Acting Icon Harry Dean Stanton Dead at 91

Indispensible character actor Harry Dean Stanton died of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Friday, his agent John Kelly confirmed to THR. He was 91 years old.

Roger Ebert once said that any movie with Stanton in the cast couldn’t be all bad. Over the course of his 60-plus-year career, Stanton ensured the quality of more than 100 films, including Repo Man, Alien and Cool Hand Luke, as well as over 50 episodes of television, including Twin Peaks, Big Love and many more.

Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders’ 1984 road film, was Stanton’s breakthrough, not to mention his first-ever role as a leading man, and at the age of 58, no less. He starred in both Repo Man and Red Dawn (“Avenge me!”) that very same year.

Stanton collaborated frequently with David Lynch, appearing in the director’s Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Twin Peaks: The Return, miniseries Hotel Room, The Straight Story and Inland Empire.

Lynch paid tribute to Stanton in a statement:

“The great Harry Dean Stanton has left us. There went a great one. There’s nobody like Harry Dean. Everyone loved him. And with good reason. He was a great actor (actually beyond great) — and a great human being — so great to be around him!!! You are really going to be missed Harry Dean!!! Loads of love to you wherever you are now!!!”

Stanton’s newest film Lucky, in which he plays an atheist forced to confront his own mortality, comes to theaters on Sept. 29.

Revisit the many roles of Stanton’s lifetime here.