Frank Silva majored in theater at San Francisco State University, receiving a master's degree in light design. He worked with director David Lynch on several of his movies (Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) as a prop master and set decorator. While Silva was working on fixing up the set for the character Laura Palmer's bedroom in the pilot episode for Twin Peaks, Lynch decided that Silva should be Bob after accidentally filming him in a reflection in a mirror. Frank Silva died on September 13, 1995, aged 44 from AIDS-related complications, in Seattle.