R.I.P. David Lynch

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Legendary filmmaker and musician David Lynch has died. The news was announced via his official Facebook page. “We would appreciate some privacy at this time,” Lynch’s family wrote. “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.’” A cause of death has not yet been announced, but he recently revealed he had been diagnosed with emphysema. He was 78 years old.

Born in Missoula, Montana, Lynch was the son of a scientist employed by the Department of Agriculture and an English language tutor. Because of his father’s job, the family moved around a lot when he was younger, and eventually developed an interest in visual arts while living in Alexandria, Virginia. He attended both the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design as well as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he shared a room with musician Peter Wolf, later of J. Geils Band. He briefly lived in Austria, but returned to the U.S. and settled in Philadelphia, where he married Peggy Reavey. They lived in Philly’s Fairmount neighborhood, which at the time was affordable but high in crime, the experience of which became formative for Lynch.

He took a job printing engravings, at which point he finished his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick. He followed that with the short film The Alphabet, a surreal and grotesque animated film that included his wife Peggy reciting the alphabet. In 1970, they moved to Los Angeles where Lynch studied at the AFI Conservatory. It’s here where he began work on his debut feature film, the disturbing and surreal black-and-white movie Eraserhead, which was originally planned to be 42 minutes long but ended up being 89 minutes and took five years to make.

He continued to delve deeper into surrealist takes on Americana, including Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and, most famously, Twin Peaks, his short-lived ABC series created in partnership with Mark Frost. Though it was canceled after two seasons, the show’s cryptic themes and distinctive imagery made it highly influential in the years that followed, and it was eventually revived for Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return, which featured musical performances from Nine Inch Nails, Sharon Van Etten, The Chromatics and Rebekah Del Rio, who also was featured in his 2001 film Mulholland Drive.

David Lynch also made music and released a number of albums throughout his career, including 2013’s The Big Dream and his collaboration with Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti, Thought Gang. He also co-wrote and produced the songs on Julee Cruise’s debut album, Floating Into the Night. His last album was his collaboration with Chrystabell, 2024’s Cellophane Memories.

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