Lenny Von Dohlen is an American film and stage actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, best known for his performance as the agoraphobic Harold Smith in Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

 and the architect Miles Harding in the film Electric Dreams. Von Dohlen currently resides in New York and Los Angeles.

Early years

Lenny Von Dohlen was born in Augusta, Georgia, and raised in Goliad, a small town in Texas. As a child he wished to become a jockey, but grew too tall for his dream. He graduated from the University of Texas/Austin and majored in drama at Loretto Heights College.

Film

Lenny Von Dohlen’s film debut was in Tender Mercies

Tender Mercies

Tender Mercies is a 1983 American drama film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic country music singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas...

, starring Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall

Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....

, written by Horton Foote

Horton Foote

Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird and the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and his notable live television dramas during the Golden Age of Television...

 and directed by Bruce Beresford

Bruce Beresford

Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...

 in 1983. Then in 1984, Von Dohlen played the lead role in the early 1980s cult film MGM/UA’s Electric Dreams. Other roles include: Under the Biltmore Clock (1985); Dracula's Widow (1989); Blind Vision (1992); Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992); a cameo scene in Jennifer 8 (1992); Ed Zwick’s Leaving Normal

Leaving Normal (film)

Leaving Normal was a 1992 American road movie which featured two female leads. Directed by Edward Zwick and written by Ed Solomon, the film's plot resembled the more commercially-lucrative 1991 film Thelma & Louise...

 (1992) and the title role in Billy Galvin

Billy Galvin

Billy Galvin is a 1986 film directed by John Gray. It stars Karl Malden and Lenny von Dohlen.-Plot :Conflict arises between a steelworker and his son...

 (1986).

He played one of the four bad guys in Twentieth Century Fox’s Home Alone 3

Home Alone 3

Home Alone 3 is a 1997 family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes. It is the third film in the Home Alone series and the first not to feature actor Macaulay Culkin or director Chris Columbus. The film is directed by Raja Gosnell, who served as the editor of both original films, and...

 in 1997. First film to appear as a villain

Villain

A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...

, and appeared in low-budget independent films such as Toll Booth

Toll Booth (film)

Toll Booth is a 2010 Turkish drama film directed by Tolga Karaçelik, which tells the story of a reclusive toll-booth attendant. The film was selected for the 47th Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival.- Production :...

 (1994), Bird of Prey (1996), One Good Turn (1996), Entertaining Angels (1996), Cadillac (1997) and Frontline (1997); none of which had theatrical release. In 2007, he appeared in Beautiful Loser

Beautiful Loser (film)

Beautiful Loser is a 2008 film.The film concerns a group of high school buddies before moving the action forward to reveal the characters two decades later. Reggie is the wild card of this group of friends. Perpetually single and lacking ambition, he is prone to making inappropriate comments to...

 playing the role of Reggie in adult, and Teeth

Teeth (film)

Teeth is a 2007 comedy horror film written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein, about a teenage girl who has teeth in her vagina. It premiered January 19, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in the independent drama category...

, a Sundance and Berlin Film Festival Dramatic Competition nominee. In 2010, he played Elder Daniel in Downstream and on the same year he played Sheriff Jack Carter in a short movie named Night Blind

Television

Von Dohlen's first television role was that of a pedophile in an ABC after-school special television in 1985, named "Don't Touch". In addition to his role on Twin Peaks, Von Dohlen has appeared in Kent State in 1981, thirtysomething (1987), The Lazarus Man

The Lazarus Man

The Lazarus Man was a Western television series produced by Castle Rock Entertainment which first aired on January 20, 1996, and ended on November 9, 1996.-Production:...

, Picket Fences

Picket Fences

Picket Fences is a 60-minute American television drama about the residents of the fictional town of Rome, Wisconsin, created and produced by David E. Kelley. The show initially ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on the CBS television network in the United States...

 (1992), (playing the gay brother of Marlee Matlin

Marlee Matlin

Marlee Bethany Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy...

's character), The Pretender

The Pretender (TV series)

The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series starred Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, a genius and former child prodigy with "the ability to become anyone he wants to be," i.e., to flawlessly impersonate anyone in virtually any line of work...

 (1999), Chicago Hope

Chicago Hope

Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...

 (1994), and Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...

 (1988). He also appeared as a psycho killer in Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...

 in 1996. Most recently he appeared in the Masterpiece Theatre

Masterpiece Theatre

Masterpiece is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...

 presentation of Eudora Welty

Eudora Welty

Eudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...

’s The Ponder Heart (2000) on PBS. In 2010, he had a guest spot in the USA Network's show Psych

Psych

Psych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network. It stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts...

 episode Dual Spires

Dual Spires

"Dual Spires" is the 12th episode of the fifth season of the American comedy-drama television series Psych, and the 75th episode overall. The episode was directed by Matt Shakman and written by Bill Callahan and series star James Roday...

