Quotes

My nature was one that I didn't think I'd be happy doing something that was dispassionate or routine. I didn't know if it came to me in a dream, but whenever the decision was made, it was total and the obsession was absolute. - from the Lenny Von Dohlen interview in American Premiere, May 1992

I love working with the dedicated people at this theater. They are pursuing this for truth and beauty, not just as a springboard to the next job. Before I decided to be an actor, I wanted to be a jockey, but then I realized I wanted to be more than a Texan cowboy. - Von Dohlen, interviewed by Travis Michael Holder, June 25th, 2004

The one thing I was most desperate to avoid, when I got into movies, was becoming typecast.

I wanted to be a jockey when I was growing up. But I grew too tall. I grew to be six-one. It was devastating. Somehow acting came up, and that became my obsession. When that devastation happened with the jockey business I thought, 'Okay, I don't want to be the kind of actor who does just one thing.' So I thought, 'I've got to get rid of my Texas accent.' I saw an ad in the back of Life magazine for John Gielgud doing Shakespeare - 'The Ages of Man'. It came on a record, so I sent away for that. I listened to it until I completely exorcised my Texas accent. I moved to New York, and I got 'Tender Mercies' and I had to get a Texas accent! I had to play a good ol' boy! So I called my brother. I would just talk to him!

Sheryl was so brave. I don't know many actors who could do that. - on co-star Sheryl Lee's performance in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).

I'm reminded of the scene in the movie [Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)] with Sheryl Lee, whom I adore. It goes back to that scene about each character having their own world. It is almost like lava. At that moment in their lives, both Laura and Harold had a lot going on, separately, but when it came together, it was supercharged. Nobody knows how many levels that scene plays on. By the end of it, we were both shaking. Sheryl was really shivering. She had put herself through it. I was worn out, too. When it was over, I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. David [Lynch] was dancing a jig. I thought, 'Wow. That's what it should be about'. He was celebrating the exploration. He acknowledged the moment. And that is very, very rare. - on playing "Harold Smith" in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).

[Stage work] is what brought me to the table to begin with. I had never thought about movies or TV. It just happened by accident. I was in New York doing my plays, and I got 'Tender Mercies'. 'Electric Dreams' was really quick after that.

Harold, in many ways, was an innocent, a cipher who absorbed other people's stories and so lived vicariously. Sensitive in the extreme. He was a nurturer, not just of his prized orchids, but of certain people he trusted. Though there was a deep sadness about him, he provided a lot of light in an otherwise dark world, reminding us all, in a way, to "gather ye rosebuds while you may."

He (Harold Smith) was not capable of doing harm to others. It was not something he could do: He was a nurturer, he was an arbiter of secrets.