David Lynch

His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina "Sunny" Lynch (née Sundberg; 1919–2004), was an English language tutor.

David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, painter, visual artist, musician, actor and philanthropist.

Lynch has received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist, dreamlike qualities.

David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946.

Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s.

He began his studies at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1964 to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he was roommates with musician Peter Wolf.

He left after only a year, saying, "I was not inspired AT ALL in that place."

He instead decided that he wanted to travel around Europe for three years with his friend Jack Fisk, who was similarly unhappy with his studies at Cooper Union.

They had some hopes that they could train in Europe with Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka at his school.

Upon reaching Salzburg, however, they found that Kokoschka was not available; disillusioned, they returned to the United States after spending only two weeks in Europe.

Back in the United States, Lynch returned to Virginia, but since his parents had moved to Walnut Creek, California, he stayed with his friend Toby Keeler for a while.

He decided to move to Philadelphia and enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, after advice from Fisk, who was already enrolled there.

He preferred this college to his previous school in Boston, saying, "In Philadelphia there were great and serious painters, and everybody was inspiring one another and it was a beautiful time there."

It was here that he began a relationship with a fellow student, Peggy Reavey, whom he married in 1967.

His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie.

He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001).

Other notable films include Dune (1984), Lost Highway (1997), and Inland Empire (2006).

His film Wild at Heart (1990) earned the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or.

Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), and Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and the limited series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).

He also portrayed Gordon Cole in the Twin Peaks projects.

He has written the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018).

He has also directed several music videos for artists such as Chris Isaak, X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Calvin Klein, Dior, L'Oreal, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and the New York City Department of Sanitation.

Lynch's other artistic endeavors include his work as a musician, encompassing the studio albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013) as well as painting and photography.

A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), he founded the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to fund the teaching of TM in schools and has since widened its scope to other at-risk populations, including the homeless, veterans, and refugees in 2005.

He has received numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019.

In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that "after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era."

As an Eagle Scout, he was present with other Boy Scouts outside the White House at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, which took place on Lynch's 15th birthday.

Lynch was also interested in painting and drawing from an early age, and became intrigued by the idea of pursuing it as a career path when living in Virginia, where his friend's father was a professional painter.

At Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Lynch did not excel academically, having little interest in schoolwork, but he was popular with other students, and after leaving he decided that he wanted to study painting at college.

Two of Lynch's maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century.

He was raised as a Presbyterian.

The Lynches often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald.

Because of this, Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho, when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington.

Lynch's sister Martha was born there.

The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia.

Lynch adjusted to this transitory early life with relative ease, noting that he usually had no issue making new friends whenever he started attending a new school.

Of his early life, he remarked:

"I found the world completely and totally fantastic as a child. Of course, I had the usual fears, like going to school ... for me, back then, school was a crime against young people. It destroyed the seeds of liberty. The teachers didn't encourage knowledge or a positive attitude."

Alongside his schooling, Lynch joined the Boy Scouts, although he later said he only "became [a Scout] so I could quit and put it behind me".

He rose to the highest rank of Eagle Scout.