David Lynch, the American writer-filmmaker whose works include Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks, has died aged 78.
Lynch’s death was announced on his official Facebook page by his family.
“There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us,” the post said.
“But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
Lynch received three best director Oscar nominations throughout his career for his work on Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man and Mulholland Drive.
His last major project was Twin Peaks: The Return, which was broadcast in 2017, and continued the TV series that ran for two seasons in the early 1990s.
Many of this films were known for their surrealist, dreamlike quality.
Eraserhead, his first major release in 1977, was filled with dark, disturbing imagery.
“While his imagination clearly has an eye for the viscerally potent, this remains an unremarkable feat by his later standards,” a BBC reviewer said of the film in 2001.
He won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival for Wild at Heart in 1990.
His body of work was recognised at the Oscars in 2020 when he was given an honorary Academy Award.
Lynch revealed in August last year he was battling emphysema, a chronic lung disease, from “many years of smoking”.
The director said that, despite the diagnosis, he was in “excellent shape” and would “never retire”.
But his condition deteriorated within months. In a November interview with People magazine, he said he needed oxygen to walk.
Born in Missoula, Montana, Lynch first began a career in painting before switching to making short films during the 1960s.