Ben Horne
| Ben Horne | |
|---|---|
| Twin Peaks character | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "Episode 29" |
| Created by | Mark Frost, David Lynch |
| Portrayed by | Richard Beymer |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Hotel owner, businessman |
| Family | Horne |
| Spouse(s) | Sylvia Horne |
| Significant other(s) | Catherine Martell |
| Children |
Audrey Horne Johnny Horne Donna Hayward |
| Relatives | Jerry Horne (brother) |
| Date of birth | August 4, 1940 |
Benjamin Joseph "Ben" Horne is a fictional character in the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, portrayed by Richard Beymer. His middle and last name is based on 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.
The richest man in Twin Peaks, Horne is an archetypical 1980s cutthroat businessman, whose greatest desire in life appears to be the acquisition of wealth. As the series progressed, he was revealed, like many of the show's other characters, to have a hidden side; beneath his ruthless, greedy facade, he is a lonely, deeply depressed man who is disappointed with how his family and his life turned out.
For the first sixteen episodes of the series, he is one of the primary antagonists not directly linked to the series' main storyline of the Laura Palmer murder. Ironically, he is consistently under suspicion for Laura's murder, of which he is wholly innocent, while never being suspected of the myriad criminal activities of which he is 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.
Ben Horne is one of the two richest and most powerful individuals of Twin Peaks; per Sheriff Truman, Horne "owns half the town." He owns and runs The Great Northern Hotel, the town's only apparent travel lodgings; the Great Northern also acts, on occasion, as a de facto town hall, and the only place in Twin Peaks suitable for a wedding reception, making it one of the hubs of the community. In addition to the Great Northern, Ben owns and runs Horne's, the town's only department store, and One Eyed Jacks, a casino/brothel just over the Canada–US border. His would-be monopoly on the town's economy is challenged only by Josie Packard, the owner of the Packard Saw Mill, one of the few major businesses in town which Horne doesn't own. At the outset of the series, Horne has been involved in an affair for some time with Catherine Martell, as part of an intricate plot to kill her, destroy the mill, become the beneficiary of her life insurance, and take sole ownership of the land on which the mill sits, which he intends to turn into a luxury country club.
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Wikipedia