"Twin Peaks" created a world where nothing was quite what it seemed, from its murdered homecoming queen to its quirky FBI agent with an obsession for damn fine coffee. At the center of this Pacific Northwest mystery stood a steady lawman trying to keep order in a town spinning into chaos. Who was the sheriff holding it all together?
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The answer is: Harry S. Truman
Sheriff Harry S. Truman, played by Michael Ontkean, was the perfectly normal guy needed to counterweight all the weirdness in the town of Twin Peaks. Series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost named him after the 33rd U.S. President, adding a mix of slice-of-life Americana to their supernatural nightmare fuel.
The sheriff became famous for keeping his cool while his town went absolutely bonkers around him. While Agent Cooper would ramble about giants and mystical lodges, Truman just nodded along and kept doing actual police work. When Cooper announced he needed to solve a murder by chucking rocks at bottles in the woods, Truman grabbed his jacket and went along with it. Someone had to be the voice of reason while still being game enough to roll with the paranormal punches.
When the "Twin Peaks" revival was announced, fans were excited to see their favorite sheriff back in charge. But Ontkean passed on coming back to the show, so Lynch brought in Robert Forster as Harry's brother, Sheriff Frank Truman. Lynch originally wanted Forster to play Harry back in 1990, but scheduling kept him from taking the role. In 2017, Forster finally got to be a Twin Peaks sheriff after all. The kind of coincidence that would make Agent Cooper stroke his chin and order another piece of cherry pie.
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