Julee Cruise, best known for her performance as the singer of the theme song for the iconic TV series Twin Peaks, has passed away. She was 65 years old. The singer’s cause of death was not given, with her husband saying simply that she “left this realm on her own terms.” Cruise had a top-10 hit in the UK with “Falling,” the Twin Peaks theme, for which series creator David Lynch wrote the lyrics. By that point, the two were already collaborators, with Cruise, Lynch, and Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalementi working together on Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet.
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In 2018, she announced she had been diagnosed with lupus, and told fans that she was living with chronic pain.
Her husband, Edward Grinnan, wrote on Facebook: “She left this realm on her own terms. No regrets. She is at peace … I played her [B-52’s song] Roam during her transition. Now she will roam forever. Rest in peace, my love.”
Cruise was born in Iowa in 1956, and studied French horn at Drake University. Her first professional singing and acting were with the Minneapolis-based Children’s Theater Company. She met Badalamenti in a New York review called Beehive, which he had produced, in which Cruise played Janis Joplin. Badalamenti suggested her to Lynch for the Blue Velvet job after a song they intended to license fell through, and Lynch opted to write a similar song to fit the scene.
Her Twin Peaks role was also on-camera; she appeared as a singer at a Twin Peaks bar during the original series run, popped up in the prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and then again in 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return. She also recorded a variation on the theme to USA Network’s Psych, for the Twin Peaks-themed episode “Dual Spires.”
Cruise was also a stage actress who appeared on the Broadway musical Return to the Forbidden Planet. Her final album was released in 2011.
In 2018, Cruise described her relationship with Lynch, saying, “It’s like I’m his little sister: you don’t like your older brother telling you what to do. David’s foppish. He can have these tantrums sometimes. And have you ever seen his temper? Anybody can look funny when they get mad. But I love him.”
The Guardian first reported Cruise’s passing.
