Harry Dean Stanton

American actor, musician, and singer whose career spanned over 60 years. An enduringly popular character actor, Harry Dean Stanton specialized in playing the lost, the weird and societys outcasts. His lean and weathered look, with a prominent nose, hollow cheeks and expressive eyes was first seen in bit parts in 1950. He made his feature film debut in "The Wrong Man" (1956), and through the rest of the 50s and the 60s he played small parts in numerous films, mostly in westerns, war movies and action guy-flicks. Raised near Lexington, Kentucky, he served with the Navy at Okinawa, Japan, during WWII before taking up drama at the University of Kentucky. Moving to Los Angeles, he studied and performed at the Pasadena Playhouse. In his early films, he billed himself as simply Harry Stanton but after 1971, he was credited in films and on TV as Dean Stanton so as to avoid any confusion with character actor Harry Stanton, with whom he appeared in a 1969 episode of "Petticoat Junction." In the 70s he appeared in several cult movies, including "Billy the Kid" (1973) and "Rancho Deluxe" (1975). By the 80s, Stanton had become a supporting actor and was getting larger and increasingly off-beat roles in such films as "Ridley Scotts Alien" (1979), "The Black Marble" (1980) and most notably, "Repo Man" (1984) as the fellow who teaches Emilio Estevez to take back cars. His breakthrough role was that of a drifter, as the lead actor in Wim Wenders "Paris, Texas" (1983). Articulate and highly intelligent, Stanton also played more mainstream roles such as Molly Ringwalds over-distracted father in "Pretty in Pink" (1986). He occasionally took leading roles in independent films and when not acting, showed another side of himself as an excellent singer and guitarist. He fronted "The Harry Dean Stanton Band," appearing regularly in the Los Angeles area with a mix of jazz, pop, and tex-mex. On 20 January 1996, he was tied up and pistol-whipped at his home in Los Angeles after a robbery. The thieves then took off in the actors’ car, but were soon apprehended after the car was traced by a tracking device. Stanton suffered only minor injuries. From 2006 to 2010 he played the corrupt polygamist Roman Grant in the TV drama series "Big Love." In 2017, he was featured in the Showtime limited series "Twin Peaks: The Return," a continuation of David Lynchs 1990-1992 cult television series. He reprised his role as Carl Rodd from "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me." Stanton never married. He died on 15 September 2017 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 91. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less