Actress Lara Flynn Boyle is best known for playing Donna Hayward in David Lynch’s cult classic television series Twin Peaks and Helen Gamble in The Practice.
She was born on March 24, 1970, to Sally Flynn and Michael Boyle in Davenport, Iowa. When she was only six years old, she and her mother relocated to Chicago, where she eventually completed her high school studies at the performing arts high school known as The Chicago Academy of the Arts.
Acting Career
Her portions from the final cut of John Hughes’ iconic 1980s film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), in which she played a character named Heather, were removed.
In the ABC miniseries Amerika (1987), which portrayed the American spirit ten years after the Soviet Union’s coup d’état, Jackie Bradford played her first significant part. She portrayed the adolescent daughter of a respected American county official in the Soviet Union.
Twin Peaks
The primary claim to fame for Lara Flynn Boyle is her role as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks (1991). David Lynch, a director of experimental movies, is the creator of the television series Twin Peaks.
In the episode, an FBI agent is sent to look into the slaying of Laura Palmer, a high school student, in the sleepy hamlet of Twin Peaks.
He discovers a network of secrets while doing his investigation, shocking the normally quiet village.
Laura Palmer’s closest friend, Donna Haward, spends most of her time attempting to determine what happened to Laura on her own.
Why wasn’t she in the third season of Twin Peaks?
Boyle appeared in every one of the original series’ 30 episodes, but he opted out of the third season of the show, Twin Peaks, which debuted on Showtime in 2017.
Notably, Boyle was replaced by Moira Kelly in the 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and didn’t make an appearance.
She hasn’t appeared in the subsequent seasons of the show for an unspecified reason, but it’s claimed that it has something to do with her real-life connection with Agent Dale Cooper co-star Kyle MacLachlan.
Boyle and MacLachlan dated from 1990 to 1992, and it’s rumoured that she skipped the opportunity to repeat her Donna Hayward role in order to stay away from him.
Additionally, Agent Dale Cooper and Audrey Horn’s possible romance was reportedly edited out of the script at Boyle’s request because of their relationship, according to another co-star Sherilyn Fenn, who played Audrey Horn.
In the book Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by one of the show’s authors Mark Frost, Donna pursued a modelling career before eventually relocating to New York City and marrying a venture capitalist. There, she developed drug and alcohol addictions.
Later, after divorcing her husband, she returned to Connecticut to live with her father while continuing her studies to become a nurse.
What did she do after Twin Peaks?
Following her part in Twin Peaks, Boyle went on to star in the primetime drama The Practice, which won an Emmy and earned her a nomination.
She also appeared in the 1993 movie Red Rock West with Nicolas Cage. And in the movie Men in Black II, she played the villain Serleena (2002).
She had occasional acting gigs in the 2000s, and in the 2010s she only had three acting credits.
Some think it was because Boyle had plastic surgery to alter her appearance significantly so she could compete with younger actors.
Boyle has played fewer parts and shied away from the spotlight lately.
In her most recent performance, Grace, she co-starred with Ronnie Blevins as his mother who is in urgent need of a liver transplant in the 2020 film Death in Texas.
She is asked if she is making a comeback in a rare interview with The Hollywood Reporter about her most recent acting role, Death in Texas.
She responded, “I didn’t go anywhere,” and continued by stating how much she loved B movies and hoped to appear in more of them.
Personal Life
Boyle was a part of a prominent love triangle including actor Jack Nicholson and Academy Award winner David Spade in addition to her romance with Kyle MacLachlan.
Boyle and Nicholson have not addressed their relationship, but Spade informed the media that Nicholson made advances at Boyle in front of him.
After Nicholson and Boyle were involved in a car accident together, it was discovered that they were dating. It is said that Boyle allegedly went through the sunroof to avoid being seen with Nicholson. Boyle and real estate investor Donald Ray Thomas II are now happily wed.
She has experienced negative press before; in her own words, she has “weathered the storm” from highly publicised love triangles to tabloid reportage of plastic surgery.
She stated, “I chose this occupation. The paparazzi are like hungry mosquitoes. If I voiced a complaint about it, I’d be a complete jerk. If I accept the salary, I must also accept the negative publicity.
