Music icon David Bowie played the brief but captivating role of Phillip Jeffries in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, but didn't return for season 3. Twin Peaks was a show full of abstract concepts and unexplained occurrences, but even among those, the character of Phillip Jeffries stood out. Jeffries went through FBI training alongside Dale Cooper's future boss Gordon Cole, then later headed up the Blue Rose task force, which investigated cases involving supernatural and paranormal phenomena.
While on assignment in Buenos Aires in the late 1980s, Jeffries vanished, suddenly reappearing in February 1989. Jeffries appeared at both a hotel in Buenos Aires and the FBI's Philadelphia office, within the same block of time. While at the latter, he ranted and raved to Gordon Cole and Albert Rosenfield about what happened to him, also briefly encountering Dale Cooper. Jeffries' reappearance was depicted onscreen in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and he disappeared for good not long after that.
Jeffries returned for Twin Peaks season 3, aka The Return, but in a non-human form that somewhat resembled a tea kettle. As one might imagine, this wasn't creator David Lynch's initial plan for the character. Here's why Bowie decided not to come back.
Twin Peaks: Why David Bowie Didn't Return for Season 3
According to David Lynch, while he never talked to David Bowie personally about reprising Phillip Jeffries in Twin Peaks season 3, he did speak to the rock star's lawyer, and was told he would be unable to to participate. Lynch wasn't told why, but the reason is clear in hindsight. Bowie passed away after a battle with cancer in January 2016, and kept the illness secret while he was alive. It was later revealed that his diagnosis came in 2014, so by the time Twin Peaks season 3 was entering production, he would've already been sick.
Lynch asked Bowie's reps for permission to at least use archive footage of Phillip Jeffries from Fire Walk with Me, and received it, but on one condition. Bowie was apparently ashamed of his attempt at a Louisiana accent in the film, and wanted his lines re-recorded by an actor actually from the state. Actor Nathan Frizzell was chosen to be that actor, who despite having been born in Texas, had spent most of his youth in New Orleans. For his part, Lynch says he was always happy with Bowie's accent, referring to it as "beautiful." Amusingly, Lynch never intended Jeffries' new Twin Peaks appearance to look like a tea kettle, and just meant it to be an odd machine.