American actor Marvin John Nance (December 21, 1943 — December 30, 1996) was best known for his numerous performances at the direction of David Lynch starting with the lead role in Eraserhead (1977). Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Dallas, Texas, he began acting in college and dropped out of school to work professionally at the Dallas Theater Center.
Moving to San Francisco, California in 1964 to work at the American Conservatory Theater, he performed there for eight years, getting involved in avant garde and children's theater and traveling around the country. Nance moved to Los Angeles, California during Lynch's fellowship at the American Film Institute in the 1970s, and worked on Eraserhead from 1972 until its completion in 1976. He has been cast in nearly all of Lynch's projects since then, mostly in supporting roles.
Nance struggled with alcoholism. He married actress Catherine Coulson (the Log Lady on Twin Peaks) in 1968 but divorced eight years later. During the filming of Blue Velvet he asked Dennis Hopper to help him quit alcohol, so Hopper took him to Studio 12 where he got sober. There he met his second wife, adult film industry actress Kelly Jean Van Dyke (my ninth cousin, daughter of Jerry Van Dyke), and they married in 1991. She had a more serious problem with alcohol and drugs than Nance, and tragically took her own life later that year. He hit the bottle again after her death and suffered two strokes.
On the morning of December 29, 1996, he provoked a physical assault in the parking lot of a Winchell's Donuts in South Pasadena, California. Nance died the next day of a subdural hematoma as a result of his injuries. His autopsy report showed a blood alcohol level of 0.24% at the time of his death.
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