and critical hit, "The Basement Tapes," which to that date was that organization's most successful production.

Engels sold a screenplay and relocated in Los Angeles, where he found himself in demand as a writer. He wrote documentaries for HBO and Showtime, including Michael Jackson's "The Legend." Most recently, he was story editor on the CBS series, "Wiseguy."

Angelo Badalamenti, composer of the haunting music for "Twin Peaks," has created a wealth of scores for productions ranging from David Lynch's feature film, "Blue Velvet," to the Chevy Chase madcap movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

His songs have been recorded and released internationally by many artists, among them Julee Cruise, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Shirley Bassey, Melba Moore, Patti Austin and "The Pet Shop Boys." He also has arranged and orchestrated music for such performers as Liza Minnelli.

The recipient of eight ASCAP awards, Mr. Badalamenti is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., as well as the Manhattan School of Music. He holds master's degrees in composition, French horn and piano.

The composer began a continuing professional association with David Lynch, co-creator of "Twin Peaks," when he wrote the music for "Blue Velvet" in 1986. Mr. Badalamenti then went on to compose the score for the David Lynch film, "Wild at Heart." He also composed and produced - with Mr. Lynch as co-producer and lyricist - music for the Julee Cruise album, "Floating into the Night," and co-wrote and co-produced with Mr. Lynch the Brooklyn Academy of Music theatrical production of "Industrial Symphony No. 1."

A New Jerseyian, Mr. Badalamenti works at his own studio in Manhattan. He has written the scores for 12 feature films, among them Paul Schrader's "The Comfort of Strangers," "Wait Until Spring, Bandini" starring Faye Dunaway, "Tough Guys Don't Dance" directed by Norman Mailer, "Weeds" with Nick Nolte, and Joel Schumacher's "Cousins." His projects for television include the NBC hour-long musical, "It's a Brand New World."

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