Laura Palmer

Laura Palmer is a fictional character in the Twin Peaks franchise and the primary focus of the series. She is portrayed by Sheryl Lee and was created by the series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. She first appears in the ABC original series Twin Peaks. A high school student whose death is the catalyst for the events of the series, Palmer is the protagonist in Lynch's prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), which depicts the final week of her life leading up to her murder. Laura also appears in the novels, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), and a variety of merchandise based on the series. Appearances In television Laura (played by Sheryl Lee, who also played her cousin Maddy Ferguson), was well known and loved in Twin Peaks; she volunteered at Meals on Wheels, was her school's Homecoming Queen, and was (apparently) the darling of her parents, Sarah (Grace Zabriskie) and Leland (Ray Wise). However, the series gradually revealed that Laura led a double life: she was a cocaine addict, a victim of child sexual abuse, a fetish model and, briefly, a prostitute at One Eyed Jacks, a casino/brothel just north of the Canada–US border. Officially involved with Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), the high school football team captain, she was also engaged in a secret relationship with James Hurley (James Marshall). She also had sexual encounters with other Twin Peaks citizens, such as businessman Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) and trucker/drug dealer Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re). The discovery of Laura's body in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks brings Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to investigate her death. Her murder and its effect on those around her propel the first season and the first eight episodes of the second season. Laura remains a prominent character afterward, as her death exposes many secrets related to her, and also, in some cases, unrelated, such as the Packard mill conspiracy. Laura also appears in Cooper's dreams, offering cryptic clues as to the identity of her killer.