, a Twin Peaks homage and cast reunion as the character Sheriff Andrew Jackson.

Theater

In the theater, Von Dohlen has created roles in the New York productions of Asian Shade, The Team, Twister

Twister (play)

Twister: A Ritual Reality in Three Quarters Plus Overtime if Necessary, is a 1999 play by Ken Kesey, loosely based on L. Frank Baum's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film version, The Wizard of Oz...

 and Vanishing Act and The Maderati, the latter two by Richard Greenberg. For nine months he starred in Carol Churchill’s play Cloud 9, directed by Tommy Tune

Tommy Tune

Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...

, followed by The Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Desire Under the Elms

Desire Under the Elms

Desire Under the Elms is a play by Eugene O'Neill, published in 1924, and is now considered an American classic. Along with Mourning Becomes Electra, it represents one of O'Neill's attempts to place plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy in a rural New England setting. It is essentially a...

 opposite Kathy Baker

Kathy Baker

Katherine Whitton "Kathy" Baker is an American stage, film and television actress.-Career:Baker began her career at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, performing in several of Sam Shepard's plays before getting her break in an off-Broadway production of Fool for Love opposite Ed Harris...

. He has starred in Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, Romeo and Juliet and Joe Orton

Joe Orton

John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...

’s Loot

Loot (play)

Loot is a two-act play by the English playwright Joe Orton. The play is a dark farce that satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force....

. On the West Coast, Von Dohlen has been seen in Wedekind's Lulu at the La Jolla Playhouse, and The Blue Room at the Pasadena Playhouse and in "Doubt" at the [Indiana Repertory Theatre]. Von Dohlen originated the role of the famous literary personality Voltaire in the world premiere of Jean Claude Van Itallie's Light.

Currently he is appearing in The Theatre @ Boston Court & CalArts' School of Theater's co-production of Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

' "Camino Real

Camino Real (play)

Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town...

" at Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

, CA, and on Cleveland Play House

Cleveland Play House

The Cleveland Play House is a professional regional theater company located in Cleveland, OH. As of 2005, the artistic director is Michael Bloom, the eighth artistic director since its inception. In 2011 they moved operations to the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square Center.Founded in 1915,...

 with the play "Legacy of Light".

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Kent State	(uncredited)	TV movie
1983	Tender Mercies Tender Mercies Tender Mercies is a 1983 American drama film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic country music singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas...	Robert
1983	Sessions	Paulie	TV movie
1983	How to be a perfect person in just three days	Erik Crimpley	TV movie
1984	Electric Dreams	Miles Harding
1986	Billy Galvin Billy Galvin Billy Galvin is a 1986 film directed by John Gray. It stars Karl Malden and Lenny von Dohlen.-Plot :Conflict arises between a steelworker and his son...	Billy Galvin
1989	Dracula's Widow	Raymond
1991	Love Kills Love Kills -Cast:*Mario Van Peebles – "Poe Finklestein"*Lesley Ann Warren – "Evelyn Heiss"*Donovan Leitch – "Dominique"*Loretta Devine – "Sylvia Finkelstein"*Louise Fletcher – "Alena Heiss"*Daniel Baldwin – "Danny Tucker"*Robert LaSardo – "Diesel"...	Jonathan Brinkman	TV movie
1992	Leaving Normal Leaving Normal (film) Leaving Normal was a 1992 American road movie which featured two female leads. Directed by Edward Zwick and written by Ed Solomon, the film's plot resembled the more commercially-lucrative 1991 film Thelma & Louise...	Harry Rainey
1992	Jennifer 8	Blattis	Cameo
1992	Eyes of Beholder	Janice Bickle
1992	Blind Vision	William Dalton
1992	Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me	Harold Smith
1994	Amberwaves	Justin Campenella
1994	Tollbooth	Jack
1996	One Good Turn	Matt Forrest
1996	Bird of Prey Bird of prey Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....	Johnny McKenna
1996	Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story Entertaining Angels: the Dorothy Day Story is a 1996 independent film about the life of Dorothy Day, the journalist turned social activist and founder of the Catholic Worker newspaper. The film stars Moira Kelly as Day, Heather Graham, Lenny Von Dohlen and Martin Sheen.Both Kelly and Sheen are also...	Forster Batterham
1997	Cadillac Cadillac Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...	Jimmy
1997	Home Alone 3 Home Alone 3 Home Alone 3 is a 1997 family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes. It is the third film in the Home Alone series and the first not to feature actor Macaulay Culkin or director Chris Columbus. The film is directed by Raja Gosnell, who served as the editor of both original films, and...	Burton Jernigan
1999	Frontline	Ludwig Haig
2000	Breathing Hard	Anton
2000	The Ponder Heart	DeYancey Clanahan	TV movie
2003	How's My Driving?	Adrian Kennet	Short
2007	Teeth	Bill
2008	Beautiful Loser Beautiful Loser Beautiful Loser is the eighth album by American rock singer/songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1975 .The album relied mostly on session musicians from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, but the Silver Bullet Band members were used separately on some songs and together on "Nutbush City Limits," a...	Reggie (adult)
2010	Downstream	Elder Daniel
2010	Night Blind	Sheriff Jack Carter	Short
2011	Camilla Dickinson Camilla Dickinson Camilla Dickinson, also published as Camilla , is a 1951 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Camilla Dickinson, a fifteen-year-old New Yorker, narrates an important approximately three week period of her life in November 1950....	Bill Rowan	In post-production since 11 July 2011

