David Lynch
Visionary filmmaker who brought surrealism to mainstream cinema.
David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker and artist born on January 20, 1946, in Missoula, Montana.[1][2] He died on January 16, 2025, four days before his 79th birthday.[3] In the late 20th century, Lynch is frequently recognized for making surrealism and experimentalism part of the mainstream media landscape.[1][4]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- David Keith Lynch
- Born
- 20 January 1946
- Birthplace
- Missoula, Montana, U.S.
- Died
- 16 January 2025
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Resting place
- Hollywood Forever Cemetery (ashes)
- Other names
- Judas Booth
- Occupation
- Film director
- screenwriter
- actor
- painter
- musician
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Lynch's father Donald Walton Lynch and mother Edwina Lynch met while studying at Duke University in North Carolina.[2] Due to his father's work, the family moved often, including to Sandpoint, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington.[2][5] Lynch recalled a carefree childhood and said he grew up well protected in a peaceful environment.[2] He joined the Boy Scouts and rose to the rank of Eagle Scout.[6]
After high school, Lynch studied at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.[7][8] He dropped out after a year and traveled to Europe with his friend Jack Fisk, but they returned to the U.S. after two weeks.[6] He later moved to Los Angeles in 1970 to study filmmaking at the AFI Conservatory.[9] Lynch's feature film Eraserhead was finished in 1976 and became popular on the midnight movie underground circuit.[10][11]
Lynch created the television series Twin Peaks with Mark Frost, which aired from 1990 to 1991.[12]
What the cited sources add
The tip Filmjahrbuch account states that Lynch's parents met and fell in love while studying at Duke University.[2] The same source notes that Lynch's first recalled movie was Wait till the sun shines, Nellie (1952) by Henry King.[2] The Corcoran School alumni page describes Lynch's films as best associated with West Coast noir.[8] The Yale Daily News article quotes Lynch saying, "We're like light bulbs" and describing his meditation experience.[13]
The Spokesman.com article recounts Lynch's early memory of sitting in a mud puddle in Sandpoint.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bradshaw, "David Lynch: the great American surrealist who made experimentalism mainstream", The Guardian, January 16, 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "tip Filmjahrbuch Nr. 1 (1985)". facts only, no text reused. davidlynch.de
- "Visionary filmmaker behind 'Twin Peaks' and 'Eraserhead' David Lynch, who partly grew up in Spokane, dies at 78", Spokesman.com, January 16, 2025. facts only, no text reused. spokesman.com
- Bradshaw, "David Lynch: the great American surrealist who made experimentalism mainstream", The Guardian, January 16, 2025. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hutchinson, "'Twin Peaks' creator David Lynch's legacy in WA", The Seattle Times, January 17, 2025; "Visionary filmmaker behind 'Twin Peaks' and 'Eraserhead' David Lynch, who partly grew up in Spokane, dies at 78", Spokesman.com, January 16, 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lynch, "Lynch on Lynch", Faber and Faber, 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thomson, "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film", p. 606; "Notable Alumni | Corcoran School of the Arts & Design | The George Washington University", corcoran.gwu.edu; Wolf, Peter, "Peter'sBio", Peter Wolf, 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Notable Alumni | Corcoran School of the Arts & Design | The George Washington University", corcoran.gwu.edu. facts only, no text reused. corcoran.gwu.edu
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blumgart, "David Lynch in Philly, a City He Feared", September 22, 2014; "David Lynch: 'It Can All Be So Beautiful'", American Film (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lynch, "Lynch on Lynch", Faber and Faber, 2005; "tip Filmjahrbuch Nr. 1 (1985)" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lynch, "Lynch on Lynch", Faber and Faber, 2005; "Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream", IMDb; Lynch, "Lynch on Lynch", Faber and Faber, 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Lynch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lynch, "Lynch on Lynch", Faber and Faber, 2005; Le Blanc, "David Lynch", Pocket Essentials, 2000; Lynch, "Lynch on Lynch", Faber and Faber, 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Sadighian, David, "David Lynch thinks we're all lightbulbs. What?", Yale Daily News, October 1, 2005. facts only, no text reused. globalgoodnews.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article David Lynch (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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