David Lynch

David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. He received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist, dreamlike qualities. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he was awarded with numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. Described as a "visionary", Lynch was considered one of the most important filmmakers of his era.

Lynch initially studied painting before transitioning to filmmaking in the late 1960s. His first feature film, Eraserhead (1977), became a cult success. Lynch received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001). His film Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other significant films include Dune (1984), Lost Highway (1997) and Inland Empire (2006). Lynch, along with Mark Frost, created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–1991) and directed its prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), as well as the limited series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). Lynch also acted as Gordon Cole in the Twin Peaks series.

Beyond film, Lynch is a musician with albums like BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011) and The Big Dream (2013), and an artist in painting and photography. He authored Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006) and Room to Dream (2018). Lynch directed music videos for various artists and commercials for major brands. A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, he established the David Lynch Foundation in 2005 to promote TM in schools and other vulnerable groups.

Lynch has earned many awards, including the Golden Lion in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. In 2007, a panel of critics from The Guardian declared Lynch the most important filmmaker of the current era.

There is another artist with the same name:

2. David Lynch, American singer formerly with The Platters.