David Lynch

David Lynch, who made films and television shows unlike anyone else, has died at 78, his family said in a statement Thursday.

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. 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,” the statement said.

Though many attempted to imitate Lynch, and countless critics and filmmakers fell back on the word “Lynchian” to describe any film that was a little weird, no one could match his vision. The director of Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man and other classics was more adept than any other filmmaker — and especially any mainstream filmmaker — at telling dreamlike stories with an emotional pull so strong you didn’t care if they made sense.

But they did make sense, at least to David Lynch. Two of his films — Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway and arguably more — double back on themselves with characters who seem to be almost cover versions of other characters, just as a person in a dream can be that person but also not that person, but rather represent your mother or father or friend you need to call.

Lynch announced last year that he had developed emphysema after years of smoking, but no details were provided about his passing. He was known not just for films and co-creating the this-changes-everything TV show Twin Peaks, but also for books, music, a line of coffee and his David Lynch Foundation, which he founded to share his belief in Transcendental Meditation.

“I started Transcendental Meditation® in 1973 and have not missed a single meditation ever since. Twice a day, every day,” he wrote on the foundation’s website. “It has given me effortless access to unlimited reserves of energy, creativity and happiness deep within. This level of life is sometimes called ‘pure consciousness’—it is a treasury. And this level of life is deep within us all.”

The Life of David Lynch

Though he was known for his share of lurid shocks, they succeeded because he juxtaposed them with images of ramrod-straight 1950s-style suburbia, in projects from Twin Peaks to Blue Velvet. Diners and diner-inspired restaurants were a particular touchstone: He dropped a Denny’s into the dreamworld of Mulholland Drive and ate at Bob’s Big Boy every day while planning his storied 1984 production of Dune.

He was born Jan. 20, 1946, in Missoula, Montana, but soon moved with his family to Boise, Idaho, and then to Spokane, Washington, both of whom would inform the woodsy-cool aesthetic of Twin Peaks and its 1992 prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

He later attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He established himself as a painter before moving on to avant-garde films.

His first feature, inspired in part by an American Film Institute fellowship, was 1977’s black-and-white Eraserhead. Soon Mel Brooks hired him to direct The Elephant Man, based on the true story of Victorian-era celebrity Joseph Merrick, famous for his severe deformity. It earned eight Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director for Lynch.

He soon turned down the chance to direct Return of the Jedi, opting instead to make Dune. It became one of his rare failures.

“I was so depressed and sickened by it, you know?” he told The Onion’s AV Club in 2022. “I want to say, I loved everybody that I worked with; they were so fantastic. I loved all the actors; I loved the crew; I loved working in Mexico; I loved everything except that I didn’t have final cut. And I even loved Dino [DeLaurentiis], who wouldn’t give me what I wanted. And Raffaella, the producer, who was his daughter—I loved her.” 

Soon, he would go on to make 1986’s Blue Velvet in Wilmington, North Carolina, helping establish the city as a film hub. And he would make Twin Peaks, with Mark Frost, which reinvented the soap opera, the murder mystery, and the possibilities of television in its two seasons on ABC.

It is hard to write any of this without thinking a lot about how much he affected me, personally. My first screen crushes were on Twin Peaks characters. The first time I drove a car, without an adult present, was to see Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I run a movie magazine now, and have to think David Lynch and his work pointed me in that direction as much as anyone.

My wife, a much bigger David Lynch fan than me (and the publisher of this website), went to the annual Twin Peaks convention in Snoqualmie Valley, dressed as a donut with feathers. We have mugs in our cupboard from the premiere party for 2017’s Showtime series Twin Peaks: The Return. One of my favorite travel memories is seeing an exhibit of his art when we went to Tokyo. Another was watching Inland Empire in Paris.

I tried to interview him many times, and it never worked out. His assistant sent plucky, upbeat, Lynchian turn-downs.

One thing I think about a lot and don’t do enough is follow some advice he gave us all vis-a-vis his Twin Peaks protagonist, FBI agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan.

“Every day, once a day, give yourself a present,” Cooper said. “Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.”

Main image: David Lynch on the red carpet during the 12th Rome Film Festival at the Parco Della Musica. Shutterstock.

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