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01
David Lynch never recorded audio commentaries for his films, as he believed the films speak for themselves. He also insisted that his approved DVD releases have no chapter stops, so viewers experience the film from beginning to end.
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02
When casting Blue Velvet, Lynch was introduced to Isabella Rossellini at a restaurant by a mutual friend. Struck by her serene European beauty, he told her, ‘You could be Ingrid Bergman’s daughter, unaware she actually was Bergman’s daughter.
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03
Lynch wrote the Gordon Cole character from Twin Peaks with himself in mind, and later played the role in the series.
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04
He was so impressed by Sheryl Lee’s performance as the dead Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks’ pilot that he wrote the role of Maddy Ferguson for her to bring her back.
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05
After seeing Eraserhead, George Lucas offered Lynch the chance to direct Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, but Lynch turned it down, feeling the film would be Lucas’s vision.
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06
The car accident scene in Wild at Heart came from Lynch’s impression of actress Sherilyn Fenn as a china doll, imagining a broken, bloody doll ranting and raving.
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07
At age 15, Lynch served as an usher at the Presidential Inauguration of John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961.
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08
An avid coffee drinker, Lynch had his own line of special organic coffee blends.
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09
In 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary added the term Lynchian to its collection, defining it as characteristic of Lynch’s style: juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane environments.
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10
Lynch was one of the few directors to have films rated G The Straight Story, PG The Elephant Man, PG-13 Dune, R Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and NC-17 Wild at Heart, though later edited to R.
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11
While in college, Lynch roomed with Peter Wolf, former lead singer of the J. Geils Band, but kicked him out because he thought Wolf was too weird.
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12
Some of Lynch’s favorite films included 8½, La Strada, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Lolita, Persona, Hour of the Wolf, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, My Uncle, Rear Window, Vertigo, Stroszek, and The Wizard of Oz.
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13
He was offered the chance to direct Fast Times at Ridgemont High but turned it down, saying the script was funny but not his thing.
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14
Lynch disowned Dune, considering it the only real failure of his career. He refused to talk about it in detail and declined offers to work on a special edition DVD, calling the film too painful to revisit.
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15
For almost eight years, Lynch ate lunch at Bob’s Big Boy in Los Angeles nearly every day.
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16
He was engaged to Italian actress Isabella Rossellini from 1986 to 1990.
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17
Lynch drew and wrote the comic strip The Angriest Dog in the World for the Los Angeles Reader throughout the 1980s.
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18
He was an accomplished artist working in paint and dynamic elements like live ants and rotting flesh, and often designed furniture for his films.
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19
Lynch had Finnish, German, and Irish ancestry, with his Irish roots tracing to Galway and descent from Rollo, a Viking King.
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20
After the financial disaster of Dune, Lynch and Dino De Laurentiis were ready to part company, but Lynch showed De Laurentiis the script for Blue Velvet, and they combined talents to make the 1986 classic.
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21
At the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, Lynch announced he had been shooting a feature-length digital project called Inland Empire for over a year and was so impressed with digital that he gave up directing projects on film.
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22
Lynch was famous for refusing to discuss Eraserhead, preferring viewers to come to their own conclusions.
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23
He cited Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, and Roman Polanski as influences.
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24
Lynch claimed one of his favorite films was The Wizard of Oz, and included many references to it in his work, most notably in Wild at Heart. He also cited Vertigo and Glen or Glenda as favorites.
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25
He practiced Transcendental Meditation for at least 20 minutes each day since 1973 and led the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, which aimed to raise $7 billion.
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26
Lynch said he admired Ronald Reagan and supported the Natural Law Party in the 2000 Presidential Election, and supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
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27
He insisted his name be struck from the 190-minute Extended Cut of Dune prepared for television, which credited pseudonymous Judas Booth as writer/director. In 2009, Lynch actually signed Booth’s name to a vintage book at a fan’s request.
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28
Lynch directed three actors in Oscar-nominated performances: John Hurt, Diane Ladd, and Richard Farnsworth.
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29
His son Austin Jack Lynch appeared in an episode of Twin Peaks as Pierre Tremond, the Creamed-Corn Kid. Julee Cruise was Lynch’s musical protegee; he wrote lyrics for her first album.
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30
One of Lynch’s films, Eraserhead, was selected for the National Film Registry as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
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31
Though his alliance with Mel Brooks on The Elephant Man seemed unlikely, many of Lynch’s films satirize traditional Hollywood cliches in a darker, artistic way.
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32
Lynch served as President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.
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33
He ran his own personally authorized website, davidlynch.com, and was rumored to appear in its chat area under a more-than-obvious name.
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34
Lynch was very good friends with actor Jack Nance.
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35
Daughter Jennifer Lynch born 1968 is a director. Son Austin Jack Lynch born 1982 is with second wife Mary Fisk. Son Riley Lynch born 1992 with third wife Mary Sweeney.
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36
Though he planned to study with painter Oskar Kokoschka in Austria for three years, Lynch returned to the US after only 15 days.
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37
He worked with real-life father-son pair José Ferrer and Miguel Ferrer in Dune and Twin Peaks; and real-life mother-daughter pair Diane Ladd and Laura Dern in Wild at Heart and Blue Velvet.
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38
In an August 2024 interview, Lynch announced he had been diagnosed with emphysema in 2020 due to lifelong smoking. He became reliant on an oxygen tank and could not leave home. The January 2025 Southern California fires forced him to evacuate, and exposure to smoke led to his sudden death from cardiac arrest.
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39
Lynch was friends with Kyle MacLachlan, who starred in many of his works.
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40
He was asked to direct Manhunter but declined.
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41
Sheryl Lee credits Lynch as one of the most incredible teachers in filmmaking.
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42
In the late 1980s, Lynch directed four TV commercials for Calvin Klein’s Obsession perfume based on excerpts from novels by Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Lawrence, and Flaubert, featuring Benicio Del Toro, Heather Graham, and others.
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43
In 2002, Lynch paid $1 million to spend a month studying Transcendental Meditation in the Netherlands with the movement’s founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who communicated via TV conferencing.
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44
Producer Dino De Laurentiis offered Lynch the chance to direct Hand-Carved Coffins based on a Truman Capote work, but Lynch turned it down; the project has not been produced.
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45
Among the places Lynch lived in his rootless childhood were Missoula, Montana birthplace, Sandpoint, Idaho moved at 2 months, Spokane, Washington, Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia high school.
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46
Lynch was born to Donald Lynch, a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Sunny Lynch, an English language tutor.
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47
He was friends with Mädchen Amick, who appeared in Twin Peaks.
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48
Lynch frequently worked with Crispin Glover, who appeared in some of his films.
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49
Sherilyn Fenn, who worked with Lynch in Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart, later starred in his daughter Jennifer Lynch’s directorial debut Boxing Helena.