Jack Nance

Jack Nance
Marvin John Nance (December 21, 1943 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor. A longtime collaborator of filmmaker David Lynch, Nance portrayed the lead in Lynch's directorial film debut Eraserhead (1977). He continued to work with Lynch throughout his career, including as a series regular on the ABC mystery drama Twin Peaks (1990–1991).
Early life
Nance was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Hoyt and Agnes Nance and was raised in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from South Oak Cliff High School and attended North Texas State University studying journalism. He took up acting at university and quit studying to concentrate on acting, joining the Dallas Theater Center. In 1964, Nance headed to California and worked for some time with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He had success playing the lead role in a play based on the life of Thomas Paine. David Lindemann, the director of Tom Paine, moved to Los Angeles and began a fellowship at the American Film Institute where he suggested Nance (who had also moved to LA) to AFI fellow David Lynch, who cast Nance as the lead in his student film Eraserhead.
Later career
After Eraserhead, he remained on good terms with Lynch, who cast him in nearly all of his projects:
Dune (1984): a small role as the Harkonnen Captain Iakin Nefud.
Blue Velvet (1986): a supporting role as Paul, a friend of Frank Booth (played by Dennis Hopper).
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988): plays Pete, one of the cowboys.
Wild at Heart (1990): a small role as "00 Spool".
Twin Peaks (1990–91): as Pete Martell, the henpecked sawmill gaffer.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992): reprised his role as Pete Martell, but his scenes were deleted and rereleased as The Missing Pieces in 2014.
Lost Highway (1997): a small role as a garage mechanic named Phil (his final acting role).
Twin Peaks (2017): footage featuring Nance from the pilot episode of the original series was used in "Part 17", which was dedicated to Nance.
Hopper, who he worked alongside in Blue Velvet, hired him to appear in Colors (1988).
Nance guest-starred on a 1995 episode of My So-Called Life entitled "Weekend", in which he played an innkeeper. He appeared with actress Mary Woronov in Suicidal Tendencies' 1983 "Institutionalized" music video.
Personal life
Nance married Catherine E. Coulson in 1968. They divorced in 1976.
During Blue Velvet, Nance asked Hopper for help to get him to give up drinking alcohol and Hopper took him to Studio 12 where Nance sobered up. There he met Kelly Jean Van Dyke, the daughter of Jerry Van Dyke and niece of Dick Van Dyke, who worked in the adult film industry under the name Nancee Kelly. They married in May 1991.
Second wife's suicide
Van Dyke died by suicide on November 17, 1991. Nance, who was in Bass Lake, California, filming Meatballs 4 at the time, called his wife to tell her that he was thinking of leaving her due to her drinking and drug-taking and she threatened suicide. He attempted to console her but a lightning storm knocked out the phone line in Bass Lake. Nance and the director, Bobby Logan, found a deputy sheriff who contacted the Los Angeles police department. They broke in and found that she had hanged herself. Nance claimed she was four months pregnant.
Two years after his wife's death, Nance started drinking again. He also had two strokes. He was cast in the film Joyride (1997) but was sent home after one day of filming due to his being drunk.
Death
On December 29, 1996, Nance lunched with friends Leo Bulgarini and Catherine Case. Nance had a visible "crescent-shaped bruise" under his eye; and, when asked about it, he related to them a story about a brawl outside a Winchell's Donuts store that morning after he shouted at two men. He described the incident as, "I guess I got what I deserved." He went home, complaining of a headache.
The injuries he sustained caused a subdural hematoma, resulting in his death the following morning. His body was discovered on the bathroom floor of his South Pasadena, California, apartment by Bulgarini, on December 30, 1996. An autopsy revealed that his blood alcohol level was 0.24% at the time of his death.
Legacy
The song "I Gotta Move" by Frank Black and the Catholics, from their 1997 eponymous debut album, refers to the circumstances of Nance's death, as well as the murder of Peter Ivers, who composed and performed the song "In Heaven, Everything is Fine" from Eraserhead.
A documentary about Nance funded by Lynch, titled I Don't Know Jack, was released in 2002.
Part 17 of Twin Peaks: The Return was dedicated to Nance.
Filmography
Film
Fools (1970) – Hippie
Jump (1971) – Ace
Eraserhead (1977) – Henry Spencer
Breaker! Breaker! (1977) – Burton
Hammett (1982) – Gary Salt
Dune (1984) – Nefud
City Heat (1984) – Aram Strossell, the Bookkeeper
Johnny Dangerously (1984) – Priest
Ghoulies (1985) – Wolfgang
Blue Velvet (1986) – Paul
Barfly (1987) – Detective
Colors (1988) – Officer Samuels
The Blob (1988) – Doctor
Wild at Heart (1990) – 00 Spool
The Hot Spot (1990) – Julian Ward
Whore (1991) – Man Who Helps Liz
Motorama (1991) – Motel Clerk
Meatballs 4 (1992) – Neil Peterson
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) – Pete Martell (scenes deleted)
Love and a .45 (1994) – Justice Thurman
The Demolitionist (1995) – Father McKenzie
Across the Moon (1995) – Old Cowboy
Voodoo (1995) – Lewis
The Secret Agent Club (1996) – Doc
Little Witches (1996) – Father Michael
Lost Highway (1997) – Phil (final film role)
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014) – Pete Martell (deleted scenes from Fire Walk with Me)
Television
Weekend (1984)
Crime Story (1 episode, 1987) – Charlie Green
Tricks of the Trade (1988) – Al
Twin Peaks (27 episodes, 1990–91) – Pete Martell
Another Midnight Run (1994) – Reilly
My So-Called Life (1 episode, 1995) – Warren
Fallen Angels (1 episode, 1995) – Sheriff
Assault on Dome 4 (1996) – Mellow, Dome 4 Oldtimer
Twin Peaks (1 episode, 2017) – Pete Martell (archive footage)
Music videos
"Institutionalized" (Suicidal Tendencies music video, 1983)
References
External links
Jack Nance Eraserhead Interview
1943 births
1996 deaths
American male film actors
American male stage actors
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from Dallas
20th-century American male actors
American male television actors
Van Dyke family
Accidental deaths in California
Deaths from head injury