David Lynch appears at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Oct. 27, 2019. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Oscar-nominated director David Lynch, best known for films such as “Blue Velvet” and “The Elephant Man” and the quirky television drama “Twin Peaks,” has died at age 78, his family announced Thursday.
“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” the family wrote on Facebook.
“We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hold 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.”
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No cause of death was released. Last year, Lynch told a British magazine that he would have to retire from filmmaking due to health reasons, saying he had “gotten emphysema from smoking for so long” and he did not want to leave his home and possibly be exposed to COVID-19.
He said he “can only walk a short distance” before running out of oxygen but after the article was published, Lynch took to social media insisting he would never retire.
Filmmaker David Lynch poses for a portrait in his private screening room in Los Angeles on Sept. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)
“Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking,” he wrote. “I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco — the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them — but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema.”
rmk slot ADVERTISEMENTLynch was nominated for writing and directing Oscars for 1980’s “The Elephant Man.” He received two more best-director nominations for “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive.” He received an honorary Oscar in 2020.
Born in Montana, Lynch gained attention in the 1970s with his noir classic “Eraserhead,” which led to his breakthrough work on “The Elephant Man.” His follow-up to that film was 1984’s ambitious yet poorly received adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel “Dune,” which starred a then-unknown actor named Kyle MacLachlan.
Lynch rebounded in 1986 with “Blue Velvet,” also starring MacLachlan along with Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern. He made a major splash with the 1989 cable murder-mystery series “Twin Peaks,” again enlisting MacLachlan as an odd FBI agent investigating the killing of a teenage girl in a fictitious small town.
ADVERTISEMENTThe show was so popular it led to a nationwide craze of viewers trying to figure out who killed Laura Palmer. He went on to direct films including “Lost Highway,” “Mulholland Drive,” “The Straight Story” and “Inland Empire.”
MacLachlan paid tribute to Lynch Thursday, writing online that “I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.”
“What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him,” MacLachlan wrote.
“He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to. … David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.”
“While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could have never conceived on my own.”
Actor/director Ron Howard responded to Lynch’s death Thursday, writing on X that Lynch was “a gracious man and fearless artist who followed his heart and soul proved that radical experimentation could yield unforgettable cinema.” (CNS)
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