Thursday, October 1, 2015

Catherine Coulson R.I.P.

Catherine Coulson, best known for playing the Log Lady on the cult classic TV show Twin Peaks, died on September 28 2015 at the age of 71. The cause was cancer.

Catherine Coulson was born Elmhurst, Illinois on October 22, 1943. She grew up in Southern California. Her mother, Elizabeth (née Fellegi) was a ballerina. Her father, Rodney, was a television producer and public relations executive. Miss Coulson graduated from Scripps College with a bachelor's degree and received a master's degree from  San Francisco State University. She was teaching an acting workshop at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California when she met director David Lynch, with whom she would frequently work.

She starred in Mr. Lynch's short "The Amputee" (1974). She served as assistant camera on The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), David Lynch's debut feature film Erasehead (1977), Moonshine County Express (1977), Opening Night (1977), Starhops (1978), The Toolbox Murders (1978), Youngblood (1978), and A Force of One (1979).

In the Eighties Catherine Coulson served as assistant camera or a camera operator on Modern Romance (1981), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate (1986), and Cold Dog Soup (1990). She acted in the film Trick or Treats (1982).

In the Nineties Miss Coulson was cast as the mysterious Log Lady on Twin Peaks. The Log Lady was a character who always carried a small log with her, through which she appeared to be able to communicate with some supernatural world. She reprised her role as the Log Lady in the feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) . Miss Coulson also appeared in the films Femme Fatale (1991), Another You (1991), and The Secret Life of Houses (1994). She served as assistant camera on Night on Earth (1991) and Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann (1992).

In the Naughts she appeared in the film Calvin Marshall (2009) and in an episode of Psych as a variation on her character of the Log Lady. In the Teens she appeared in the films Walk-In (2012) and Redwood Highway (2013), as well as an episode of Portlandia.

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