David Lynch, the filmmaker and who studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and often referenced the dark influence his time living in Philadelphia in the 1960s had on his work, died at age 78 on Thursday.
His family confirmed his death on Facebook. While there was no cause provided in the post, Lynch had publicly shared last year that he had emphysema.
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"There's a big hole in the world now that he's no longer with us," the Facebook post said. "But, as he would say, 'Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.'"
It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would…
Posted by David Lynch on Thursday, January 16, 2025
Lynch arrived in Philadelphia in 1965 and was enrolled for three semesters at PAFA until dropping out in 1967. He continued and painting and making short films here before he moved to Los Angeles in 1970.
While in Philly, Lynch first lived near 13th and Wood streets in Callowhill. Around the time he left PAFA, he and his first wife, Peggy Lentz, whom he met in art school, bought a home on the 2400 block of Aspen Street in Fairmount. They were living in the house when the couple had their first child, Jennifer, and Lynch used the home as the setting for his short film "The Alphabet."
Whenever asked, Lynch would describe his captivation with Philadelphia's urban decay of the late 1960s – a time when racial tensions were inflamed by then-police commissioner Frank Rizzo and the city was at an economic crossroads as industries and the associated jobs left.
The New York Times reported that Lynch had said in a 1997 interview the city had "a great mood – factories, smoke, railroads, diners, the strangest characters and the darkest night. I saw vivid images – plastic curtains held together with Band-Aids, rag stuffed in broken windows."
He told Philadelphia Weekly in 2022 that, "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was … a hellhole … It was filled with fear, and corruption, and it was filthy, there was soot on the buildings and there was a lot of kind of insanity and a feeling in the air that was very uneasy."
His comments could sound like criticisms, but Lynch found his muse in the city's grit and grime and weirdness. "I never had what I consider an original idea until I was in Philadelphia," the filmmaker said in 2014.
Lynch always connected Philadelphia with his 1977 breakout surrealist film "Eraserhead."
PAFA released a statement Thursday, noting that Lynch had been a student in the school's advanced painting curriculum. While there in 1967, Lynch made his first short film, "Six Men Getting Sick," which combined painting, sculpture, sound and film to create an animated loop of six human figures vomiting.
In 2014, PAFA collaborated with Lynch to create his first major museum exhibition in the United States, called "David Lynch: The Unified Field." It displayed 90 of Lynch's paintings and drawings, dating a back as far as 1965, when he arrived in Philadelphia, along with some of his early short films.
"David Lynch clearly became an internationally renowned filmmaker and director, but he never stopped working as a visual artist," PAFA's statement reads. "His passing is a loss to our community and to the world of the visual arts. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends around the globe."
Among the films for which Lynch is known are "The Elephant Man" (1980), "Blue Velvet" (1986) and "Mulholland Dr." (2001). He also created the TV series "Twin Peaks," which aired on ABC for two season in 1991 and 1992.
Managing Editor Jon Tuleya contributed to this article.