‘Twin Peaks’: Is Dougie Jones’ Name a Huge Clue? We Asked His Namesake

Surely you’ve heard of actor Doug Jones, the man of 1,000 faces?

Twin Peaks Dougie Doug Jones
Showtime/Getty Images

In her spare time, TheWrap news editor Rosemary Rossi analyzes dreams. Her past analysis of the dream sequences on “Twin Peaks” has led to an interesting theory about “Twin Peaks” character Dougie Jones.

We’ve surmised that Agent Dale Cooper may actually be someone suffering from multiple personality disorder, and the name of one of his alter-egos, Dougie Jones, seems to lend credence to that theory: We’re wondering if creators David Lynch and Mark Frost named him after actor Doug Jones, also known as the man of 1,000 faces.

If you’ve been keeping up with our analysis of the symbolism in the first handful of Showtime’s revival, you know that we think that the “Twin Peaks” is the story of a man with multiple personality disorder, (or dissociative identity disorder) and that a large chunk of the show takes place in the mind of the “host personality.” Dale Cooper, his evil doppelganger, and Dougie Jones are three of those personalities.

And that bring us to Doug Jones, the actor. He’s known as the man of 1,000 faces because of roles in “Hellboy,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and “Mimic,” among other films in which he is complete unrecognizable.

Did the man of 1,000 faces inspire the name of a “Twin Peaks” character with 1,000 personalities?

Guess what? Your humble correspondent happens to be friends with Jones, having represented him earlier in his career. So I called and asked Jones, who’s deep into production for the new “Star Trek: Discovery” series, to see if he’s aware of any link between him and the show.

And, you know what? There is.

“I have never met the magnificent David Lynch,” Jones tells TheWrap. “But the other writer given ‘creator’ and ‘written by’ credit on ‘Twin Peaks’ is Mark Frost, who might actually know a bit more of me, as he has ‘story’ and ‘screenplay’ writing credit on ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.’ … If Mark Frost considered me in this equation even a little as he created the ‘Twin Peaks’ Dougie Jones character, I would be beyond touched. But that’s just my personal fantasy.”

Jones, who is a huge fan of the original series, hasn’t had a window of opportunity to watch the revival but says he can’t wait to catch up. When word got to him of the “Twin Peaks” character Dougie Jones, he says he was “quite tickled, especially since all my friends and family call me Dougie” and I have never met nor been aware of another ‘Dougie Jones’ out there… especially at my age. All I could think is that it was a happy coincidence.”

Jones also has an odd connection to the character Audrey Horne, played by Sherilyn Fenn.

“My wife Laurie and I named our first pet cat Audrey because we so loved Audrey Horne in the original ‘Twin Peaks,’” Jones says. “A fun follow-up to that is from a few years ago when Sherilyn Fenn, who played Audrey, and I co-starred together as husband and wife in the brutal fight movie, ‘Raze.’ That’s the closest I’ve been to David Lynch… and it just made me hungry for more.”

And so the mystery continues.

Comments