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David Lynch, legendary filmmaker, dies at 78
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David Lynch, the filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark and dreamlike vision in such movies as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and the TV series “Twin Peaks,” has died just days before his 79th birthday.
His family announced the death in a Facebook post on Thursday.
“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,’” the family’s post read. “It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
The cause of death and location was not immediately available. Last summer, Lynch had revealed to Sight and Sound that he was diagnosed with emphysema and would not be leaving his home because of fears of contracting the coronavirus or “even a cold.”
“I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not,” Lynch said, adding he didn’t expect to make another film.
“I would try to do it remotely, if it comes to it,” Lynch said. “I wouldn’t like that so much.”
Lynch was a onetime painter who broke through in the 1970s with the surreal “Eraserhead” and rarely failed to startle and inspire audiences, peers and critics in the following decades. His notable releases ranged from the neo-noir “Mulholland Drive” to the skewed gothic of “Blue Velvet” to the eclectic and eccentric “Twin Peaks,” which won three Golden Globes, two Emmys and even a Grammy for its theme music. Pauline Kael, the film critic, called Lynch “the first populist surrealist — a Frank Capra of dream logic.”
“‘Blue Velvet,’ ‘Mulholland Drive’ and ‘Elephant Man’ defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade,” director Steven Spielberg said in a statement. Spielberg noted that he had cast Lynch as director John Ford, one of his early influences, in his 2022 film “The Fabelmans.”
“It was surreal and seemed like a scene out of one of David’s own movies,” Spielberg said. “The world is going to miss such an original and unique voice.”
“Lynchian” became a style of its own, yet one that ultimately belonged only to him. Lynch’s films pulled disturbing surrealistic mysteries and unsettling noir nightmares out of ordinary life. In the opening scenes of “Blue Velvet,” among suburban homes and picket fences, an investigator finds a severed ear lying in a manicured lawn.
Steven Soderbergh, who told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was a proud owner of two end tables crafted by Lynch (his numerous hobbies included furniture design), called “Elephant Man” a perfect film.
“He’s one of those filmmakers who was influential but impossible to imitate. People would try but he had one kind of algorithm that worked for him and you attempted to recreate it at your peril,” Soderbergh told the AP. “As non-linear and illogical as they often seemed, they were clearly highly organized in his mind.”
Lynch never won a competitive Academy Award. He received nominations for directing “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and, in 2019, was presented an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
“To the Academy and everyone who helped me along the way, thanks,” he said at the time, in characteristically off-beat remarks. “You have a very nice face. Good night.”
His other credits included the crime story “Wild at Heart,” winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the biographical drama “The Elephant Man” and the G-rated, aptly straightforward “The Straight Story.” Actors regularly appearing in his movies included Kyle McLachlan, Laura Dern, Naomi Watts and Richard Farnsworth.
Lynch was a Missoula, Montana, native who moved around often with his family as a child and would long feel most at home away from the classroom, free to explore his fascination with the world. Lynch’s mother was a English teacher and his father a research scientist with the U.S. Agriculture Department. He was raised in the Pacific Northwest before the family settled in Virginia. Lynch’s childhood was by all accounts free of trauma. He praised his parents as “loving” and “fair” in his memoir, though he also recalled formative memories that shaped his sensibility.
One day near his family’s Pacific Northwest home, Lynch recalled seeing a beautiful, naked woman emerge from the woods bloodied and weeping.
“I saw a lot of strange things happen in the woods,” Lynch told Rolling Stone. “And it just seemed to me that people only told you 10% of what they knew and it was up to you to discover the other 90%.”
He had an early gift for visual arts and a passion for travel and discovery. He dropped out of several colleges before enrolling in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, beginning of a decade-long apprenticeship as a maker of short movies. He was working as a printmaker in 1966 when he made his first film, a four-minute short named “Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times).” That and other worked landed Lynch a place at the then-nascent American Film Institute.
There he began working on what would become his 1977 feature debut, “Eraserhead.”
“David’s always had a cheerful disposition and sunny personality, but he’s always been attracted to dark things,” a childhood friend is quoted as saying in “Room to Dream,” a 2018 book by Lynch and Kristine McKenna. That’s one of the mysteries of David.”
Aside from furniture making and painting, Lynch was a coffee maker, composer, sculptor and cartoonist. He exuded a Zen peacefulness that he attributed to Transcendental Meditation, which his David Lynch Foundation promoted. In the 2017 short film “What Did Jack Do?” he played a detective interrogating a monkey.
Lynch was himself a singular presence, almost as beguiling and deadpan as his own films. For years, he posted videos of daily weather reports from Southern California. When asked for analysis of his films, Lynch typically demurred.
“I like things that leave some room to dream,” he told the New York Times in 1995. “A lot of mysteries are sewn up at the end, and that kills the dream.”
Hundreds of inmates across England and Wales are expected to walk free from prison on Thursday under an expanded early release programme, amid concerns that many could be left homeless and the probation system may struggle to supervise them.
About 2,000 offenders, including domestic abusers and violent criminals, are scheduled for release over the next month, while another 3,000 will be freed in phases over the following year to ease prison overcrowding. The initial target of 6,000 was reduced following Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s intervention.
