Best known to horror fans for surrealist films and television series like Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and more, filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor David Lynch has passed away just shy of his 79th birthday.
“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. 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,’” a statement posted on the director’s official Facebook page reads this afternoon. “It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
Lynch recently shared on social media that he was diagnosed with emphysema, which greatly impacted his mobility, and he was able to continue directing only remotely.
“Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. 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,” Mr. Lynch wrote in his post on social media.
Born on January 20, 1946, David Lynch started as a painter before eventually transitioning into film. His breakout feature debut, 1977’s Eraserhead, established Lynch’s surrealist style as it explored the horrors and anxieties of parenthood in the most unsettling way. While Eraserhead may have caught everyone’s notice, Lynch’s sophomore film, The Elephant Man, garnered eight Academy Award nominations, including Lynch’s first for Best Director.
The filmmaker’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune failed to resonate with audiences at the box office, but Lynch’s subsequent films Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart further cemented his filmmaking style with violent psychosexual portraits of small-town America.
More importantly, they were a precursor to the hit series “Twin Peaks,” which was co-created with writer Mark Frost in 1990 and revolutionized American episodic television. It followed Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) as he investigated the murder of teen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), exposing corruption and supernatural mysteries in the Pacific Northwest in the process. It ran for two seasons and later received a horror-centric prequel, 1992’s haunting Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Twenty-five years later, the series’ devout cult following led to a limited-run third season for Showtime that continued the second season’s dangling plot threads.
David Lynch as Gordon Cole in “Twin Peaks”
More than just creating a seminal piece of American television, David Lynch also became an on-screen fan favorite as the hard-of-hearing, quirky, and pure-hearted FBI Agent Gordon Cole. It was Cole’s iconic “fix their hearts or die” line that highlighted Lynch’s bottomless empathy lurking beneath the surface of his deeply disturbing visions of Americana.
The blurring of reality-meets-surrealism in Lynch’s work would only increase, reflected in his nightmarish and dreamlike films Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire. Writer Michael Pemental described the director as “A master of the psychological art house; David Lynch’s voice also speaks to the horror genre. His monsters and ghouls are the secrets and evil that hide within people and behind closed doors. His stories are not about overcoming obstacles but what it means to live a life of hell. His craft taps into the existential that appears normal at first but slowly unravels to reveal grime and terror. Not only is the art of David Lynch that of surreal nightmares, but a representation of how horror is woven through the existential fabrics of life.”
The artist, creator, and filmmaker loved his work and refused to let his health issues slow him down, vowing to fans that he’d never retire, even releasing the new album Cellophane Memories last year, his latest collaboration with singer and actress Chrystabell.
David Lynch’s work is so singular that the Oxford English Dictionary recognizes the term “Lynchian” as “Characteristic, reminiscent, or imitative of the films or television work of David Lynch.” It’s a term that also signifies what a tremendous loss the artist’s passing brings.
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting send our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the friends, family, and many fans of the great David Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Lynch, for all the wonderful movie memories.