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David Lynch, a painter turned
avant-garde filmmaker
whose fame, influence and distinctively skewed worldview extended far beyond the movie screen, has died. He was 78. His family announced the death on social media Thursday but provided no details. In 2024, Lynch announced that he had developed emphysema after years of smoking, and that as a result, any subsequent films would have to be directed remotely.
Lynch was a visionary. His florid style and unnerving perspective emerged full-blown in his first feature, the cult film "
Eraserhead
", released at midnight in 1977. His approach remained consistent through the failed blockbuster "
Dune
" (1984); his small-town erotic thriller "
Blue Velvet
" (1986) and its spiritual spinoff, the TV series "
Twin Peaks
" (1990-1991); his widely acknowledged masterpiece "
Mulholland Drive
" (2001), a poisonous valentine to Hollywood; and his enigmatic last feature, "
Inland Empire
" (2006), which he shot himself on video.
His style of filmmaking prompted the term "
Lynchian
", which Vanity Fair magazine described as weird, creepy, and slow. In his films Lynch inserted the macabre and disturbing into the ordinary and mundane and heightened the impact with music. Lynch said that he was not only interested in the story, but also the mood of a film. In the opening scenes of "Blue Velvet", among suburban homes, an investigator finds a severed ear lying in a manicured lawn.
He never won a competitive Academy Award. He got nominations for "The Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" and, in 2019, was presented an honorary Oscar. In his later years Lynch devoted himself to making documentaries, short films, painting and a YouTube channel. He released albums, music videos, and books, including his 2018 memoir "Room to Dream". NYT & Agencies
