Legendary director David Lynch dead at 78 just months after admitting he couldn’t ‘walk across a room’ or leave house
LEGENDARY director David Lynch has died at age 78 just months after revealing his struggle with emphysema.
The visionary's death was announced in a statement on Facebook, sparking an outpouring of tributes from devoted fans across social media.
“I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not," he said at the time.
"It would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold."
Two years after giving up cigarettes in 2022, Lynch revealed he could only walk a short distance across the room before running out of oxygen in his tank.
In September, Lynch spoke in public for the last time with a virtual appearance at the David Lynch Foundation's Meditate America event.
"He changed a lot of people’s lives. There will never be another one like him, because he made films at a point in history where nothing like that had ever been experienced before," Korine said.
He went on to say Lynch "invented a new language."
"He hit on things that were inexplicable and sacred and beyond articulation. He is a treasure. His work will live forever.”
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn wrote on X, "RIP David Lynch. You inspired so many of us."
MacLachlan was Lynch's longtime collaborator, acting in projects including Twin Peaks, Dune, and Blue Velvet.
"I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision," the actor wrote.
"What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him.
"He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to."
FINAL PROJECTS
The third season of Lynch's iconic show Twin Peaks released in 2017, called Twin Peaks: The Return.
The 18 episodes of the limited series aired on Showtime and starred some of his usual collaborators including actorsn MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Sheryl Lee.
Last May, Lynch posted a cryptic video teasing fans that "something is coming" in his first post in 18 months.
Months later, he released an orchestral album called Cellophane Memories, which he said was inspired by a walk through a forest late at night.
Lynch's final film was Inland Empire, a three-hour work that came out in 2006.
His fourth ex-wife, Emily Stofle, appeared in the movie. She also appeared in Twin Peaks.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
After 14 years of marriage, Stofle filed for divorce in December 2023, leaving him unmarried at the time of his death.
Lynch is survived by his four children.