A prolific Canadian comedian with more than 200 roles, best known for his characters seen in “Twin Peaks” and “Star Trek Discovery”, Kenneth Welsh died on May 5 at the age of 80.
A prolific Canadian actor with more than 200 roles to his credit in a long career that began in the mid-1960s, Kenneth Welsh died on May 5 at the age of 80. It was the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA union), which revealed the information on its Twitter account the next day, saluting the memory of one of Canada’s most gifted actors.
Born in Edmonton, capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, in 1942, Kenneth Welsh was trained at the National Theater School of Canada, located in Montreal. Spending his early years on the boards, he notably distinguished himself several times at the Stratford Festival, renowned for plays from Shakespeare’s repertoire.
A very recurring figure on Canadian television, he has often appeared in historical television films, notably fictions devoted to the President of the United States Harry S. Truman, the inventor / discoverer Thomas Edison; a fiction devoted to King Henry V, or even the role of D’Artagnan in an adaptation of The Three Musketeers.
In this prolific career, peppered with a few contributions to cinema at the dawn of the 1990s (First steps in the mafia, Crocodile Dundee 2…), Kenneth Welsh made himself known above all to the general public thanks to his terrifying composition in the guise of Windom Earle, the former FBI agent who became a killer in season 2 of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. A cruel character, obsessed with chess, who will settle for 10 episodes.
Ex-partner of agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), Earle had gone mad and notably killed his wife. After escaping, he came to complete his work at Twin Peaks, unleashing the supernatural powers of the Black Lodge there.
Below, sequence memory, where BOB seized the soul of Windom Earle…
Playing recently in the Star Trek Discovery series where he played Admiral Senna Tal, Kenneth Welsh has played in many American series, whether X-Files, New York District, Smallville, Stargate Atlantis, The Divide, or even in the Season 3 of Charmed.
We had also been able to see him in the cinema, notably in Aviator by Martin Scorsese in 2004, where he played the father of Katharine Hepburn (played by Cate Blanchett). The same year, he played an incompetent vice president at Roland Emmerich in The Day After, whose facial features also reminded Dick Cheney.
A very popular figure in Canada, he had been made an honorary Doctor of the University of Alberta in 1999, and was even decorated in 2004 as member of the Order of Canadafor his merits and services rendered to the Arts.