David Lynch death: Steven Spielberg, Kyle MacLachlan, Naomi Watts and more pay tribute to auteur
Collaborators including Nicolas Cage and Lara Flynn Boyle have shared their thoughts on the director’s death
David Lynch, the celebrated director of avant-garde films such as Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive and The Elephant Man and the much-loved TV show Twin Peaks, has died at the age of 78.
His family announced his death in a Facebook post on Thursday (16 January), writing, “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 donut and not on the hole.’”
Lynch developed a singular style known for unsettling visuals, stream-of-consciousness storytelling, and kitsch soundtracks. As a director he walked a tightrope between his artistic sensibilities and his inexplicable popular appeal among the more conventional moviegoing public, with New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael labelling him “the first populist surrealist”.
In his frequent collaborations with Hollywood luminaries such as Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Naomi Watts, Jack Nance and Harry Dean Stanton, the director leaves behind an oeuvre that rivals those of the medium’s most accomplished auteurs.
Many stars who worked with Lynch, including Dern, MacLachlan, Watts and Nicolas Cage, have paid tribute to the director, with Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard also honouring their fellow filmmaker.
Find the tributes to Lynch below.
Patton Oswalt jokes about Lynch’s surreal style
Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt joked about Lynch’s surreal style in his tribute, writing on social media: “David Lynch, RIP. At least that’s what the horse wearing a fez just told me* in a dream. (*Backwards and in Swedish)”
Ron Howard praises Lynch’s ‘radical experimentation'
Oscar-winning director and Happy Days star Ron Howard paid tribute to Lynch on social media, writing: “#RIPDavidLynch, a gracious man and fearless artist who followed his heart & soul and proved that radical experimentation could yield unforgettable cinema.”
Harmony Korine calls Lynch ‘truly a GOAT'
Spring Breakers and The Beach Bum director Harmony Korine says Lynch was “a Mount Rushmore-level director.”
In a statement to IndieWire, Korine said: “David Lynch was one of our great artists, a Mount Rushmore-level director, truly a GOAT. 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.
“We live in a time where everything has been seen. Lynch invented a new language. He was a once in a generation talent who absorbed the embers of America’s wildness. He embraced his own inner logic and filtered it through a subconscious magic. He created worlds and unmatched vibrations. He hit on things that were inexplicable and sacred and beyond articulation. He is a treasure. His work will live forever.”
Lara Flynn Boyle calls Lynch ‘the true Willy Wonka of filmmaking'
Lara Flynn Boyle, who played Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks, remembered Lynch in a statement to Deadline: “There goes the true Willy Wonka of filmmaking. I feel like I got the golden ticket getting a chance to work with him. He will be greatly missed.”
Steven Spielberg calls Lynch a ‘singular, visionary dreamer'
Steven Spielberg, who cast Lynch as John Ford in his autobiographical film The Fabelmans, has remembered the director as one of his heroes.
In a statement to Variety, Spielberg said: “I loved David’s films. Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Elephant Man defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade.
“I got to know David when he played John Ford in The Fabelmans. Here was one of my heroes—David Lynch playing one of my heroes. It was surreal and seemed like a scene out of one of David’s own movies. The world is going to miss such an original and unique voice. His films have already stood the test of time and they always will.”
Judd Apatow says Lynch had a ‘unique soul'
The 40-Year-Old Virgin and This Is 40 director Judd Apatow has posted a tribute to Lynch on Instagram, writing: “Just a few months ago Michael Bonfiglio and myself got to interview David Lynch at his home for our documentary about Mel Brooks. He was kind and hilarious and full of life. I took a ton of photos of him during the interview. Every one captures his joy and unique soul.
“His work was magnificent. It stays with you forever. His efforts to spread transcendental meditation through his foundation changed the lives of countless people including mine. His book about creativity, Catching The Big Fish, is a game changer. He was a true gift to us all!”
Caroline Polachek says Lynch is the ‘greatest artist of our lifetime'
Musician Caroline Polachek wrote in a statement on Instagram: “David Lynch is the greatest artist of our lifetime.
“We’re so lucky to have his perspective on contemporary life, to counter (and provide the subtitles below) all the literal, logical, and linear thinking we’re fed - and to approach the ineffabilities of time and emotion with his sophistication, style and soulful curiousity.
“My heart is broken that he is gone, and that his final gestures didn’t just feel final, but were.
“RIP and thank you to a true visionary.”
Russell Brand says Lynch’s death marks end of an epoch
Russell Brand, who knew David Lynch through his work on transcendental meditation, posted a tribute to Lynch on Instagram:
“I knew David Lynch a little. Based on his work as an artist, I don’t know how anyone could claim to know him well, beyond blood relatives and his wife. Maybe wives. Movies are “public dreams” and no filmmaker wove dreams like Lynch. His name became an adjective and synonym for “dreamlike” or surreal. As the fires devoured the city that defined him he was dying. Lynchian.
“I asked him once in LA ‘Why do you like it here?’‘The light.’ He said.
“He wouldn’t put out the incessant cigarettes he smoked on his glazed concrete floors but just let them drop and burn out - ‘it marks them’ he said. I’m not suggesting the whole city went ablaze as a result of his negligence but I reckon that Lynch’s death as a coda on those dreadful conflagrations helps us see them as epochal and epoch ending; the Hollywood of Lynch is gone. Lynch is gone. Trump is in office now and that very American ‘Jimmy Stewart from Mars’ yet somehow ‘French’ true auteur of Outpost Drive is dead as the embers smolder.
“Everything was art to him. I saw stalls he’d made, they were amazing. A lamp that blew my mind. Mad cartoons, demonic and full of droogish violence and toddler-carnality. I asked him what he thought enlightenment was and he drew me a picture. Seriously. He drew a picture of consciousness and how ideas emerge from some ulterior field of oneness. He enjoyed and accepted decay. Our mutual friend Bob Roth who runs his T M (transcendental meditation) foundation said ‘David is equally intrigued by every chapter of life. He’d be fascinated by a baby rabbit, an adult rabbit, a dead rabbit, a rabbit’s decomposing corpse.’ He had an overview of life, an under-view of life, he was a True Artist.
“He said to me ‘If you fail while living by your principles as an artist you die once, if you fail while living by someone else’s you die twice.’ David Lynch only died once.”
Nicolas Cage says: ‘I never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch'
Nicolas Cage, who starred in Lynch’s Wild at Heart in 1990, told Deadline that the director “was a singular genius in cinema, one of the greatest artists of this or any time.”
“He was brave, brilliant, and a maverick with a joyful sense of humor,” Cage continued. “I never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch. He will always be solid gold.”
Kyle MacLachlan says he was ‘forever changed’ by Lynch in heartfelt message
Kyle MacLachlan, a frequent collaborator of Lynch who starred in Dune and Twin Peaks, posted a heartfelt statement about the late director on Instagram.
“Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie,” wrote MacLachlan.
“He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.
“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.
“Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.
“David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.
“While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own.
“I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh.
“His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other.
“I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.
“David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.”
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