Character
Laura Palmer
Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990), played by Sheryl Lee.
Twin Peaks opens with her already gone: prom queen, Meals on Wheels volunteer, everybody's golden girl, found dead on a riverbank wrapped in plastic. The town mourns an image of sweetness and grief-stricken perfection, while the show immediately begins asking what lay underneath the surface she showed people.
She's a ghost the whole series is built around, and yet Sheryl Lee makes her unforgettable in fragments — photographs, home videos, hushed reminiscences — each one slightly at odds with the last. The mystery isn't just who killed her, but who she actually was, and that tension never lets up.
Laura Palmer was the only child of Leland and Sarah Palmer and a widely beloved resident of Twin Peaks, Washington. For years, she was abused by the malicious spirit BOB inhabiting her father's body, which spiked her anxiety and caused her to develop a cocaine addiction.
Played by
Appears in
Twin Peaks1990