Caramel Corn

Name
David Lynch

Known For
Directing

Birthday
1946-01-20

Deathday
2025-01-16 (79 years old)

Place of Birth
Missoula, Montana, USA

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.

Known For

Movies

Tv Shows

2005 David Lynch: 1985 as Self
1988 Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night as Self - Audience Member
1988 Zelly & Me as Willie
2002 I Don't Know Jack as Self
1997 Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch as Self
1983 Destination Dune as Self
1974 The Amputee as The Nurse
2022 The Fabelmans as John Ford
2006 Inland Empire as Bucky J, the gaffer (voice)
1994 Don Van Vliet: Some YoYo Stuff as Himself
2012 Side by Side as Self
2002 Mysteries of Love as Self (archive footage)
2009 The Way of Samodelkin as Stranger in a dream
2013 Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction as Self
1995 Nadja as Morgue Receptionist
2018 Curtains Up
2001 Eraserhead Stories as Self
2004 The Making of ‘Mulholland Drive’ as Self
2016 Night Flight: Born Again as Self
2002 BlueBob Egg as Billy Groper
2017 Twin Peaks: The Phenomenon as Self
2014 Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces as Gordon Cole
1991 Crazy About the Movies: Dennis Hopper as Self
2007 Donovan: The Donovan Concert - Live in L.A. as Himself
2009 The Soul Detective as Himself
2003 Boat as The Man
2003 Dennis Hopper: Create (or Die) as Self
2015 Brand: A Second Coming as Self
2001 Dino De Laurentiis: The Last Movie Mogul as Self
2014 It's a Beautiful World as Self
1967 Sailing with Bushnell Keeler
2004 Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments as Self
1988 No Frank in Lumberton as Self
1993 Made in the USA as Self
1980 The Elephant Man as Man in the Bowler Hat in the Mob Chasing Merrick (uncredited)
2002 Out Yonder — Neighbor Boy
2022 This Is Sparklehorse as Self
2013 What Is Cinema? as Self
1990 Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only: David Lynch as Self
2014 My Beautiful Broken Brain as Self
2007 Dynamic:01: The Best of DavidLynch.com as himself
2017 Lucky as Howard
2017 David Lynch: The Art Life as Self
2016 Blue Velvet Revisited as Self
2016 Shadows of Paradise
2016 On Meditation as Self
1980 Heart Beat as Painter (uncredited)
2016 The Music of David Lynch as Self
2009 Great Directors as Self
1996 The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money as Self
2007 A Slice of Lynch as Self
2007 The Sound of Lynch
1992 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me as Gordon Cole
2007 Lynch (one) as Self
2007 Lynch 2 as Self
2010 2012: Time for Change as Self
2017 The Black Ghiandola as Man In Black
2010 David Wants to Fly as Self
2003 Lamp as Self
2009 La Traversée du désir as Self
2017 Rocksteppy as Himself
2016 Along for the Ride as Self
2017 WHAT DID JACK DO? as Detective
2026 I Know Catherine, the Log Lady as Self
2003 Out Yonder — Teeth
2007 Out Yonder — Chicken
2008 Twin Peaks Festival Greeting 2008 as Self
2008 Hollyshorts Greeting as Himself
2008 Early Experiments
1984 Dune as Spice Miner (uncredited)
2006 Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream as Self
2014 The 8th Floor as Self
2014 Between Two Worlds as Self
2012 Meditation, Creativity, Peace as Self
2017 Girlfriend's Day as Narrator (voice)
2012 Memory Film
2009 Red Fish as O Sábio
1990 Hollywood Mavericks as Self
2013 Mel Brooks: Make a Noise as Self
2008 Elvis | Viva Las Vegas as Self
2019 Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound as Self
2008 Critic as Self (voice)
1989 David Lynch: Don't Look at Me as Self
1987 Ruth, Roses, and Revolver as Himself
2016 The Reality of Truth as Self
1998 The A-Z of Separating People from their Money as Self
2013 Professor Goudet's Lessons as Self
2010 When Lynch Met Lucas
2015 Rammstein in Amerika as Self
2003 Does That Hurt You? as Self
2011 Ångesthunden och Malmö under vatten as Himself
2010 Brunes et Blondes as Self
2020 Meeting the Beatles in India as Self
1999 In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story as Self
2002 The Disc of Sorrow Is Installed
2021 Welcome Home: Mary Reber and the Twin Peaks Palmer House as Self
2019 The Original Image - David Lynch
2021 Moby Doc as Self
2014 Ringo Starr: A Lifetime of Peace and Love as Self
2017 Tell It Martin as Self
2017 The Polish Accountant as Self
2017 The Number of Completion as Self
2017 See You on the Other Side Dear Friend as Self
2017 Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers as Self
2017 Bad Binoculars as Self
2017 Two Blue Balls as Self
2017 A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks as Self
2017 Behind the Red Curtain as Self
2017 A Bloody Finger in Your Mouth as Self
2017 I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun as Self
2017 A Pot of Boiling Oil as Self
2017 The Man with the Gray Elevated Hair as Self
2024 Beatles '64 as Self
2021 The Sleeper Must Awaken: Making Dune as Self (voice) (archive footage)
2019 David Lynch Teaches Creativity and Film as Himself
2003 Return to Mulholland Drive as Self
2004 Love, Death, Elvis & Oz: The Making of Wild at Heart
2025 David Lynch: A Remembrance Both Wonderful and Strange as Self (archive footage)
2025 The Making Of A Mockumentary as Himself (archive footage)
2018 Why Are We Creative? as Self
2020 David Lynch: The Virtual Life as himself
2025 The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld
2021 David Lynch: The Idea Dictates Everything as David Lynch
2017 Plankton Salesmen as Self (archive footage)
2023 Lynch/Oz as Self (archival footage)
2002 The Short Films of David Lynch as Self
1995 Lumière & Company as Self
2002 Heart of the Festival as Self (archive footage)
2026 What Would David Lynch Do? as Self (Archived Footage)
2021 Morceaux de Cannes
2010 David Lynch in Oslo as Self
2017 David Lynch: Insight as Self
2026 Eyes Behind the Lens as Voice (Uncredited, Archive)

1999 Family Guy ( 1 episode ) as Gus (voice)
2003 Un film et son époque ( 1 episode ) as Self
2009 The Cleveland Show ( 11 episodes )
1953 The Oscars ( 1 episode ) as Self
2021 This Is Pop ( 1 episode ) as Self (archive footage)
2010 Louie ( 2 episodes ) as Jack Dall
1999 Family Guy ( 1 episode ) as David Lynch (voice)
1998 Independent Focus ( 1 episode ) as Self
1990 Twin Peaks ( 16 episodes ) as Gordon Cole
2017 The Nineties ( 1 episode ) as Self (archive footage)
2004 Leçon de Cinéma ( 1 episode ) as Self
1997 Scene by Scene ( 1 episode ) as Self
2005 Robot Chicken ( 2 episodes ) as Mad Scientist (voice)
2001 DumbLand ( 8 episodes ) as Randy / Wife / Sparky (voice)
1992 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ( 1 episode ) as Self
2006 Legends ( 1 episode ) as Self
1989 Cinéma, de notre temps ( 1 episode ) as David Lynch
2009 The Cleveland Show ( 1 episode ) as Gus (voice)
2026 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! ( 1 episode ) as Self - Filmmaker
1971 Film '72 ( 1 episode ) as Self

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