David Lynch, Hollywood’s Eccentric Filmmaker, Dead at 78

David Lynch, the mind behind Twin Peaks, has passed away at 78.

His family shared the news on Facebook, quoting Lynch himself: “Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole.”

He was known for bizarre films, creating unsettling projects that makes Tim Burton seem tame.

It was last August that he let the public know he was suffering from emphysema.

His vision will continue to be embraced by a subculture that embraces his work.

David Lynch (1946-2025) 🖤 pic.twitter.com/vD77IkUJPm

— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) January 16, 2025

Hollywood Reporter reports:

David Lynch, the writer-director whose films and TV series including Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks portrayed a seemingly bucolic America, only to reveal it as teeming with the mysterious and macabre, has died. He was 78.

Lynch’s death was announced on his Facebook page:

“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.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.

In August, he revealed that he was suffering from emphysema after many years of smoking and that he couldn’t leave home for fear that he would get COVID-19.

Nobody who saw Lynch’s works could mistake them for anyone else’s. Unlike other leading auteurs, he didn’t belong to a movement or fit easily into a genre; while his pictures echoed the mindset of a Luis Buñuel or a Salvador Dalí — critic Pauline Kael called him “the first populist surrealist” — and were influenced by such film noir landmarks as Billy Wilder’s Sunset Blvd., they were sui generis; his creations, in fact, appeared timeless, strangely disconnected from any particular era or place, which made them all the more startling and disturbing.

These were horror stories that mixed the monstrous with the mundane, that emerged from a landscape of dreams or nightmares, their happy endings doing nothing to erase the discomfort they left behind. They were as perplexing as any drawing of M.C. Escher, as haunting as any Grimms fairy tale, only far harder to decipher — which sometimes led skeptics to wonder whether even Lynch had the key to unlocking them. Few doubted the power of his vision and imagination, though naysayers questioned his logical thread.

It’s a shame he won’t see the great future coming under Trump’s 2nd Administration.

Legend. pic.twitter.com/IrXnxuDFGK

— Imani Mfuru (@ImaniMfuru) January 16, 2025

Not everyone wishes him the best.

david lynch signed off a letter to support roman polanski a known child convicted rapist. stfu with the RIP for his bitchass😭 pic.twitter.com/bPkXxRjiWX

— enes (@3n6ss) January 16, 2025