This guy is probably best known for the role of Henry Spencer, pictured above, in the David Lynch film, Eraserhead. Does anyone else think that David Lynch is a euphemism for, "Huh?" He also played the part of Pete Martell in Twin Peaks. I did watch Twin Peaks, and aside from Sherilyn thingy tying a cherry stem with her mouth (thanks Outi). The other thing I remember is that Bob guy jumping out from behind the chair and scaring the bejesus out of me. I hear that the guy made a living jumping out of birthday cakes at parties after that. I would scream. Hell yes, I would scream. Anyway…he's dead too.

One thing I learned about Jack Nance was that he was married to Kelly Jean Van Dyke, Jerry (the original choice for Gilligan, and one of the stars of Coach) Van Dyke’s daughter. Findadeath.com friend Tara informed me that Kelly was a porn actress who starred in such memorable epics as Catfighting Students, Enemates 4 , Rump Roasts and Coach's Daughter (that had to hurt).  She committed suicide by hanging herself, six months into their marriage. Issues much?  Interestingly, Kelly was found hanging by none other than Wednesday Addams herself, Lisa Loring!

The next day, a friend stopped by to check on him, and found him dead. Homicide detectives said that he had blunt-force head injuries, and during the autopsy it was confirmed that he suffered acute subdural hematoma, which lead to his death.

 1      2

November of 2003, Jack's brother got in touch with me, and corrected the information that Lisa Loring did not discover Kelly.  When I asked Richard to clarify, he very kindly send this information.  

Jack Nance
(a Brother’s Perspective)

Scott, I appreciate the opportunity to express some views regarding my brother Jack. Considering the general theme of your website, I’ll try and relate this information to “death” and its relevance, or trickle-effect.

Kelly Van Dyke – Jack’s 2nd Wife
Jack and Kelly were acquainted via alcohol rehab program they were in (this is also where Kelly became acquainted with Lisa Loring and possibly Lisa’s husband, or boyfriend… anyway some guy involved in the porn industry). Around Christmas 1988, Kelly sent Jack a Christmas card and wrote “let’s get together” on the inside (I was staying with Jack at the time and he was quite glad to hear from her). The first time I saw Kelly was at a Twin Peaks cast party given by Jack and Charlotte Stewart at their house. They were married shortly after that.

For whatever reasons, Kelly got herself involved in a number of unfortunate events with some creepy characters; some involved in porn, some just plain criminals. As the rumors began to persist and it was catching up with her, the marriage began to suffer. At any rate, as Jack was filming Meatballs 4 in Oregon she decided to end her life. Jack and Kelly were on the phone, she was threatening suicide, Jack was trying to console her. She then hanged herself. (Jack told me, and also in a filmed interview with a news program, that he heard her do it). At that moment, a lightning storm knocked out the phones in Oregon. It took Jack and the director over 45 minutes to find a deputy sheriff who contacted LA police and the apartment manager. They broke in and found her dead.

Later that week our mother, with my wife’s help, cleaned up the bedroom where Kelly hanged herself (hanging is not the “clean” way to go, and certainly not the painless way; there was considerable blood and vomit on the floor).

Kelly’s ashes were scattered off the coast near San Pedro. I attended the ceremony aboard the boat with other family members including her father, Jerry Van Dyke and uncle Dick Van Dyke. I never saw a more shattered father……suicide seems to double the effect of the death of one’s child, or spouse. Endless guilt and unanswered questions on the part of the family, parents and husband.

Jack’s memory of Kelly remained strong to the end. There was a virtual shrine to her in his bedroom at his house in Dallas. The fear among family and friends is that her death would push Jack over the edge and he would take up drinking again (he had been clean and sober for over nine years). He did quite well for about three years after her death, but ultimately began drinking again….and Jack’s drinking wasn’t something most can relate to.

