We were talking about ideas,” the Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet star says. “It was like, ‘What’s next?’ And then, suddenly—poof—he’s gone.”

Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.