Angelo Badalamenti, composer of Twin Peaks theme song and frequent David Lynch collaborator, dies at 85

Angelo Badalamenti, the composer behind the haunting Twin Peaks theme song and frequent collaborator with director David Lynch, died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Lincoln Park, N.J. He was 85.

Badalamenti's family confirmed the news in a statement provided to EW and said he was surrounded by loved ones in his final moments.

In addition to Twin Peaks, Badalamenti wrote the scores for Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and The Straight Story in his work with Lynch. The Twin Peaks theme earned the composer the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The show's soundtrack album also went gold in 25 countries.

Badalamenti was a prolific composer for film and television, and his other notable works included the theme song for NBC's Profiler, Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio, and "Torch Theme" for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, which played during the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic cauldron.

Badalamenti also collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists, including Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli, Roberta Flack, and LL Cool J.

Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images Angelo Badalamenti

Angelo Badalamenti was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 22, 1937, to a Sicilian father who owned a fish market. He showed an early aptitude for music, playing accompaniment for singers at Catskills resorts during the summers starting in his teenage years.

He attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., on a full scholarship, before transferring to the Manhattan School of Music, where he graduated with his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1960.

Before he began his career as a composer, Badalamenti was a middle school music teacher in Brooklyn. His work there led to a job with a music publisher where he would write and arrange music for a variety of artists.

Collaborating with lyricist John Clifford, they wrote the songs "Hold No Grudge" and "He Ain't Comin' Home No More," which he ultimately sold to Nina Simone, who recorded both as well as his song "Another Spring."

In 1973, Badalamenti transitioned into writing for the screen on Gordon's War, directed by Ossie Davis. He followed that up with a score for 1974's Law and Disorder.

He didn't work on another film until Lynch's Blue Velvet, on which he was first hired as Isabella Rossellini's singing coach for the title song. Pleased with his results, Lynch then hired Badalamenti to write torch song "Mysteries of Love" for the film, before ultimately asking him to compose the entire score. Badalamenti also appears in Blue Velvet as the piano player in the club where Rossellini's character performs.

Their long collaboration was also marked by Badalamenti's predilection for visiting set and playing live accompaniment for the actors to help set the mood.

Baldamenti also collaborated with Lynch and singer Julee Cruise on two albums, 1989's Floating Into the Night and 1993's The Voice of Love, and a 1990 avant-garde concert piece called Industrial Symphony No. 1, which also features the talents of Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. Apart from Cruise, Lynch and Badalamenti also recorded a jazz album, Thought Gang, in the early 1990s.

He also had another memorable screen role in Mulholland Drive as Lynch's espresso-obsessed gangster Luigi Castigliane.

In addition to his work with Lynch, Badalamenti wrote music for well over 30 screen projects, including Weeds, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Comfort of Strangers, The City of Lost Children, The Beach, Cabin Fever, Secretary, Dark Water, A Very Long Engagement, and the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man.

One of his final projects was collaborating with Lynch on the score for the 2017 continuation of Twin Peaks.

Badalamenti is survived by his wife, Lonny, an artist whom he married in 1968, and his daughter, Danielle.

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