30 Mind-Blowing Things You Need To Know About David Lynch

12 March 2019, 8:14 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

David Lynch is often described as "the most important director of this era," by The Guardian, while AllMovie called him "the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking." Here are some really interesting things to know about the American filmmaker:

He was born David Keith Lynch on January 20, 1946, in Missoula, Montana, U.S. to Donald Walton Lynch, a research scientist and Edwina ‘Sunny’ Lynch, an English language tutor. The Lynch’s are of Finnish ancestry and he was raised as a Presbyterian.
Early in his childhood, Lynch was forced to move around extensively due to his father’s commitment with U.S. Department of Agriculture. After he graduated from Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, he joined School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to study painting and later moved over to Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Lynch made debut as a director with a short film ‘Six Men Getting Sick,’ in 1967 an experimental animated film for an painting and sculpture contest held at the end of his semesterat the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The film was well received and won him joined first prize.
In 1967 he married Peggy Lentz, a fellow student at Pennsylvania Academy, and they had one daughter, Jennifer Chambers Lynch. After divorcing her in 1974 he married Mary Fisk and the couple had one son, Austin Jack Lynch. He went on to marry Mary Sweeney in 2006 and actress Emily Stofle, in 2009, both of whom bore him child Riley and Lula Boginia Lynch.
When the American Film Institute was founded in June 05, 1967, his short film ‘The Grandmother,’ was commissioned by the institute for $ 7200. The film which combines live action and animation featured a neglected boy who grows a grandmother from a seed to care for him. The film won awards at film festival in Atlanta, Bellevue, and San Francisco.
Lynch applied for scholarships at the AFI Conservatory, on the strength of ‘The Grandmother,’ and was accepted. During his stay he wrote and directed the 1977 film ‘Eraserhead,’ an experimental body horror film, which got completed after five years because of funding difficulties. Initially opening to small audiences, it gained popularity on the midnight movie and in 2004 the film was selected for preservation by National Film Registry.
In 1980 he was hired by Mel Brooks of ‘Brooksfilms’ company to direct the film ‘The Elephant Man’ based on true story, that of Joseph Merrick. The film has been described as ‘one of the most conventional’ of his films. The film was a huge critical and commercial success and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best director and best screenplay for Lynch.
Following the box-office failure of 1984 film ‘Dune,’ Lynch made attempts at developing a more personal story. The 1986 film ‘Blue Velvet,’ written and directed by him is based on his ideas since 1973, received a divided critical response, earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for best director. In 2008 it was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest American mystery film ever made.
Lynch forayed into world of Television and cinema in late 1980s with his ‘The Cowboy and the Frenchman,’ for the French television. Later in April 1990, a mystery horror drama ‘Twin Peaks,’ was premiered on ABC, which received top rated series of 1990. He also appeared in the series as the deaf FBI agent Gordon Cole
His 1997 neo-noir film the ‘Lost Highway’ written and directed by him received mixed response, following which he co-produced and directed biographical road dram film ‘The Straight Story’ in 1999, garnered audience acclaim though overall gross proved less than expected. The lead cast Richard Farnsworth, who portrayed the role of Alvin, was the oldest person ever to be nominated for Best Actor Oscar.

Many of his film examine the dark side of American suburbia is sexually charged and graphically violent. He often uses slow-motion during key scenes of violence and dreams as a way of connecting the plot and twist in his films without explaining the meaning of his movies.
Though he is better known as filmmaker, he is an accomplished painter and his painting was the subject of a major art retrospective titled ‘The Air is on Fire,’ at the Foundation Cartier in Paris from March 03-27, 2007. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts also exhibited his work, entitled ‘The Unified Field,’ in 2014.
He drew and wrote the comic strip, ‘The Angriest Dog in the World,’ that ran in the Los Angeles Reader newspaper throughout the 1980s.
He runs his own personally authorized website, www.davidlynch.com to release several of his excusive new series. In 2002, he released a series of online shorts named ‘Dumbland,’ and ‘Darkened Room.’ He also released sitcom called ‘Rabbits,’ and a feature film ‘Inland Empire.’
He is also involved in music production and wrote lyrics for Julee Cruise’s first two albums, ‘Floating into the Night,’ in 1989 and ‘The Voice of Love’ in 1993. For his own production he composed music for ‘Wild at Heart,’ ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,’ ‘Mulholland Drive,’ and ‘Rabbits.’
In November 2012, while attending The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Lynch was presented with a lifetime achievement award and the key to the city by mayor Rafal Bruski.
In 2001, he released a rock album ‘BlueBob’ performed by Lynch and John Neff. The album is notable for Lynch’s unusual guitar playing style. He plays the guitar upside down and backwards, like a lap guitarist, relying heavily on effects pedals.
For Record Store Day 2014 Lynch released ‘The Big Dream Remix EP,’ which featured four songs from his album remixed by various artists. On November 02, 2018 a collaborative album by lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, titled ‘Thought Gang,’ was released on vinyl and on compact disc.
Though he is admirer of American movie directors Stanley and Billy Wilder, his works is influenced by European filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski and Jacques Tati. The Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard and Kubrick’s Lolita are some of his favorite movies.
Lynch is known to have designed and constructed furniture secretly for years. In April 1997 he presented a furniture collection at the prestigious Milan Furniture Fair in Italy. His furniture is being produced and distributed by casanostraag, a Swiss company. Some of his furniture can be seen in his 1997 release ‘Lost Highway.’

He along with designer Raphael Navot, architectural agency Enia and light designer Thierry Dreyfus conceived and designed a nightclub ‘Silencio’ in Paris. Inspired by the club of the same name in his 2001 film ‘Mulholland Drive’ has underground space dedicated for certain purpose was opened in 2011.
On December 28, 2006, Lynch published a non-linear autobiography called ‘Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity.’ The book describes his creative process, stories from his career and benefit he experienced in practice of Transcendental Meditation. All royalties from the book is donated to David Lynch Foundation.
He revived the shooting of ‘Twin Peaks’ in 2015 and on May 21, 2017, he premiered two of the eighteen episodes. The premiere sparked the biggest day and weekend of signups ever for Showtime.
He published another book ‘Room to Dream,’ in June 2018, which he co-authored with Kristine McKenna. The book is a hybrid of biography and memoir from his personal and creative life through his own words and through words of his colleagues, family and friends.
Lynch is a great believer in teaching of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. After he was introduced to it in July 1973, he practiced the technique consistently since then and in 2003 he underwent a month long ‘Millionaire’s Enlightenment Course’ for a fee of US$1 million.
In July 2005, he launched the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and Peace. It helps to finance scholarship for school students interested in learning Transcendental Meditation technique and fund research on the technique.
He has transcended on a US$7 billion project of building a establishment of seven buildings for around 8,000 salaried people to practice advanced meditation technique, ‘pumping peace for the world.’ In 2009 he organized number of concert for its benefit.
Lynch has designed his personal website, a site exclusively to paying members, where he posts shorts videos and his absurdist series ’Dumbland,’ plus interviews and other items. The site also features daily weather report.
Describing his political philosophy, he stated that, he thought himself to be a libertarian and believed in zero government. Later Lynch confirmed that I’ve always been a Democrat and in 2016 United States presidential election he endorsed Bernie Sanders.
He has been described as one of the most important director of this era. Lynch is an innovative director and one of the most original who defies cinematic convention. As he said ‘Life is very, very confusing, and so films should be allowed to be too.’