David Lynch, the visionary director and writer of films such as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and the much-loved TV series Twin Peaks, has died at the age of 78.
His family announced his death in a Facebook post, writing: “There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
Lynch revealed in August 2024 that he had been diagnosed with emphysema triggered by a lifetime of smoking, and would therefore likely be unable to leave his house to carry out creative work going forward. Speaking to The Guardian in November, he said: “I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”
Born David Keith Lynch in Missoula, Montana in 1946, he studied painting at art college in the 60s and made his first experimental short film, Six Men Getting Sick, while he was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He continued to make additional short film through the late 60s before moving to Los Angeles in 1971 to study filmmaking at the AFI Conservatory.
While studying, he started work on his first feature film, Eraserhead, which he finally completed in 1976. Written and directed by Lynch, the black-and-white surrealist body horror picture included a score that he also produced and was released to largely negative reviews. It became a cult classic in the years that followed, however, gaining particular success as a midnight movie.
Lynch was subsequently invited to direct The Elephant Man, the 1980 biopic of Joseph Merrick, which starred John Hurt in the lead role. It was nominated for eight Oscars and saw Lynch gain further attention within Hollywood. An offer to direct Star Wars film Return Of The Jedi was rejected in the 80s, but he did agree to make an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel Dune. It was a significant critical and commercial failure, though, with Lynch largely disowning the finished film due to a post-production recut that he was unhappy with.
A sequel to Dune had been planned but following his experience, Lynch decided instead to make the 1986 neo-noir mystery Blue Velvet. It was a critical hit and moderate commercial success which earned him his second Oscar nomination for best director.
Next, Lynch started work on one of the most influential projects of his career, the mystery drama TV series Twin Peaks, which debuted in 1990 and ran for two seasons during its initial run. A third season followed in 2017, while a prequel film, Fire Walk With Me, was released in 1992. Set in the Pacific Northwest town of Twin Peaks, the show followed an FBI Special Agent (played by Kyle McLachlan) who was investigating the murder of local teenager Laura Palmer.
1990 also saw Lynch work on the feature film adaptation of Barry Gifford’s novel Wild At Heart, which was debuted at Cannes Film Festival that year and starred Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern.
Another of his great critical successes came in 2001 film Mulholland Drive, which earned him his third Oscar nomination for best director. Initially pitched as a TV series, a pilot was shot for ABC who subsequently cancelled the series. French company StudioCanal gave Lynch the money to remodel it into a feature film, however. In-keeping with the neo-noir mystery theme of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, the film told the story of an aspiring actress who meets and befriends an amnesiac woman recovering from a car accident.
One of Lynch’s most challenging works came in the form of his next feature film, 2006’s Inland Empire. Starring Laura Dern, the three-hour movie pieced together various fragmented events and vignettes including depictions of a trio of humanoid rabbits.
Lynch took a step back from directing feature films after the release of Inland Empire, his only significant project coming in 2017 when he worked on the third season of Twin Peaks for Netflix. He had released three albums, however, in collaboration with American singer Chrystabell: 2011’s This Train, 2016’s Somewhere In The Nowhere and 2024’s Cellophane Memories.
He had reportedly been working on new projects before his death, which came just four days before his 79th birthday.
