His family announced his death in a Facebook post on Thursday. The cause of death and location were not immediately known, but the director had previously spoken publicly about his emphysema.
David Lynch made his breakthrough in the 1970s by directing the surrealist film Eraserhead. He then rarely failed to surprise and inspire audiences and peers over the following decades.
His most notable films range from neo-noir Mulholland Drive twisted gothic Blue Velvet through the eclectic and eccentric Twin Peaks.
He also directed the adapted crime drama Wild at Heart (Sailor and Lula), winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990, the biographical drama The Elephant Man and the film all in simplicity The Straight Story for toddlers.
David Lynch received an honorary Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2006.
-“There is a big void in the world now that he is no longer with us. But, as he said: “keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole”, we can read in his family’s Facebook post. It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
A native of Missoula, Montana, Lynch had an early gift for the visual arts and a passion for travel and discovery that led him to enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and begin a ten-year apprenticeship as a short film director.
