The Mysterious Actor Fumio Yamaguchi
Piper Laurie revealed in her 2011 autobiography that she worked with David Lynch to hide the fate of her character, Catherine Martell. She was only allowed on set while wearing a “Japanese businessman” costume and prosthetic makeup.
The Twin Peaks cast and crew were told that she was a male Japanese movie actor named Fumio Yamaguchi who had worked mostly with the acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa. They even convinced the crew that Yamaguchi didn’t speak much English. Her name was removed from the credits and she was restricted from telling members of the press anything about her involvement in the remaining episodes of Twin Peaks.
