David Lynch, Legendary Director of ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Blue Velvet,’ Dies at 78

David Lynch, the groundbreaking director of TV and movies from Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet to Wild at Heart, has died at 78.

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” his family said in a statement. “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.”

Deadline reported that Lynch was forced to relocate from his Los Angeles home due to the wildfires and that things then “took a turn for the worse.” In August, he revealed that he was suffering from emphysema after a lifetime of smoking and that he couldn’t leave his home for fear that he would get COVID.

The surrealist filmmaker started out as a painter and made short films before getting his big break with the release of the 1977 film, Eraserhead.

Mel Brooks then hired him to write and direct The Elephant Man (1982), about a disfigured man played by John Hurt. The movie earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Lynch’s first for Best Director.

Lynch’s career took off from there, as he helmed the 1984 adaptation of the science fiction novel Dune, casting a then-unknown Kyle MacLachlan, who would become a frequent collaborator and close friend.

While Dune was considered a flop at the time, Lynch bounced back with the 1986 noir thriller Blue Velvet, starring MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern.

“When people first meet David, they expect him to be neurotic and crazy and sick, but he’s not,” said Rossellini, who was romantically involved with Lynch at the time, to People. “It’s just that he looks at life in a different way... I’m in love with ideas, and I’m out there trying to catch them.”

Perhaps his biggest hit came in 1989 when he turned his attention to television, writing and directing the TV series Twin Peaks, which ran for two seasons and had the nation asking the question “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” The show’s first season scored 14 Emmy nominations with Lynch going on to direct the 1992 feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me) and a 2017 series, Twin Peaks: The Return.

Lynch earned international accolades after writing and directing the 1990 thriller Wild at Heart, starring Dern, Rossellini, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, and Harry Dean Stanton, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Lynch directed four more films including 1997’s Lost Highway, 1999’s The Straight Story, 2001’s Mulholland Drive and 2006’s Inland Empire. Mulholland Drive would launch the Hollywood career of Naomi Watts, who played an aspiring Hollywood actress.

Lynch was nominated for four Academy Awards (directing Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, and for directing and co-writing The Elephant Man) despite directing just 10 feature films in his lifetime. He received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 2019.

He was married to first wife Peggy Reavey from 1967 to 1974, with whom he shares daughter, Jennifer, who is also a filmmaker. From 1977 to 1987, he was married to Mary Fisk. They shared son Austin. From 2006 to 2007, he was married to Mary Sweeney, with whom he had son Riley, and in 2009 he married Emily Stofle, who appeared in Inland Empire and the third season of Twin Peaks, with the couple sharing daughter Lula Boginia. Stofle filed for divorce in 2023.

Lynch would have turned 79 this Monday, Jan. 20.