Versatile character actor Miguel Ferrer—a memorable presence in so many films and TV shows, including RoboCop, Twin Peaks, and most recently NCIS: Los Angeles—has died. He was 61 years old.
As reported by Variety and several other outlets, Ferrer—the son of singer Rosemary Clooney and Oscar-winning actor José Ferrer, and the cousin of George Clooney—had been battling throat cancer. Throughout his long career, he most often played authority figures and villains (sometimes at the same time), and he was also a prolific voice actor, with credits as varied as Young Justice, Adventure Time, Robot Chicken, and multiple Beverly Hills Chihuahua movies. But his turn on Twin Peaks, as the extremely abrasive and sarcastic FBI forensic genius Albert Rosenfield, was extra special. Ever since he burst into the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department to examine the corpse of Laura Palmer, immediately angering everyone except Agent Cooper, Albert was always my favorite Twin Peaks character—a prickly force of nature with the worst beside manner on the planet.
Agent Cooper himself, Kyle MacLachlan, expressed sorrow at the loss of his friend and castmate.
Some of his Ferrer’s finest Twin Peaks moments are collected in this video from YouTuber fhallipa—proof positive that in a show full of eccentric weirdos, Albert was completely in a league of his own. That speech at 2:22 is a highlight of the entire series.
Fortunately, Ferrer will appear in the upcoming Twin Peaks revival on Showtime, reprising his role as Albert one more time. But he will still be very sorely missed.