Frank Silva is the classic example of the aspiring actor
discovered while toiling away behind the scenes. Before his role as
Killer BOB on "
Twin Peaks," he had received a
master's degree in
lighting design from
San Francisco State University, and worked as a
set decorator,
property master, and
painter on a few second-rate movies (
Rosalie Goes Shopping and
Joysticks).
David Lynch, who apparently shows the same
favoritism for crew members as he does for actors, employed Silva as a set decorator for
The Cowboy And The Frenchman,
Dune,
Blue Velvet, and
Wild at Heart, and it was in this capacity that he came to "Twin Peaks." However,
at a certain point he moved a chest of
drawers in front of the door and someone said, "Don't block yourself in there, Frank."
And my mind pictured Frank blocked in the room. And then I rushed into him and said,
"Frank, are you an actor?" And he said, "Why, I happen to be an actor." So I said,
"You're going to be in this."
...
And then later we were shooting the last set up in the house and it
was pretty late at night and it was Mrs. Palmer at the end of that day where she lost
her daughter, smoking a cigarette, distraught on the couch and playing some scenes
in her mind. And she sees something mentally and lurches up and the operator has to
crank very fast to catch it. Nailed it. Perfect. She screams at the top of this thing in
this big close up. And I said, "Beautiful!" and I congratulated Grace on her job, and Sean
said, "No, it's not good, not good, not good." And I said, "What's wrong?" and he said,
"Someone was reflected in the mirror." And I said, "Who was reflected in the mirror?"
And he said, "Frank was." And then I knew I was on to something.
--David Lynch, interviewed in Scene By Scene
Though
serendipity put Frank into his bloodcurdling role in "Twin Peaks" and
Fire Walk With Me, he continued as a set decorator, including work on
One False Move with
Billy Bob Thornton.
Frank Silva died of a heart attack on September 13, 1995, in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 46. He, Jack Nance, John Boylan (mayor Dwayne Milford), and Hank Worden (Señor Droolcup) are the only "Twin Peaks" cast members who are no longer living at the time of this writeup.
http://www.imdb.com
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/plath/372/index2005.html (Scene By Scene interview)