Hollywood director David Lynch dead at 78

Aussie actress Naomi Watts has released a moving tribute to David Lynch, the iconic director who put her on the map.

David Lynch, who co-created Twin Peaks and directed films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, has died. He was 78.

Lynch’s family confirmed his passing on social media early on Friday morning.

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” their statement read.

“We would appreciate some privacy at this time.

“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 doughnut and not on the hole’,” Lynch’s family added.

David Lynch with Mulholland Drive actors Laura Elena Harring and Naomi Watts in 2002.

“It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

The family did not confirm Lynch’s cause of death.

Australian actor Naomi Watts, whose Hollywood career was kickstarted by her starring role in Lynch’s 2001 classic Mulholland Drive, has issued a moving tribute on social media today, writing that her “heart is broken.”

“He put me on the map. The world I’d been trying to break into for ten plus years, flunking auditions left and right. Finally, I sat in front of a curious man, beaming with light, speaking words from another era, making me laugh and feel at ease. How did he even “see me” when I was so well hidden, and I’d even lost sight of myself?!” she wrote.

Watts said that she was “in pieces but forever grateful for our friendship.”

The famed writer-director was diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, back in 2020.

In November 2024, Lynch — who started smoking at the age of eight, but quit in 2022 — told People that he needed supplement oxygen to go on a walk.

Actors Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan with Lynch in 2017. Picture: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

“What you sow is what you reap,” Lynch said. “In the back of every smoker’s mind is the fact that it’s healthy, so you’re literally playing with fire. It can bite you. I took a chance, and I got bit.”

Lynch added that “it’s tough living with emphysema. I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”

In August 2024, Lynch told Sight and Sound magazine that he’s homebound because “it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold.”

Lynch was born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana. He began his filmmaking career in the 1960s.

His first feature-length movie was the 1977 surrealist film Eraserhead.

Lynch’s emphysema had left him homebound in recent years. Picture: Darren England.

Lynch’s next film was 1980’s The Elephant Man, about a severely deformed man living in London. The movie, starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, was nominated for eight Oscars — including Best Director for Lynch.

He followed up The Elephant Man with 1984’s Dune, 1986’s Blue Velvet, 1990’s Wild At Heart and 2001’s Mulholland Drive.

Lynch’s version of Dune did not fare well at the box office. The epic space opera has since been remade by Denis Villeneuve with Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet in the cast.

In 1990, Lynch created Twin Peaks alongside Mark Frost. The series starred Kyle MacLachlan and aired on US TV network ABC for two seasons before it was cancelled. It spawned a movie prequel, 1992’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, that Lynch directed and co-wrote.

Twin Peaks later returned for a third season, called Twin Peaks: The Return, in 2017. Lynch directed and co-wrote all 18 episodes.

Lynch made the TV show Twin Peaks...

And the acclaimed 2001 film Mulholland Drive.

In his storied career, Lynch was nominated for four Oscars and nine Emmy Awards. He won the César Award for Best Foreign Film twice and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival once.

Lynch had four marriages. He was married to Peggy Lentz from 1968 to 1974, Mary Fisk from 1977 to 1987, director Mary Sweeney from 2006 to 2007 and Emily Stofle from 2009 to 2023.

He was also in a relationship with Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini from 1986 to 1991.

Lynch had four children. His oldest child, daughter Jennifer Lynch, 56, is a filmmaker.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Hollywood director David Lynch dead at 78