Catherine E. Coulson

Catherine E. Coulson (born October 22, 1943) is an American stage and screen actress who worked behind the scenes on various studio features, magazine shows and independent films as well as acting in theater and film since the age of 15. She is best known for her role as Margaret Lanterman, the enigmatic Log Lady, in the David Lynch TV series Twin Peaks.

Coulson met Lynch in the 1970s and performed various behind the scenes functions during the four-year filming of his low-budget classic Eraserhead (1977). Lynch reports that she began meditating at the same time as him during this period.^[1] She also appeared in Lynch's short film The Amputee (1974), in which she played a woman with no legs. During the filming of Eraserhead, Lynch told Coulson that he had an image in his head of her holding a large log. Fifteen years later, he created such a role for her in Twin Peaks, on which she guest starred for 12 episodes through seasons 1 and 2. Coulson went on to reprise her role in the film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and in "Dual Spires" (2010), an episode of Psych.^[2]

Coulson was married to actor Jack Nance (who played Henry Spencer in Eraserhead, and Pete Martell in the Twin Peaks saga) in 1968; they divorced in 1976.

Coulson is now primarily a theatre actor and has worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon for the last two decades where she continues to be part of the acting company. She appears in Calvin Marshall directed by Gary Lundgren. Lundgren was a fan of Twin Peaks, and created a short version while at First Baptist San Mateo in the early 1990s. She recently played Susie for Lundgren in "Redwood Highway" with Shirley Knight and, Tom Skerritt and James LeGros. She is in the second season of PORTLANDIA.

Theatre

Some of her Oregon Shakespeare Festival roles

Stepmother/Grandmother/Milky White/Giant in Into the Woods
Ms. Quickly in The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa
Mattie Fae in August, Osage County
Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Mrs. Gottlieb in Dead Man's Cell Phone
Mrs. Sommes in Our Town
Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank
Lucetta in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Catherine in By the Waters of Babylon
Rose Schell in The Visit
Elaine, Hoola-Hoop, et al. in Continental Divide
Snug in A Midsummer Night's Dream
Alice in Handler
Emilia in The Winter's Tale
Gertie in Fuddy Meers
Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor
E.M. Ashford in Wit
Player Queen in Hamlet
Mrs. Morton in Chicago
Ursula in Much Ado about Nothing
Clara Stepaneck in the OSF and Kennedy Center productions of The Magic Fire
Shulamis in Vilna's Got a Golem
Maryina in Uncle Vanya
Marina in Pentecost
Virginia in Three Viewings
Duchess of York in Richard II
The Mother-in-Law in Blood Wedding
Penny in You Can't Take It with You
Evelyn in Tales of the Lost Formicans

Other theatrical roles

Hilda in Wintertime, The Elephant Man (San Jose Repertory Theatre)
Major Barbara (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles)
Anna in Old Times (Encore Theatre, Los Angeles)
Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (New Committee Theater, San Francisco)
The Devils (Circle Theatre, San Francisco)
The Balcony, Muzeeka, Tom Paine (Circus Theatre, San Francisco)

TV and film roles

The Log Lady in Twin Peaks and in Psych^[2]
Another You, Femme Fatale, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, The Four Diamonds
Host of Twin Peaks for the Bravo network
Guest roles in numerous Movies of the Week

References