David Lynch, Visionary Filmmaker Behind ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive,’ Dies at 78

David Lynch, the filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark vision in such movies as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and the TV series Twin Peaks, has died just days before his 79th birthday.

His family announced the death in a Facebook post on Thursday. The cause of death and location was not immediately available, but Lynch had been public about his emphysema.

“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,’” the post read. “It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

Lynch was a one-time artist who broke through in the 1970s with the surreal Eraserhead and rarely failed to startle and inspire audiences and peers in the following decades. His notable releases ranged from the neo-noir Mulholland Drive to the skewed Gothic of Blue Velvet to the eclectic and eccentric Twin Peaks.

Actor Kyle MacLachlan and director David Lynch during production of 'Blue Velvet,' in 1986.

Courtesy Everett Collection

His other credits included the crime story Wild at Heart, winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the biographical drama The Elephant Man and the G-rated, straightforward The Straight Story. The actors who regularly appeared in his movies included Kyle McLachlan, Laura Dern, Naomi Watts and Richard Farnsworth.​​

Lynch was a Missoula, Montana, native who moved around often with his family as a child and would long feel most at home away from the classroom, free to explore his fascination with the world. He had an early gift for visual arts and a passion for travel and discovery that led to his enrollment in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the beginning of a decadelong apprenticeship as a maker of short movies.​