David Lynch, the The American writer and filmmaker, whose works include Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks, has died aged 78.
Lynch’s death was announced on his official Facebook page by his family.
“There is a big hole in the world now that he is no longer with us,” the message read.
“But, as he said, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not the hole.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies throughout.”
Lynch received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director throughout his career for his work on Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man and Mulholland Drive.
His last major project was Twin Peaks: The Return, which aired in 2017 and continued the television series that ran for two seasons in the early 1990s.
Many of his films were known for their surreal, dreamlike quality.
Eraserhead, his first major release in 1977, was filled with dark and disturbing images.
“While his imagination clearly has an eye for the viscerally powerful, it remains a trivial feat by his later standards,” said a BBC reviewer. said from the film in 2001.
He won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Wild at Heart in 1990.
His work was recognized at the Academy Awards in 2020 when he received an Honorary Oscar.
Lynch revealed in August last year he was battling emphysema, a chronic lung disease, following “many years of smoking.”
The director said that, despite the diagnosis, he was in “excellent shape” and would “never retire.”
But his condition deteriorated in a few months. In November interview with People magazine, he said he needed oxygen to walk.
Born in Missoula, Montana, Lynch initially began a career in painting before turning to directing short films in the 1960s.
