He had a long-lasting and fruitful working relationship with the director David Lynch, with whom he worked on many films, including Eraserhead, Dune, and Blue Velvet.
Their name comes from David Lynch's Eraserhead, in which the character lives in Apartment 26.
It was inspired by the surreal David Lynch horror film Eraserhead, in which the main character Henry Spencer watches and listens to the Lady in the Radiator sing about finding happiness in heaven.
Bates, who also taught acting, appeared in 1977 as Mrs. X in David Lynch's Eraserhead.
Judith Anna Roberts (born 1935), American stage, film and television actress; played Beautiful Girl Across the Hall in David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977); co-stars with Elliott Gould in 2012's Fred Won't Move Out; also billed as Judith Roberts
The film chronicles the period between 1970 and 1977 in which six low-budget films shown at midnight transformed the way films are made and watched: El Topo (1970), Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Harder They Come (1973), Pink Flamingos (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Eraserhead (1977).