by Abb Jones
The Reelness

Director David Lynch, the maverick filmmaker best known for the surrealist cult classics Mulholland Drive and the mystery/horror TV series Twin Peaks, has died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 78, just four days before his birthday. Lynch revealed last year that he was battling emphysema, a chronic lung disease, after “many years of smoking.”

Born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana, Lynch was a painter until he switched to filmmaking in the 1960s, getting his big break with the 1977 surrealist film Eraserhead.

Three of Lynch’s four Oscar nominations were for Best Director, for 1980’s The Elephant Man, 1986’s Blue Velvet, and 2001’s Mulholland Drive, the fourth being a screenwriting nomination for The Elephant Man. Lynch received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar in 2020, three decades after he won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for 1990’s Wild at Heart.

In 2022, Lynch appeared as John Ford in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Married four times, Lynch is survived by two daughters and two sons.