Angelo Badalamenti, the composer of “Twin Peaks”, has died at the age of 85. According to a report by the news site The Hollywood Reporter, which cites information from his niece Frances, he died on Sunday (December 11) surrounded by his family at his home in New Jersey. His manager also explained that Badalamenti died of natural causes.
Filmmaker David Lynch has repeatedly used his compositions for his films, including “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive”. The best known, however, is probably the theme that Badalamenti contributed to “Twin Peaks”. For this he won the 1990 Grammy in the category “Best Pop Instrumental Performance” – even today the composition is considered one of the most influential soundtracks in television history. “Music and composing – I almost feel a little guilty about it – come so easily to me,” Angelo Badalamenti told The Record newspaper in 2004. “It’s as if the source would not dry up.”
Angelo Badalamenti: Born for music
Angelo Badalamenti was born on March 22, 1937. He began taking piano lessons at the age of eight. He later accompanied singers and other artists during his summer vacations on a summer job at the Catskills resorts. Nina Simone recorded some of his first songs in 1965, including “I Hold No Grudge”. Three years later, Nancy Wilson sang “Face It, Girl, It’s Over.” He and Lynch met when Badalamenti was hired to coach Isabella Rossellini on the set of Blue Velvet.
Lynch once described Badalamenti’s work as music “of deep and powerful beauty”. “I sit next to him and talk to him, and he acts what I say,” he said in an interview with the American Film Institute, of the synchronicity that bound the two. This is how “Laura Palmer’s Theme” for “Twin Peaks” was created. Badalamenti also composed for Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Naked in New York, The City of Lost Children and The Wicker Man.
Angelo Badalamenti is survived by his wife Lonny, daughter Danielle and four grandchildren. His son André died in 2012.