Director and Artist David Lynch Dies Aged 78
Image: Image: David Lynch/Facebook
Visionary filmmaker David Lynch has died at age 78. Lynch was the mastermind behind iconic works such as Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive,聽and was celebrated for his surrealist, philosophical creations.
鈥淚t is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,鈥� a post on his official Facebook page read. 鈥淲e would appreciate some privacy at this time. There鈥檚 a big hole in the world now that he鈥檚 no longer with us. But, as he would say, 鈥淜eep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.鈥� It鈥檚 a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.鈥�
According to Deadline, sources Lynch was forced to evacuate his home because of the LA wildfires where his health took a turn for the worse.
Lynch announced last August that he had been diagnosed with emphysema after a lifetime of smoking, and told Sight and Sound in November that he was unable to leave the house.
鈥淪moking was something that I absolutely loved but, in the end, it bit me,” he said. “It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful.”
Lynch remembered by the queer community聽
His loss is being felt particularly hard by the queer community, to whom Lynch’s work with the otherworldly and fantastical always resonated.
“He was the first to show me another world, a beautiful one of love and danger I sensed but had never seen outside sleep,” wrote Jane Schoenbrun, director of I Saw The TV Glow. “Thank you David your gift will reverberate for the rest of my life.
In 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, Lynch birthed a memorable trans slogan, when his character Gordon Cole defends the transgender FBI agent Denise Byson (David Duchovny) after being mocked by her coworkers, saying “I told all your colleagues, those clown comics, to fix their hearts or die.鈥�
“Fix your hearts or die” became an instantly unmistakable rallying cry for the radical acceptance of others and spoke to Lynch’s unique ability to champion the marginalised and the other.
