David Lynch
Biography
David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Lynch received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist, dreamlike qualities. In his 58-year career, he was awarded numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that "after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important filmmaker of the current era."
Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s. His first feature-length film was the independent surrealist film Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980) and the mystery films Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001). His romantic crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed the space opera adaptation Dune (1984), the surrealist neo-noir Lost Highway (1997), the biographical drama The Straight Story (1999), and the experimental film Inland Empire (2006).
Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–91), for which Lynch was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and its limited series revival (2017). He has also worked as an actor, including his portrayals of FBI agent Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks and director John Ford in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022), as well as guest roles in TV series such as The Cleveland Show (2010–13), Louie (2012), and Robot Chicken (2020, 2022).
Lynch's other artistic endeavours included his work as a musician, encompassing the studio albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013), as well as painting and photography. He has written the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018). He has directed several music videos for artists such as Chris Isaak, X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Calvin Klein, Dior, L'Oreal, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and the New York City Department of Sanitation. A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), he founded the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to fund the teaching of TM in schools and has since widened its scope to other at-risk populations, including the homeless, veterans, and refugees.
Acting (119 movies)
David Lynch: 1985
2005
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
1988
Zelly & Me
1988
I Don't Know Jack
2002
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch
1997
Destination Dune
1983
The Amputee
1974
The Fabelmans
2022
Inland Empire
2006
Don Van Vliet: Some YoYo Stuff
1994
Side by Side
2012
Mysteries of Love
2002
The Way of Samodelkin
2009
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
2013
Nadja
1995
Curtains Up
2018
Eraserhead Stories
2001
Night Flight: Born Again
2016
BlueBob Egg
2002
Twin Peaks: The Phenomenon
2017
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
2014
Boat
2003
Dennis Hopper: Create (or Die)
2003
Brand: A Second Coming
2015
Sailing with Bushnell Keeler
1967
Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments
2004
No Frank in Lumberton
1988
Made in the USA
1993
The Elephant Man
1980
Out Yonder — Neighbor Boy
2002
This Is Sparklehorse
2022
What Is Cinema?
2013
Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only: David Lynch
1990
My Beautiful Broken Brain
2014
Dynamic:01: The Best of DavidLynch.com
2025
Lucky
2017
David Lynch: The Art Life
2017
Blue Velvet Revisited
2016
Shadows of Paradise
2016
On Meditation
2016
Heart Beat
1980
The Music of David Lynch
2016
Great Directors
2009
The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money
1996
A Slice of Lynch
2007
The Sound of Lynch
2007
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
1992
Lynch (one)
2007
Lynch 2
2007
2012: Time for Change
2010
The Black Ghiandola
2017
David Wants to Fly
2010
Lamp
2003
La Traversée du désir
2009
Rocksteppy
2017
Along for the Ride
2016
WHAT DID JACK DO?
2017
I Know Catherine, the Log Lady
2025
Out Yonder — Teeth
2003
Out Yonder — Chicken
2007
Twin Peaks Festival Greeting 2008
2008
Hollyshorts Greeting
2008
Early Experiments
2008
Dune
1984
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
2006
The 8th Floor
2014
Between Two Worlds
2014
Meditation, Creativity, Peace
2012
Girlfriend's Day
2017
Memory Film
2012
Red Fish
2009
Hollywood Mavericks
1990
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
2013
Elvis | Viva Las Vegas
2008
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
2019
Critic
2008
David Lynch: Don't Look at Me
1989
Ruth, Roses, and Revolver
1987
The Reality of Truth
2016
The A-Z of Separating People from their Money
1998
Professor Goudet's Lessons
2013
Rammstein in Amerika
2015
Does That Hurt You?
2003
Ångesthunden och Malmö under vatten
2011
Brunes et Blondes
2010
Meeting the Beatles in India
2020
In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story
1999
The Disc of Sorrow Is Installed
2002
Welcome Home: Mary Reber and the Twin Peaks Palmer House
2021
The Original Image - David Lynch
2019
Moby Doc
2021
Ringo Starr: A Lifetime of Peace and Love
2014
Tell It Martin
2017
The Polish Accountant
2017
The Number of Completion
2017
See You on the Other Side Dear Friend
2017
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
2017
Bad Binoculars
2017
Two Blue Balls
2017
A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks
2017
Directing (72 movies)
The Straight Story
1999
Mulholland Drive
2001
Wild at Heart
1990
Lost Highway
1997
Inland Empire
2006
Blue Velvet
1986
Dune
1984
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
1992
The Elephant Man
1980
More Things That Happened
2007
To Each His Own Cinema
2007
Rabbits
2002
The Grandmother
1970
BlueBob Egg
2002
Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted
1990
The Alphabet
1969
Lumière & Company
1995
Six Men Getting Sick
1967
Boat
2003
The Amputee
1974
The Cowboy and the Frenchman
1988
Darkened Room
2002
Eraserhead Stories
2001
Idem Paris
2013
Absurd Encounter with Fear
1967
Bug Crawls
2004
Duran Duran: Unstaged
2014
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
2014
Ballerina
2007
Sailing with Bushnell Keeler
1967
The French as Seen by…
1988
Out Yonder — Neighbor Boy
2002
Premonitions Following an Evil Deed
1995
Sunset #1
2001
20 Little Films
2012
Pierre and Sonny Jim
2002
Lamp
2003
Industrial Soundscape
2002
Intervalometer Experiments
2004
One Morning All Over the World
2000
42 One Dream Rush
2010
Dynamic:01: The Best of DavidLynch.com
2025
The King of Ads
1991
The Pig Walks
2002
Head with Hammer
2001
Dead Mouse with Ants
2002
The Disc of Sorrow Is Installed
2002
Out Yonder — Chicken
2007
Early Experiments
2008
Hollyshorts Greeting
2008
Twin Peaks Festival Greeting 2008
2008
Out Yonder — Teeth
2003
WHAT DID JACK DO?
2017
Steps
2002
Ant Head
2018
Memory Film
2012
Blue Velvet: The Lost Footage
2011
Twin Peaks
1989
Eraserhead
1977
Coyote #1
2002
Factory Mask
2001
Dangerous: The Short Films
1993
Fire (Pożar)
2015
Waiting for Mr. Lynch
2018
The Wall
1993
Blue Green
2007
I Touch A Red Button Man
2011
The Amputee
1974
On the Air
1992
Parisienne People by David Lynch
1998
PlayStation 2: The Third Place
2000
David Lynch : Crazy Clown Time
2012