David Lynch, a painter turned avant-garde filmmaker whose fame, influence and distinctively skewed worldview extended far beyond the movie screen to encompass television, records, books, nightclubs, a line of organic coffee and his Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, 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 network TV series "Twin Peaks,” broadcast by ABC in 1991 and 1992; 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.
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