“Twin Peaks” star Kyle MacLachlan pays tribute to late creator David Lynch: 'The world has lost a remarkable artist'

Kyle MacLachlan has released a lengthy tribute to his career-long collaborator and friend, David Lynch, who died Thursday at 78.

"Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie," MacLachlan began in a post to his Instagram. "He clearly saw something in me that even I didn't recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision."

MacLachlan continued, "What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to. Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I'd ever met."

MacLachlan had only appeared in a single film as an extra and participated in community theater productions before he was discovered by Lynch and cast as the star of his 1984 adaptation of Dune. The actor told The A.V. Club he was "in Seattle, working in the theater, and I'd been out of school for less than a year," when he got the casting call for Dune.

He described the call in a 2015 interview as "a completely random act of the unknown," faciliated by the casting agent Elisabeth Leustig, who recommended the unknown actor to Lynch. "They brought me to LA and I met and I read... Then they took me to Mexico City and I met and I read, and within a few weeks, the deal was done. I was Paul."

Related: David Lynch's best movies and TV shows, ranked

"While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I've lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own," MacLachlan continued in his tribute. "I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh."

MacLachlan shared that Lynch's "love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other. I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he's gone."

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Lynch and MacLachlan would collaborate on a total of five projects over the course of the next forty years. Blue Velvet followed Dune, and then came Twin Peaks, the groundbreaking, generation-defining mystery series in which MacLachlan starred as the pure-hearted detective Dale Cooper.

Twin Peaks originally ran for two seasons, from 1990-1991 on ABC, but Lynch delved into the context behind the inciting incident for the series - the death of Sheryl Lee's Laura Palmer - in the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. MacLachlan also appears in that film, and in the magesterial, much-lauded third season of the show, Twin Peaks: The Return, which premiered in 2017.

Related: Kyle MacLachlan shares favorite movie lists for his Sex and the City and Twin Peaks characters

Other Twin Peaks alum have shared tributes to the late filmmaking giant, including Mark Frost, who co-created, wrote, and produced the series with Lynch. "Thanks to all for your kind remembrances on this awful day," he wrote on Bluesky. "Words will come later. Only feelings at the moment. Mourn and remember him but don't forget to celebrate too. We won't see his like again. The man from another place has gone home. "

Mädchen Amick, who played Double R Diner waitress Shelly in both the original series and The Return, also paid tribute to Lynch on Instagram.

"David Lynch was my mentor. How lucky was I? He was also my dear friend," Amick wrote. "Always there for a random check-in, or life-changing advice. He was my north star. He watched me grow up. He watched me become a mother. He cheered me on when I stepped into the director’s chair."

When Lynch cast himself in Twin Peaks season 2 as Cooper's FBI boss Gordon Cole, one of his primary character traits was being attracted to Shelly; they even shared an on-screen kiss. "I felt so honored to be the one he kissed!" Amick shared in Kristine McKenna's 2018 Lynch biography Room to Dream. "All the girls were a little jealous, and it became a thing like, 'oh, teacher's pet.'"

Russ Tamblyn, who played the town psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, wrote on Instagram, "We lost a Giant today in the passing of my friend, David Lynch... As a director he was the most intuitive and creative of all, and his art permeated every facet of his work. He was masterful and mysterious. He changed the landscape of cinema, and also, my life."

Related: David Lynch announces album with Twin Peaks actress: a look back on some of his wildest non-directing projects

Alicia Witt, who like MacLachlan was discovered by Lynch after being cast in Dune at the age of seven, also appeared in Twin Peaks as Gersten Hayward, the sister of Lara Flynn Boyle's Donna. She wrote on Instagram, "David Lynch also showed me who I was. On a core level. An actor. A channeler. How would I ever have know such things existed as a possibility if not for him?"

Tributes have also poured in from Billy Zane ("I owe so much to David Lynch"), James Marshall ("Rest easy and peaceful, David"), Michael Horse ("He was my friend"), and Ian Buchanan ("A very sad day. Dear David"). In closing his own tribute, MacLachlan summed up how everyone who was touched by his work feels in the wake of his loss: "David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything."

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