Marvin John "Jack" Nance (December 21, 1943 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor. A frequent collaborator of filmmaker David Lynch, he starred in Lynch's directorial debut Eraserhead (1977) and continued to work with Lynch throughout his career, including a regular role as Pete Martell on Twin Peaks (1990–1991).
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Early life
Marvin John Nance was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1943, the son of Agnes (née O'Grady) and Neiman Marcus executive Marvin Hoyt Nance. He grew up in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. During childhood Nance was struck by a car, which injured his back. He graduated from South Oak Cliff High School and studied journalism at North Texas State University where he began acting. Nance dropped out of school to pursue acting full-time and joined the Dallas Theater Center.
Career
In 1964, Nance headed for California and worked for some time with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He had success and landed the lead role in a play based on the life of Thomas Paine, which was directed by David Lindemann. He was considered for the role of Benjamin in The Graduate (1967), which went to Dustin Hoffman, and for the role of Perry Smith in In Cold Blood (1967), which went to Robert Blake. He played twin brothers Benny and Tony Rebozo in the Doo Dah Gang, a performance group that staged 1920s-style gang fights at nontraditional venues. When one of his characters died, he spent three days lying in a coffin at the staged wake.
Nance met filmmaker David Lynch in 1972 after an introduction by Lindemann. Lynch was a fellow at the American Film Institute and was creating a 20-minute short film in Beverly Hills with $10,000. Lindemann recommended Nance for the role of Henry Spencer in Eraserhead (1977), which was filmed sporadically over five years due to Lynch's funding problems. Eraserhead was initially unsuccessful but slowly became a midnight movie, leading to its cult classic status. Nance's performance has since been praised. The New York Times wrote in 1980 that his "minimalist features, unchanging expression, tight dark suit, and short, almost crippled steps suggest many silent-film comedians". The film became a favorite of Stanley Kubrick, who required the cast of The Shining to watch it before filming began.
Nance continued to work with Lynch in subsequent projects during his lifetime, appearing in Dune (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), Twin Peaks (1990–1991), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and Lost Highway (1997). While none of the scenes he filmed for Fire Walk with Me appeared in the theatrical cut, they were later compiled in Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014).
Nance appeared with actress Mary Woronov as a married couple in the music video for the 1983 Suicidal Tendencies song "Institutionalized". After gaining sobriety in 1986, and needing a steady salary, Nance took courses in hotel management. He began working as a clerk at Hotel Hollywood. While there, he refused a role in Miracle Mile (1988) due to it conflicting with his job schedule. Dennis Hopper hired him to appear in Colors (1988) after they had both appeared in Blue Velvet. He also had a brief appearance in The Blob (1988).
Personal life
Relationships
Nance married actress Catherine E. Coulson in 1968 and they divorced in 1976.
Nance met and began dating Kelly Jean Van Dyke, the daughter of Jerry Van Dyke and niece of Dick Van Dyke, while in rehab in 1986. They were married in May 1991. On November 17, 1991, Nance was filming Meatballs 4 in Bass Lake, California, and called Van Dyke to tell her that he might be leaving her due to her relapsing. According to Jack Nance in an interview with A Current Affair, Nance said Kelly said she wanted him to listen to her kill herself, which he did. Nance and the film's director Bobby Logan got a local sheriff to contact the Los Angeles Police Department, who entered the couple's home to find that Van Dyke had hanged herself. Nance later claimed that she was four months pregnant.
Alcoholism
It is unknown when Nance's alcoholism began. Lynch recalled that, during the filming of Eraserhead, he would send Nance "back to his dressing room to sleep off the booze" and that Nance would "get drunk and sometimes end up sleeping in vacant lots". Lynch claimed that he once had to drive Nance to the emergency room for a distended abdomen. He later gave Nance a small role in Dune (1984), which afforded Nance a lot of spare time during filming in Mexico City, much of which he spent drinking.
In 1986, while filming Blue Velvet, Nance told the newly sober Dennis Hopper to help him or he would jump from a window. Hopper traveled back to Los Angeles with Nance, pretending to tempt him with alcohol and drugs, then checked Nance into a rehabilitation centre when they arrived. Nance then went cold turkey. He started drinking again in 1993, after a depressive episode following his wife's suicide, and suffered two strokes from 1995 to 1996. He joined the cast of the film Joyride (1997) but was sent home after one day due to drunkenness on set.
Death
On December 29, 1996, Nance had lunch with friends Leo Bulgarini and Catherine Case, who asked him why he had a "crescent-shaped bruise" under his eye; he admitted that he had been involved in a fight outside a Winchell's Donuts store that morning. He then went home, complaining of a headache. He died the following morning, nine days after turning 53, at his apartment in South Pasadena, California. Bulgarini found his body on the bathroom floor. It was revealed that he had developed a subdural hematoma from the fight, with blunt force trauma listed as his cause of death. An autopsy also showed that his blood alcohol content was 0.24% at the time of his death.
Legacy
The 1997 song "I Gotta Move" by Frank Black and the Catholics refers to the circumstances of Nance's death and the murder of fellow Lynch collaborator Peter Ivers.
I Don't Know Jack, a documentary about Nance funded by Lynch, was released in 2002.
