Kyle MacLachlan

MacLachlan, however, wouldn't gain true mainstream notoriety until 1989, when David Lynch called upon the young actor to play another FBI agent; this time, he was Special Agent Dale Cooper, who was sent to a small Washington town to investigate the murder of a young girl in ABC's popular but ultimately short-lived prime-time drama, Twin Peaks. The role would earn him two Emmy nominations for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and pave the way for more silver-screen roles, some of which include Ray Manzarek in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991), villain Cliff Vandercave in The Flintstones (1994), and a falsely accused bank clerk in The Trial (1993). MacLachlan offered several relatively well-received starring and supporting performances throughout the mid- to late '90s, and did what he could for his role in Paul Verhoeven's famous 1995 flop, Showgirls.

Luckily, the late '90s to early 2000s were much kinder to MacLachlan. In addition to playing another smooth agent in David Koepp's The Trigger Effect (1996), which some critics claimed was his best performance since Blue Velvet, the actor also was cast as King Claudius in Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, it was television that once again made MacLachlan a household name, albeit temporarily. In 2000, he joined the cast of HBO's multiple-award-winning series Sex and the City as Charlotte's (Kristin Davis) mama's boy husband, Trey. In 2003, MacLachlan starred in the Bravo network's popular documentary series, The Reality of Reality. ~ Tracie Cooper