With his dark, surrealistic artistic vision in films like ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Mulholland Drive,’ as well as on network television with ‘Twin Peaks,’ director-writer David Lynch revolutionized American cinema. Lynch passed away. He was 78 years old.

After a lifetime of smoking, Lynch disclosed in 2024 that he had been diagnosed with emphysema and would probably no longer be able to leave his home to direct. ‘There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s not with us,’ his family wrote in a Facebook post announcing his passing. However, he would advise, ‘Pay attention to the donut and not the hole.’

Horror, film noir, the whodunit, and traditional European surrealism were all combined in the television series Twin Peaks and movies like Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive. Like his Spanish forerunner Luis Bunuel, Lynch crafted stories that followed their own inexplicable logic.

In 2020, Lynch, a four-time Oscar contender, was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

After years of working as a painter and producing live-action and short animated films, Lynch made his feature debut in 1977 with ‘Eraserhead,’ a macabre, black-humored film that quickly established itself as a gruesome midnight movie staple. The film industry in Hollywood and around the world soon took notice of his unconventional and unyielding approach.

In order to create and film ‘The Elephant Man,’ a profoundly moving drama about a horribly malformed carnival freak in Victorian England who rose to national fame, he was hired by Mel Brooks’ production firm. Eight Academy Award nominations were received by the film, including Lynch’s first for best director.

His 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s expansive science fiction book ‘Dune’ was less successful. Despite a laborious three-year shoot and a $40 million budget, the project was a huge box office failure.

‘Twin Peaks,’ a huge hit in its first season, lost steam and, eventually, viewers in its second season. Nevertheless, it gave rise to a full-length prequel in 1992, the extravagant ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.’ Twenty-five years later, the enduring adoration of a devoted fan base inspired a limited-run third season for Showtime that continued where the second season left off.

The filmmaker himself was always reluctant to explain his work’s meaning to his audience. He discussed the mysterious essence of his work with author Chris Rodley in the book-length compilation of interviews titled ‘Lynch On Lynch’ (2005).

‘Well, imagine if you did discover a book of riddles and you could begin solving them, but they were really difficult,’ Lynch added. You would discover mysteries and be enthralled. We all come upon this book of riddles, and that’s the reality. And you’ll be able to solve them. The issue is that even if you told someone, they wouldn’t believe you or comprehend it the same way you do. You figure them out on your own.

In addition to his honorary Oscar, Lynch’s unique career was recognized with a Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival and a special award at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, which he shared with frequent star Laura Dern.

He was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946. Before relocating to Alexandria, Virginia, where Lynch completed high school, his nomadic family lived in the plains states, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeast. Lynch’s father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture.

Lynch was an uninterested student who concentrated on painting. In 1965, he enrolled at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts after spending a year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and an unsuccessful tour to Europe with his buddy Jack Fisk, who would go on to become a well-known Hollywood production designer.

Lynch started experimenting with film, creating the animated shorts ‘Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)’ and ‘The Alphabet’ (1968), while residing in a restrictive Philadelphia area with his first wife and their young daughter Jennifer, who would go on to become a director herself.

Funded by a grant from the recently established American picture Institute, ‘The Grandmother’ (1970) was a live-action and animated picture. Lynch relocated to Los Angeles in 1971 to pursue a degree in filmmaking at the AFI’s Conservatory for Advanced Film Studies, which is housed in the former Beverly Hills Doheny estate.

Lynch started working on a film at the AFI in 1972. A 21-page preliminary script started to take shape, influenced by his depressing years as a failing artist and print engraver in Philadelphia; Lynch would later claim he had no recollection of creating it. He worked on the movie over the following five years with a number of people who would be a constant in his career, such as actor Jack Nance, sound designer Alan Splet, and cinematographer Frederick Elmes.

‘Eraserhead’ was released in 1977 by independent distributor Libra Films International after being painstakingly, inexpensively, and impromptu shot over five years. The unsettling black-and-white movie traced the psychological decline of its shrewd protagonist Henry Spencer (Nance) following the birth of his horribly deformed child.

When the film debuted at L.A.’s Filmex in 1977, critics were undoubtedly worried, but when Libra opened the film for midnight viewing in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, it began to take on a life of its own. At L.A. screenings, Lynch would often tell his bewildered audiences, ‘Don’t ask about the baby.’

Stuart Cornfeld, a producer at Mel Brooks’ Brooksfilms, was among the ecstatic audience members at a midnight performance at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. He persuaded Brooks to hire Lynch, and after seeing ‘Eraserhead,’ Brooks extended an employment offer to the filmmaker.

Lynch chose to work on the story of John Merrick, whose dramatic life story had already served as the basis for the popular play written by Bernard Pomerance in 1977. The film adaptation of ‘The Elephant Man’ was a completely new endeavor, co-written by Lynch and featuring Brooks’ wife Anne Bancroft as a compassionate West End theater star, Anthony Hopkins as the surgeon from London Hospital who became Merrick’s guardian, and a dramatically made-up John Hurt as the sensitive Merrick.