David Lynch Dies: ‘Twin Peaks’ And ‘Blue Velvet’ Director Was 78
by Marc Berman · ForbesFamed director David Lynch, who dared to be different in his often dark and surrealistic storytelling in film and on television, has died. He was 78.
“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,’” wrote a family member on Facebook.
Born January 20, 1946 in Missoula, Montana, David Lynch began his career as a painter and visual artist, studying at Washington, D.C.’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
In the 1960s, Lynch honed his skills making short films. In 1970, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he enrolled in the American Film Institute Conservatory. His first feature-length movie was the independent feature Eraserhead in 1977, which told the story of a man (Jack Nance) who is left to care for his grossly deformed child in a desolate industrial landscape.
Eraserhead introduced Lynch’s unique narrative to a group of devoted fans.
Lynch was nominated for an Academy Award three times in the category of Best Director: The Elephant Man in 1980, which was loosely based on the life of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man who lived in London in the late 19th century; the neo-nor thriller Blue Velvet in 1980; and the surrealist mystery Mulholland Drive in 2001.
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A fourth Oscar nomination came in the category of Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for The Elephant Man.
Other notable films on Lynch’s resume include the sprawling space opera Dune in 1984, which the critics did not necessarily embrace; Wild at Heart in 1990, which was honored at the Cannes Film Festival; and the surrealist neo-noir Lost Highway in 1997. But what afforded Lynch with his greatest fame, perhaps, was the quirky surrealist mystery-horror drama Twin Peaks, which aired for two seasons on ABC (from 1990-91) and was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards (before losing a large chunk of the audience in season two).
It was revived as the limited series Twin Peaks: The Return on Showtime in 2017.
In addition to painting, visual artistry and filmmaking, Lynch found work as a musician and actor (including the recurring role of FBI agent Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks).
“His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other,” wrote Kyle MacLachlan on Instagram, who was featured in Dune, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks (both in the original and the revival). “I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.”
“My heart is broken. My Buddy Dave… The world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful,” wrote Naomi Watts, who starred in Mulholland Drive. "He put me on the map. The world I’d been trying to break into for ten plus years, flunking auditions left and right. Finally, I sat in front of a curious man, beaming with light, speaking words from another era, making me laugh and feel at ease."
Lynch was married four times. He is survived by two daughters and two sons.