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Jack Nance, sometimes credited as John Nance, was an American stage and screen actor known for his work in offbeat or avant-garde film and theatre. He is best known for his work with film director David Lynch. He specialised in eccentric supporting roles.
Nance was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1943 and raised in Dallas, Texas. He worked for some time with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
In the 1970s, Nance met David Lynch, who cast him as the lead in his bizarre independent film Eraserhead. Nance's performance as the neurotic, big-haired Henry Spencer is an iconic one in cult film. At the time, Nance was married to the actress Catherine E. Coulson (the future Log Lady in Twin Peaks), but they divorced in 1976.
In his late middle age, Nance grew a small white moustache and was a distinctive presence in many films with his peculiar twisted smile and bug eyes. Nance remained on good terms with Lynch, who cast him in nearly all of his projects:
Nance died in Pasadena, California in 1996 in a tragically Lynchian manner. He was involved in a brawl outside a donut shop, in which he apparently received head injuries, which are believed to have been the cause of his death two days later.
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