Miguel Ferrer, veteran film and television actor with iconic roles in everything from Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, died Thursday afternoon at the age of 61. He had been suffering from cancer.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Ferrer was the oldest of five children, who were raised by Academy Award–winner José Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney. His first cousin is Academy Award-winning director and actor George Clooney.
Ferrer started out in music, drumming on Keith Moon’s 1975 solo album, Two Sides of the Moon, a role he would later bring to the small screen on the television series, Sunshine. By the early ’80s, he was making regular guest appearances on TV.
At the same time, he was making strides in film, popping up as a waiter in 1983’s The Man Who Wasn’t There and playing an officer in 1984’s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. His first major role was playing coke head Bob Morton in 1987’s RoboCop.
A few years later, after playing similarly edgy villains, Ferrer landed one of his greatest roles as FBI forensics specialist Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, a character that he recently reprised for the show’s forthcoming reboot.
From there, Ferrer appeared in multiple films and TV shows each year, among these most notably being his turn as Lloyd Henreid in the mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand and his powerful performance as drug dealer Eduardo Ruiz in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic.
More recently, he had been a series regular on NCIS: Los Angeles as Naval Criminal Investigative Service Assistant Director Owen Granger, and had also been lending his voice talents to Adventure Time as Death.
Ferrer is survived by his wife and two sons, in addition to several brothers and sisters.