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Miami Vice Miami Vice Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...	Bob Rickert	Episode: "Give a Little, Take a Little"
1985	ABC Afterschool Specials	Mike Rivers	Episode: "Don't Touch"
1985	Tales From The Darkside Tales from the Darkside Tales from the Darkside is an anthology horror TV series produced by George A. Romero; it originally aired from 1983 to 1988. Similar to Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Tales From The Crypt, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot...	Mr. Smith	Episode: "Distant Signals"
1986	American Playhouse American Playhouse American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart...	Knowleton Whitney	Episode: "Under the Biltmore Clock"
1986	The Equalizer The Equalizer The Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...	Dan Turner	Episode: "Shades of Darkness"
1986	thirtysomething	Roy MacCaulay	Episode: "We'll Meet Again We'll Meet Again "We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn, and it also may refer to:* We'll Meet Again , a musical starring Lynn that includes the song... "
1989	The Young Riders The Young Riders The Young Riders is an American Western television series created by Ed Spielman that presents a fictionalized account of a group of young Pony Express riders based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska Territory during the years leading up to the American Civil War...	Lt. Josey Cassidy	Episode: "End of Innocence End of Innocence End of Innocence is the second official DVD release of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. The DVD features numerous clips of the band performing livetracks, including a recording of the band performing one of their first songs; "Beauty and the Beast", with bassist Marco Hietala performing the... "
1990	Grand Grand (TV series) Grand was a half-hour situation comedy that aired on the NBC network in 1990. The series featured an ensemble cast including Pamela Reed, Bonnie Hunt, Michael McKean, John Randolph, Andrew Lauer, John Neville, Joel Murray and Sara Rue. It was created by Michael Leeson, executive produced by...	Jeremy	3 episodes
1990	Twin Peaks Twin Peaks Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...	Harold Smith	4 episodes
1991	The Flash	Jason Brassell	Episode: "Twin Streaks"
1992	Red Dwarf Red Dwarf Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...	Cop	Episode: "Back to Reality"
1996	Picket Fences Picket Fences Picket Fences is a 60-minute American television drama about the residents of the fictional town of Rome, Wisconsin, created and produced by David E. Kelley. The show initially ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on the CBS television network in the United States...	Gerald 'Gerry' Bey	Episode: "Bye-Bye, Bey-Bey"
1996	Walker Texas Ranger	Adam 'The Hangman' Quinn	Episode: "Hall of Fame Hall of Fame A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field... "
1999	Chicago Hope Chicago Hope Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...	Tom Van Deusen	Episode: "A Goy and His Dog"
1999–2000	The Pretender The Pretender (TV series) The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series starred Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, a genius and former child prodigy with "the ability to become anyone he wants to be," i.e., to flawlessly impersonate anyone in virtually any line of work...	Mr. Cox	5 episodes
2000	The Magnificent Seven The Magnificent Seven The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...	Cyrus Poplar	Episode: "Penance Penance Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants... "
2002	CSI: Miami CSI: Miami CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....	Professor Adam Metzger	Episode: "A Horrible Mind"
2007	Ghost Whisperer Ghost Whisperer Ghost Whisperer is an American television supernatural drama, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005 to May 21, 2010.The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon , who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts...	Steve Wheeler	Episode: "Children of Ghosts"
2009	Criminal Minds Criminal Minds Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...	Record Exec #1	Episode: "The Performer"
2010	Psych Psych Psych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network. It stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts...	Sheriff Andrew Jackson	Episode: "Dual Spires Dual Spires "Dual Spires" is the 12th episode of the fifth season of the American comedy-drama television series Psych, and the 75th episode overall. The episode was directed by Matt Shakman and written by Bill Callahan and series star James Roday... "

External links

• Lovely Lenny Von Dohlen fan page
• Lenny Von Dohlen Unofficial fan page
• LVD Online fan page