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This one really hurts. A mysterious and deeply talented man until the very end.

What was his last scene in Twin Peaks?

swo17 wrote:What was his last scene in Twin Peaks?

An immensely beautiful one:

He asked Kriscol – a resident of the trailer park – about his income, disliking his need to donate blood in order to make ends meet. Carl gave him $50 and told him not to pay rent for the month.

Every scene of his in that season was profoundly touching.

Yeah, basically any one of them would have been a good one to go out on.

You've reminded me about his appearance in the funniest scene in Inland Empire! I love all of his work with David Lynch. Even Wild At Heart, which I find a bit too concerned with 'surfaces' and superficially flippant at times, has its most powerfully felt moment of emotion in the doomed infatuation of Harry Dean Stanton's investigator with Diane Ladd's 'wicked stepmother', that ends up killing him.

There's so many excellent roles, and I haven't even really begun to explore his 1970s work that much (in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, Cockfighter, Dillinger, Farewell My Lovely, The Missouri Breaks, Straight Time). But (beyond Alien of course!) I'll always be grateful for his role as a member of the support group of hopeful survivors brought together only to be heartbreakingly decimated in the final run for freedom in Escape From New York. And of course for his faux-blind preacher figure in Wise Blood!

Not sure I've had an actor bring me to tears in such a very small amount of screen time as Stanton does in The Straight Story. I start crying just thinking about it.

I've never had any particular desire to meet any of the film people I love, but he was an exception. I still haven't seen Partly Fiction, but love the soundtrack album. It's very loose and gives the feeling of just hanging out at someone's house while they're having a drink & casually playing some music.

I've watched the climatic scene from Paris, Texas a few times tonight.

His silent expression in the FWWM reaction shot to the old lady in the trailer park is one of the most harrowing moments I've ever seen, film or otherwise.

"I've already gone places. I just want to stay around."

mfunk9786 wrote:

swo17 wrote:What was his last scene in Twin Peaks?

An immensely beautiful one:

He asked Kriscol – a resident of the trailer park – about his income, disliking his need to donate blood in order to make ends meet. Carl gave him $50 and told him not to pay rent for the month.

He had one scene after this with Cyril Pons (Mark Frost's character) after Cyril found Steven and Gersten in the woods; Carl Rodd (Stanton) then looks at their trailer with the broken window.

teddyleevin wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:

swo17 wrote:What was his last scene in Twin Peaks?

An immensely beautiful one:

He asked Kriscol – a resident of the trailer park – about his income, disliking his need to donate blood in order to make ends meet. Carl gave him $50 and told him not to pay rent for the month.

He had one scene after this with Cyril Pons (Mark Frost's character) after Cyril found Steven and Gersten in the woods; Carl Rodd (Stanton) then looks at their trailer with the broken window.

I do recall that but wouldn’t necessarily elevate it to “his last scene in Twin Peaks” - he’s there and he serves a function, but it isn’t in any way his scene.

dadaistnun wrote:I've never had any particular desire to meet any of the film people I love, but he was an exception.

Interesting you should say this...back in July, after Harry Dean Stanton appeared in Twin Peaks Season 3 for the first time, I got the urge to write to him and tell him how much his performances have meant to me as an amateur filmmaker. I haven't written fan mail in a long time, but I decided to make an exception in this case.

I mentioned that I found Paris, Texas especially moving and tremendously helpful in working on a nearly-wordless short film. Whenever I needed a reference, or a way to explain something to an actor, I could point to his performance as Travis in those first forty-odd minutes, and everything became clear. I thanked him for his help and included my Criterion copy of Paris, Texas for him to sign if he got the chance. Strange to think it may be sitting in his house now.

He was one of the all-time greats. I was really looking forward to seeing him star in Lucky soon - going to be very poignant now.

EDIT: Forgot to mention his incredible singing voice. Check out his performance of "All I Have to Do is Dream" with Art Garfunkel.

I'm glad he lived a long and full life at least.

Paris, Texas is one of my favorite films as well. Is that his only real lead role, where he's the star of the film?

I should re-watch Straight Time, I remember HDS having a very nice performance in that. I believe he played guitar and sang in one scene, just like Lynch had him do in the latest Twin Peaks.

oh yeah wrote:I'm glad he lived a long and full life at least.

Paris, Texas is one of my favorite films as well. Is that his only real lead role, where he's the star of the film?

He filmed a movie before he passed called Lucky where he plays the lead, apparently opposite David Lynch.

UFOria and Betrand Tavernier's Death Watch are two films of his that are must-sees. The former is a really quirky, unpredictable comedy produced by Universal that was withheld from distribution for a number of years, and still hasn't had an official DVD release.

oh yeah wrote:I should re-watch Straight Time, I remember HDS having a very nice performance in that. I believe he played guitar and sang in one scene, just like Lynch had him do in the latest Twin Peaks.

After watching both together recently (Straight Time is still on Filmstruck I believe) I wondered if it was the same guitar.

It's worth checking out this 2015 episode from the webseries No Small Parts that covers Stanton's life and career. Lots of great clips.

R.I.P., Repo Man!