The Secret to KYLE'S RAD DAD LIFE

The Internet's favorite father figure — and movie star, cult-TV icon and podcaster — Kyle MacLachlan gives Us his tips for living as whimsically and wonderfully as he does

- CARLA SOSENKO AND AMANDA WILLIAMS

Kyle MacLachlan means something different to everyone who loves him. For Gen Xers who first encountered the actor via surrealist collabs with director David Lynch — Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks — he was the idiosyncratic, raven-haired dreamboat. Fans who met him post-Y2K might more closely align MacLachlan with comedy, thanks to standout performances in shows like How I Met Your Mother and Portlandia. For others, he will always be Charlotte York’s great-on-paper first husband, Trey MacDougal, in Sex and the City.

In more than 40 years as a working actor, MacLachlan, 66, has played two different characters on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, a sinister doctor in Zoë Kravitz’s underrated masterpiece, Blink Twice, Overseer Hank on the postapocalyptic Prime Video hit Fallout (season 2 is out Dec. 17), and too many other roles to fit in one story. But right here, right now — in the zeitgeist and our collective consciousness — he’s playing his most memorable, beloved role so far: the Internet’s dad.

Over the past few years, the Washington native’s earnest, lighthearted social content has drawn in a new generation of admirers. He has 1.2 million followers on Instagram, who tune in for viral choreo (sometimes with former costars, like his Sex and the City wife Kristin Davis), hear hot takes on wine (including his own, Pursued by Bear) and swoon over sweet photos of his wife of 23 years, Desiree Gruber. Even his spon-con is delightfully quirky. (Looking at you, Arby’s potato cakes.) While other stars aging out of leading man material might be threatened by the youngsters, MacLachlan has embraced and connected with them.

“It’s so nice to hear that I’m a comforting figure,” he tells Us. “My approach has always been joyful... to have fun on the internet; to be as understanding and nonjudgmental as possible.”