‘Twin Peaks’ Singer Julee Cruise Dies at 65 After Battling Lupus
Julee Cruise, the singer best known for her frequent collaborations with Twin Peaks director David Lynch, has died. She was 65.
The news of Cruise’s death was confirmed by her husband, Edward Grinnan, in a Facebook post, per The Guardian. “She left this realm on her own terms. No regrets,” he wrote. “She is at peace. I played her [the B-52’s song] ‘Roam’ during her transition. Now she will roam forever. Rest in peace, my love.”
While a cause of death has yet to be confirmed, in a 2018 Facebook post, Cruise shared that she was suffering from systemic lupus. “I can… hardly walk,” she wrote. “And now it’s difficult to stand… The pain is so bad I cry and snap at people.”
Born on December 1, 1956, in Creston, Iowa, Cruise studied French horn at Drake University and performed as a singer and actress in Minneapolis with the famed Children’s Theater Company. She would later move to New York, where she played Janis Joplin in a revue called Beehive. During her time in New York, Cruise met the composer Angelo Badalamenti, who would go on to compose the scores for several Lynch projects.
Her big break came in 1985 when Badalamenti was composing the score for Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Needing a vocalist with a haunting, ethereal voice, Badalamenti recommended Cruise, resulting in the collaboration “Mysteries of Love,” which features prominently throughout Blue Velvet‘s closing scenes.
Badalamenti and Lynch would write and produce several more songs for Cruise, most of which were featured on her 1989 debut album, Floating into the Night. However, her most well-known work came in Lynch’s cult-favorite TV series Twin Peaks. Cruise’s song “Falling” became the orchestral theme for the series and picked up a Grammy at the 33rd Grammy Awards for Best Pop Instrumental.
Cruise also featured on the songs “Into the Night” and “The Nightingale,” which she performed on Twin Peaks as a singer at the local bar, The Roadhouse. Her most significant appearances came in the critically acclaimed pilot episode and the episode where Laura Palmer’s murderer is finally revealed. She also appeared in the 1992 spin-off movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the 2017 revival on Showtime.
