Vale: Walter Olkewicz

US character actor Walter Olkewicz best known for Twin Peaks, has died aged 72.

Screenwriter son Zak Olkewicz, confirmed his death. He had been struggling with health issues for the past 20 years.

On David Lynch’s groundbreaking Twin Peaks, he played Jacques the French-Canadian card dealer at One Eyed Jacks and bartender on the first season. A drug runner who is arrested for the murder of Laura Palmer, Jacques is suffocated in the hospital by Laura Palmer’s father after he is shot during the arrest.

He returned for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Twin Peaks: The Missing Piece” and again for the Showtime reboot as Jean-Michel, although by then he was no longer able to stand.

He had many other roles including as oil refinery worker Dougie Boudreau on the first four seasons of Grace Under Fire, as Nick the cable guy on Seinfeld episode “The Cadillac” plus The Rockford Files, Taxi, Barney Miller, Partners in Crime, Cheers, Newhart, Falcon Crest, ER, Family Ties, Married With Children, Night Court, Who’s the Boss, Moonlighting, L.A. Law, Murder, She Wrote, Dharma & Greg and Brooklyn Bridge.

Films included The Client, Futureworld, 1941, The Big Picture, Stuart Saves His Family and Par 6.

Source: Variety