Carel Struycken is a Dutch film, television, and stage actor. He is known for playing the Giant/Fireman in Twin Peaks, in , and Lurch in the films The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, Addams Family Reunion. He also appeared in the films Gerald's Game, from Netflix, and Doctor Sleep.
Early life
Struycken was born in The Hague, Netherlands. When he was four years old, his family moved to Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles. There, at age 15, he composed several Caribbean waltzes. At 16, he returned to his home country, where he finished secondary school. He graduated from the directing program at the film school in Amsterdam. After that, he spent a year at the American Film Institute, in Los Angeles. His distinctive facial features and height—he is 7 feet tall—are due to acromegaly.
Career
In 1978, Struycken was "discovered" as an actor at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles by a woman who had abandoned her car in the middle of the street, calling after him: "We need you for a movie!". The film was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Struycken played Terak in the 1985 TV film', a spin-off to the original Star Wars trilogy. Struycken appeared as Fidel, Jack Nicholson's manservant, in the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick. That same year, he appeared as Mr. Homn in "Haven |Haven", an episode of the television series ', a role he would reprise in four more episodes until 1992. In 1991, he starred as butler Lurch in the feature filmThe Addams Family. He reprised the role in the 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values, and the TV movieAddams Family Reunion. Director Barry Sonnenfeld also picked Struycken for a small role in Men in Black. He portrayed the mystical guide-character "The Giant" in David Lynch and Mark Frost's hit 1990–91 ABC television series Twin Peaks. He also appears in the 2017 sequel series, '. He appears as the “Moonlight Man” in the 2017 Netflix original movie Gerald’s Game. Struycken collaborated on several projects with writer and director Rene Daalder, including the 1986 punk rock musical', which featured Tomata du Plenty, of The Screamers, and which was released on DVD in October 2008.