However, probation officers have warned that accommodation shortages could force some former inmates onto the streets, despite evidence that securing housing after prison helps reduce reoffending.
A probation source told The Guardian: “We have a handful of places for ex-offenders and they are full. We are now looking at releasing some people straight on to the street.”
Enver Solomon, chief executive of charity Nacro, warned that homelessness after incarceration could increase the likelihood of offenders returning to prison.
Meanwhile, probation officers’ union Napo accused prison authorities of ignoring the challenges facing the service, including staff shortages, excessive workloads and problems with electronic monitoring.
Its national chair, Ben Cockburn, described the situation as absolute denial.
The expanded scheme, introduced under the 2026 Sentencing Act, allows eligible prisoners serving fixed-term sentences to qualify for release after serving one-third instead of 40%.
However, certain offenders, including those convicted in child grooming gang cases, indecent a§§ault and mansla¥ghter, are excluded.
The Ministry of Justice also announced plans to expand electronic tagging, but a recent watchdog report revealed that some offenders waited up to five months for monitoring devices, with only 55% of GPS and radio frequency tags installed on schedule.
Passengers aboard a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Israel were thrown into panic on Wednesday after one of the pilots allegedly stabbed his co-pilot and attempted to take control of the aircraft.
The incident occurred aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, carrying about 150 Israeli passengers, as the Boeing 737 was travelling from Dubai to Israel.
According to flight-tracking data cited in reports, the aircraft dramatically lost approximately 13,000 feet in about 30 seconds and veered off its course, triggering fears that the plane could crash.
The situation reportedly escalated when passengers heard screams coming from the cockpit. Some passengers subsequently rushed toward the cockpit after it was opened and found one of the pilots bleeding.
A passenger who spoke to Israel’s Channel 12 described the terrifying moments aboard the aircraft.
“We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife.”
The passenger added: “We prayed. There were also moments when we thought we weren’t going to make it out alive.”
According to the reports, two other pilots who were aboard the flight intervened and took control of the aircraft, preventing a potentially catastrophic outcome.
The aircraft was subsequently diverted and made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where security personnel took charge of the situation.
The passengers were later safely evacuated from the aircraft.
Israeli officials described the incident as one in which a “major disaster was narrowly avoided.”
Israeli security agencies, including the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Mossad and Shin Bet, are reportedly examining the incident as a possible act of terrorism.
The circumstances surrounding the alleged stabbing, including the identity and motive of the attacker and how the cockpit was accessed, remain subject to investigation.
NewsMediaNG will continue to monitor developments as authorities provide further details.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday issued a stern warning to Israel’s enemies, declaring that the country’s military will continue to operate on all fronts and will reach any threat anywhere, at any time.
The Prime Minister spoke during a visit to the IDF Air Force Tel Nof base, where he met with pilots and ground crews. Flanked by members of the Israeli Air Force, Netanyahu said Israel’s operations have achieved significant results in recent weeks, particularly in Gaza and Lebanon.
“I am here at the Air Force base with our heroic pilots and our outstanding ground crews. We are operating constantly on all fronts,” Netanyahu said.
He disclosed that Israeli forces have eliminated key terrorist figures in Gaza in recent days. According to the Prime Minister, two days ago, forces killed the terrorist responsible for kidnapping Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or.
Argamani, who became one of the most recognized faces of the October 7th hostage crisis after video of her abduction went viral, was rescued in a special operation in June 2024 alongside three other hostages. Or was also rescued.
“We brought them home, and we eliminated him. Last night, we eliminated the commander of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade. He joined his predecessors, whom we also eliminated,” Netanyahu stated.
He said the latest operations are part of a broader offensive that has seen more than 100 terrorists eliminated in Gaza in recent weeks alone.
“All told, in recent weeks we have eliminated more than 100 terrorists — and that is just in Gaza. Of course, we are also operating in Lebanon. You remember what we did to the Ali Taher Ridge,” he asked, referring to recent Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that despite military achievements, Israel is facing mounting international and domestic pressure to scale back operations and agree to withdrawals.
“There have been tremendous achievements, but there are also tremendous pressures — pressure to withdraw, to give up the great achievements secured through the heroism of our fighters. I am not allowing that to happen, and I will not allow it to happen,” he vowed.
Netanyahu also issued a direct warning to hostile actors he said may attempt to attack Israel ahead of the country’s upcoming elections. He said intelligence indicates that Israel’s enemies may seek to exploit the election period.
“We have indications that, ahead of the elections, our enemies will try to attack us. So from here, from this Air Force base, from the long arm of the State of Israel, I have a message for them: Don’t mess with us — not now, and not ever. Our long arm will reach you anywhere, at any time,” the Prime Minister boastfully declared.
The visit to Tel Nof, one of the Israel Defense Forces’ principal air bases and home to several fighter squadrons and transport units, comes as the IDF continues to maintain high alert across multiple fronts, including Gaza, the northern border with Lebanon and Syria, and the West Bank.
Tel Nof has played a central role in Israel’s recent long-range operations, which Netanyahu described as proof of Israel’s ability to project power far beyond its borders.
The Prime Minister also praised the airmen and ground crews, calling them “heroic” and “outstanding” and credited them with securing the achievements on the battlefield.
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