PLAYED NASTY VILLAIN WINDOM EARLE ON ‘TWIN PEAKS’
Kenneth Welsh, a prolific Canadian stage and screen actor best known for his portrayal of the murderous, unhinged villain Windom Earle on the hit early-1990s television series “Twin Peaks,” died May 5 at his home in Sanford, Ontario. He was 80.
His longtime agent, Pam Winter, said the cause was cancer.
Welsh appeared in 10 episodes of “Twin Peaks” in its second season, playing the vengeful, maniacal adversary and former FBI partner of the protagonist, Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).
The series, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, follows Cooper as he investigates the murder of the high school student Laura Palmer in the seemingly sleepy town of Twin Peaks, Wash.
Earle featured in some of the darker, more sadistic scenes and storylines in a series that was known for bending genres, mixing horror and surrealism with soapy and sometimes comic elements.
In the years after its cancellation by ABC in 1991 and its cliffhanger ending, “Twin Peaks” developed a cult following and spawned a prequel film, “Fire Walk With Me” (1992), and returned for limited series that premiered on Showtime in 2017. Welsh’s character did not appear in either project.
Welsh thrived playing offkilter characters, such as Larry Loomis, the Sovereign Protector of the Order of the Lynx, a dying fraternal order at the center of “Lodge 49,” a short-lived comedy-drama series seen on AMC in 2018 and 2019.
But in his more than 240 movie and television roles, he ranged widely across genres, including sketch comedy (Amazon’s recent revival of “The Kids in the Hall”), science fiction (“Star Trek: Discovery” in 2020), family fare (“Eloise at the Plaza,” a 2003 Disney TV movie) and historical dramas. Also, he played President Harry S. Truman twice — in the television movies “Hiroshima” (1995) and “Haven” (2001) — and Thomas
Edison in the 1998 TV movie “Edison: The Wizard of Light,” for which he received an Emmy nomination.
His notable film roles included vice president of the United States in Roland Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004), about the onset of an ecological catastrophe, and the father of Katharine Hepburn (played by Cate Blanchett) in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning “The Aviator” (2004).
Welsh won five Canadian Screen Awards, four for his television work and one for his supporting role in the 1995 film “Margaret’s Museum,” a drama set in a coalmining town on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. In 2003, he was named a member of the Order of Canada.
Kenneth Welsh was born March 30, 1942, in Edmonton, Alberta, to Clifford and Lillian (Sawchuk) Welsh. His father worked for the Canadian National Railway for more than 35 years, and his mother worked at a dress shop.
His last stage performance was in Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood” at the Coal Mine Theatre in Toronto in 2021.