David Lynch saw my dreams. As a teenager growing up in suburban America in the ‘80s, “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” hit like a bolt of lightning. Not only did they capture something about the sinister, surreal underbelly of life under the picket fences, but they said something directly to anyone who thought they could be an artist: You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing.
Lynch was one of those creative voices who found his own octave, doing for film what people like David Bowie or Prince did for music, shattering expectations of what a piece of art could be. Even when his work missed the mark, which was rare, Lynch was never anything less than a singular artist, a creator who never once succumbed to the desire to please that derails so much potential in his industry. When people point to Lynch works like “Mulholland Dr.” or “The Straight Story” or even those of us who love “Lost Highway,” it’s not just that specific film that speaks to them—it’s the sense that the potential of the form is limitless as long as people like Lynch are involved. The entire art form was shifted by him and is now lessened by his absence. We owe it to him to burst through the doors he opened.
David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana in 1946 to a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a job that forced a lot of relocations for the Lynch family, including stops in Washington, North Carolina, Idaho, and Virginia. It’s not hard to see Lynch’s complex relationship with America being formed by seeing so much of it when he was younger. It cemented both a closer look at the façade of Middle America and a love for the people across it, both of which were reflected in his work and personality. In Lynch on Lynch, he said, “My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it’s supposed to be. But on the cherry tree, there’s this pitch oozing out—some black, some yellow, and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. Because I grew up in a perfect world, other things were a contrast.”
After high school, he studied art at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he met Peggy Reavey, and the two were married in 1967. She gave birth to future filmmaker Jennifer Lynch the next year, and David had a “normal” job printing engravings. He couldn’t give up his artistic side, making a short film in 1967 titled “Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times),” reportedly for a budget of $150. When it won an award, a wealthy fellow student commissioned Lynch for a film installation. The result is the stunning “The Alphabet,” starring his wife Peggy and including a sound of Jennifer crying. Lynch was already using his own “ordinary” life to create extraordinary art.
In the ‘70s, the Lynch family moved to Los Angeles, and David began work on the project that would become “Eraserhead,” his breakthrough work, and a piece that would shoot on and off from 1972 to 1976. “Eraserhead” stars Jack Nance and was clearly influenced by Lynch’s time in a chaotic Philadelphia with a young family. Lynch even called the unforgettable cinematic nightmare “my Philadelphia Story.” A lot of people didn’t get it—Cannes and NYFF rejected it—but it started to build fans on the midnight circuit of the ‘70s, an increasingly robust launchpad for artists like John Waters and Alejandro Jodorowsky.
One person who saw it on that cult classic circuit was Stuart Cornfeld, who was producing a film for Mel Brooks based on “The Elephant Man.” While often considered one of Lynch’s more traditional films – and it would end up his most Oscar-nominated film with eight nods – it definitely fits into the Lynch catalog of outsider stories.
“The Elephant Man” was such a hit that it opened every door for Lynch, including even being courted to direct “Return of the Jedi” (the mind reels at what he would have done with Ewoks). He ended up in another sci-fi franchise, making a controversial version of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” that would frustrate viewers and bomb at the box office. (If you want a detailed look at the making of that film, read this.)
It’s interesting to consider that the failure of “Dune” was to the benefit of film history. Lynch was contracted to do a sequel, but the film bombed, leading Dino De Laurentiis to shift plans and produce a script that Lynch had been working on for years called “Blue Velvet.” One of the best films of its era, “Blue Velvet” stars Kyle MacLachlan as Jeffery Beaumont, an average young man who finds an ear in a field, leading him into a dark waking nightmare that includes an unforgettable performance from Dennis Hopper as the vicious Frank Booth. Roger Ebert notoriously didn’t like the film, but most critics fell in love with it, and it cemented what “Lynchian” would mean for generations of filmmakers to come.
Lynch’s fifth film, 1990’s “Wild at Heart” would be one of his most divisive—it’s often pointed to as Lynch at his most excessive—but it was what he did on television that same year that rocked the entertainment world: “Twin Peaks.” I could write a book about what “Twin Peaks” meant to a 15-year-old entertainment junkie. To summarize, it exploded the potential of the form. People who watch “Twin Peaks” over three decades later need to understand the TV landscape on which it landed. I’m not saying there wasn’t quality TV in the ‘80s, but there was less risk-taking than in the 2020s, and watching the saga of Laura Palmer next to formulaic dramas or laugh-track-heavy sitcoms felt like a true shock to the system. For more on “Twin Peaks” and why it mattered, check this out.
David Lynch would only make five films after “Twin Peaks”: the TV prequel to the show in “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” “Lost Highway,” “The Straight Story,” “Mulholland Drive,” and “Inland Empire.” That we never got another film after that 2006 horror flick will forever bring me down, but Lynch did have one more gift for us in “Twin Peaks: The Return,” the 2017 Showtime reboot of the show, and proof that Lynch had lost none of his creative vigor.
David Lynch was also an artist, photographer, musician, writer, furniture designer, and actor, appearing memorably for the last time in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” He is introduced in that film as playing “the greatest filmmaker of all time,” John Ford. I always thought that Spielberg included that appellation as a bit of a nod to Lynch’s legacy too. For a young Spielberg, the greatest filmmaker of all time was John Ford. For me, it was David Lynch.
David Lynch was my favorite film director of all time. I am broken.
— 🏳️🌈 Ms. Marya E. Gates 🦩 (@oldfilmsflicker) January 16, 2025
I do not want it to be true but seeing reports David Lynch has passed. This is too much for words. This is a rift in the earth
— Scout Tafoya (@Honors_Zombie) January 16, 2025
David Lynch, fuck. So difficult to quantify his impact, on how we understand beauty and darkness, and process our collective hopes and fears. He made me horrified of what we can’t see in the world and in love with what was out there to be discovered. He will be so goddamn missed. pic.twitter.com/DRfFt5o49Z
— ✍🏼 roxana | ✊🏼 zivar | ⚒️ hadadi (@roxana_hadadi) January 16, 2025
David Lynch was truly a unique filmmaker. He leaves an incredible legacy behind. There’ll never be another to do it like him – from moviemaking to living life.
He hated to be asked what his films meant, but this is the perfect reply: “Film is its own language.” #RIPDavidLynch pic.twitter.com/5iZA48Opcy
— Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle) January 16, 2025
A devasting, incomprehensible loss but some solace knowing David Lynch’s final major work was an 18-hour magnum opus made entirely on his terms. I’ll never forget what a staggering experience it was seeing it entirely in a theater. Thank you for all the joy and the nightmares. pic.twitter.com/1LY1VHXoRu
— Jordan Raup (@jpraup) January 16, 2025
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