Jack’s Death
In late December 1996, Jack’s body was found in his apartment by Leo Buglarini (sp?). Jack and Leo were working on a film project together along with Catherine Case. I had met Leo several months earlier but had never met Catherine, though I knew her name from Jack’s conversations.

Police detectives interviewed both Leo and Catherine for over six hours (this was confirmed to me by the Pasadena police). In the detective’s opinion as given to me, Leo and Catherine were reporting the truth, as they understood it.

According to Leo and Catherine: Jack went to Leo and Catherine’s place to work on the project and showed up with a small crescent-shaped bruise under his eye. Catherine questioned him about it and assumed he had gotten drunk and hurt himself. He said he had “popped-off “ to a couple of Latino guys in the parking lot of the donut shop at 5:00 AM that day. He told them to get a haircut and get a job. One of them then socked him in the eye, his glasses flew off and he went down.

They worked for a bit on the project and Jack went home complaining of a headache. Leo went over to check on him later and found the body. This, according to their interview.

None of the above has been corroborated by sources beyond Leo and Catherine. There are a number of questions in the minds of Jack’s friends and family which remain unanswered:
 Did Jack tell the truth to Catherine about the altercation in the parking lot?
 Was Leo and Catherine’s account of Jack’s report accurate?
 Did Jack hurt himself while drinking and simply make up the story?
 Did it happen just the way Jack reported it to Leo and Catherine?

Officially, it remains an unsolved homicide.

As his personality goes, Jack had a unique ability to take a real event, and turn it into an entertaining, albeit embellished story…..he never really lied, or made up stories, he just took poetic license on an event and made it interesting if not down right fascinating. Also, Jack was a notorious late sleeper…….5:00AM at a donut shop seems unrealistic. He also never ate donuts, but would drink coffee all day. What is believable, is Jack confronting the men….he could have quite a mouth on him when drinking and didn’t much care about the size or number of potential adversaries (Jack was 5’6” and about 150 lbs). Also, Jack and I had numerous conversations involving Catherine and Leo, and I know he thought the world of both of them…I never heard him say anything critical about either.

The Trickle Effect
The trickle effect I referred to involves suicide. Kelly’s manner of death ultimately affected my brother to the point of steering himself into a self-destructive life style….at least in the final 3-4 months. He ran his physical condition down to point that it would only take a sock in the eye to kill him…and he knew it.

The further effect was on our mother. Distraught enough over the suicide and cleanup her daughter in law, the death of her first born was more than she could deal with. Insisting upon receiving copies of reports and photos of Jack from the LA coroner’s office, the last image of her oldest son in her mind was a police photo of Jack lying on the bathroom floor in his apartment dead. It took several months, but after she refused to leave her bedroom, or eat for those several months, she died of grief and mal-nutrition while talking to Jack; five years after his death.

One suicide, three deaths.

Wow, Richard.  Absolutely heavy.  Thank you for taking the time to write this down for us.  Hopefully this information might one day make someone rethink a situation.

David Lynch said of Nance, "Sometimes people irritated Jack, so he’s be verbally abusive. "He was in poor physical shape (he drank), and Jack always said that he wouldn’t be hard to kill." Ah, light dinner conversation at the Lynch’s.

His body was cremated, and he was scattered off the coast of Orange County.

Wanna see his mailbox?

OCTOBER 2002:  Findadeath.com friend Michelle sends us this:  This really has nothing to do with Nance, but I was reading your info on him and you make a reference to Frank Silva, the guy that played Bob -- the spooky one. He worked in the AD and, as the legend goes, he accidentally got in a shot (reflected in a mirror). It freaked Lynch out (imagine, there's actually something that can give D.L. the creeps) and Lynch decided to use him for that sole purpose. Personally, I thought Eraserhead was much creepier than Twin Peaks. Another
bit of trivia, Eraserhead took 5 years to film and was financially backed by D.L.'s family and friends.

Thanks, Michelle!

This just in, December 2004, from Findadeath friend Jeff: