Ben Horne

Ben Horne

Benjamin Joseph "Ben" Horne is a character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, portrayed by Richard Beymer. His middle and last name is based on real life department store owner Joseph Horne founder of Horne's in Pittsburgh where Mark Frost is from, while his and his brother Jerry's first names are based on the ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's. He is the richest citizen of the eponymous town, Horne is one of the few citizens whose sensibilities and dress aren't still in the 1950s; Horne is an archetypical 1980s cutthroat businessman, whose greatest desire in life appears to be the acquisition of more money. As the series progressed, he was revealed, like many of the show's other characters, to have a hidden side; although, since Ben Horne's public persona was evil, his "dark side" turned out to be good, revealing him as a lonely, depressed man, disappointed with how his family and his life turned out.

For the first sixteen episodes of the series, he acted as one of the primary antagonists not directly linked to the series' main storyline of the Laura Palmer murder. In dramatic irony, he consistently came under suspicion for Laura's murder, of which he was wholly innocent, while never being suspected of the myriad criminal activities of which he was actually guilty.

Up until the revelation of Laura's true killer, Horne was used by the writers as a red herring to prevent spoilers from leaking out; at least two scenes were filmed to lead people to believe that Horne was the real killer, so that the true identity of the killer could remain a secret.