Rise to Fame
A casting agent spotted him doing Moliere at a Seattle-area theater and passed his name to David Lynch, who was prepping Dune. The 1984 sci-fi epic bombed badly, and MacLachlan has said he felt like 'a pariah in the business.' Lynch handed him Blue Velvet anyway. That 1986 film rebuilt what Dune had wrecked. Twin Peaks followed in 1990, and Agent Dale Cooper became one of TV's defining characters. MacLachlan later credited Lynch with his 'entire career, and life really,' which is either humility or just the truth.
In the Spotlight
Forty years in, MacLachlan keeps finding new audiences. His role as the Vault-Tec rep in Amazon's Fallout (2024) brought him to viewers who weren't born during Twin Peaks. The show was renewed through Season 3. He went viral on TikTok the same year for leaning into Gen-Z trends hard enough that Lorde and Chappell Roan reacted to his posts. When David Lynch died in January 2025, MacLachlan presented his posthumous award at the WGA ceremony. That image of him standing there, speaking about Lynch, confirmed what most people already knew: his whole story runs through that partnership.
Side Notes
The wine operation is real, not a vanity project. He founded Pursued by Bear in 2005 in Walla Walla, Washington, named for a stage direction in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, reportedly after Steve Martin suggested the name over dinner. MacLachlan grew up picking apples in Yakima orchards and stays genuinely involved in blending decisions. He launched Baby Bear Syrah in 2008, the year his son Callum was born. During the 2023 Hollywood strikes, he went all in on the winery. The tasting room opened inside a former hair salon, with a six-foot bronze bear sculpture standing watch.