David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design. Indeed, the surreal and in many cases violent elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences. Moving around various parts of the United States as a child within his middle class family, Lynch went on to study painting in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films. Deciding to devote himself more fully to this medium, he moved to Los Angeles, where he produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead became a cult classic on the midnight movie circuit, Lynch was employed to direct The Elephant Man (1980), from which he gained mainstream success. Then being employed by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, he proceeded to make two films. First, the science-fiction epic Dune (1984), which proved to be a critical and commercial failure, and then a neo-noir crime film, Blue Velvet (1986), which was highly critically acclaimed. Proceeding to create his own television series with Mark Frost, the highly popular murder mystery Twin Peaks (1990–1992), he also created a cinematic prequel, Fire Walk With Me (1992), a road movie, Wild at Heart (1990), and a family film, The Straight Story (1999) in the same period. Turning further towards surrealist filmmaking, three of his following films worked on "dream logic" non-linear narrative structures, Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006). Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, for his films The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, and also received a screenplay Academy Award nomination for The Elephant Man. Lynch has twice won France's César Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, the country's top civilian honor, as a Chevalier in 2002 and then an Officier in 2007, while that same year, The Guardian described Lynch as "the most important director of this era". Allmovie called him "the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking", whilst the success of his films have led to him being labelled "the first popular Surrealist. Description above from the Wikipedia article David Lynch, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movie | I Know Catherine, The Log Lady | Self | 2025 |
Movie | The Fabelmans | John Ford | 2022-11-11 |
Movie | Moby Doc | Self | 2021-05-28 |
Movie | Meeting the Beatles in India | Self | 2020-09-09 |
Movie | Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound | Self | 2019-10-25 |
Movie | Plankton Salesmen | Self (archive footage) | 2017-10-29 |
Movie | Twin Peaks: The Phenomenon | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Lucky | Howard | 2017-09-29 |
Movie | See You on the Other Side Dear Friend | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Rocksteppy | Himself | 2017-01-01 |
Movie | Behind the Red Curtain | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Girlfriend's Day | Narrator (voice) | 2017-01-24 |
Movie | David Lynch: The Art Life | Self | 2017-02-15 |
Movie | The Black Ghiandola | Man In Black | 2017-04-22 |
Movie | I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | A Pot of Boiling Oil | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | The Polish Accountant | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | The Number of Completion | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Two Blue Balls | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Tell It Martin | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | A Bloody Finger in Your Mouth | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Bad Binoculars | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | The Man with the Gray Elevated Hair | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | This Is Sparklehorse | Self | 2016-04-02 |
Movie | The Music of David Lynch | Self | 2016-04-10 |
Movie | Along for the Ride | Self | 2016-11-03 |
Movie | Shadows of Paradise | 2016-10-11 | |
Movie | Blue Velvet Revisited | Self | 2016-10-07 |
Movie | On Meditation | Self | 2016-07-27 |
Movie | Brand: A Second Coming | Self | 2015-03-13 |
Movie | Rammstein in Amerika | Self | 2015-09-25 |
Movie | Ringo Starr: A Lifetime of Peace and Love | Self | 2014-01-20 |
Movie | It's a Beautiful World | Self | 2014-04-21 |
Movie | Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces | Gordon Cole | 2014-07-16 |
Movie | The 8th Floor | Self | 2014-05-10 |
Movie | My Beautiful Broken Brain | Self | 2014-11-21 |
Movie | Professor Goudet's Lessons | Self | 2013-04-06 |
Movie | What Is Cinema? | Self | 2013-09-06 |
Movie | Mel Brooks: Make a Noise | Self | 2013-05-20 |
Movie | Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction | Self | 2013-09-11 |
Movie | Side by Side | Self | 2012-08-19 |
Movie | David Wants to Fly | 2010-05-06 | |
Series | Louie | Jack Dall | 2010-06-29 |
Movie | Brunes et Blondes | Self | 2010-10-06 |
Movie | 2012: Time for Change | Self | 2010-10-08 |
Movie | Great Directors | Self | 2009-05-19 |
Movie | La Traversée du désir | Self | 2009-03-16 |
Movie | The Way of Samodelkin | Stranger in a dream | 2009-06-05 |
Series | The Cleveland Show | Unknown | 2009-09-27 |
Movie | Peixe Vermelho | O Sábio | 2009-06-16 |
Movie | Crítico | Self (voice) | 2008-01-22 |
Movie | Elvis | Viva Las Vegas | Self | 2008-09-16 |
Movie | Out Yonder — Chicken | 2007-01-01 | |
Movie | Out Yonder — Teeth | 2007-01-01 | |
Movie | Le son de Lynch | 2007-01-01 | |
Movie | Lynch 2 | Self | 2007-08-14 |
Movie | A Slice of Lynch | Self | 2007-10-30 |
Movie | Lynch (one) | Self | 2007-10-26 |
Movie | Out Yonder — Neighbor Boy | 2007-09-10 | |
Movie | Boat | 2007-01-30 | |
Movie | Edge of Outside | Self (archive footage) | 2006-06-11 |
Movie | Inland Empire | Bucky J | 2006-12-06 |
Movie | Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream | Himself | 2006-06-20 |
Series | Torchwood | Unknown | 2006-10-22 |
Movie | The Making of ‘Mulholland Drive’ | Self | 2004-04-05 |
Movie | Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments | Self | 2004-05-01 |
Movie | I Don't Know Jack | Self | 2002-04-05 |
Movie | The Short Films of David Lynch | Self | 2002-06-01 |
Movie | Mysteries of Love | Self (archive footage) | 2002-06-04 |
Movie | Dino De Laurentiis: The Last Movie Mogul | Self | 2001-04-01 |
Movie | Eraserhead Stories | Self | 2001-09-06 |
Movie | 6 auf See | Barkeeper 1 | 2000-09-14 |
Movie | In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story | Self | 1999-10-07 |
Series | Family Guy | Unknown | 1999-01-31 |
Movie | Lost Highway | Morgue Attendant (scenes deleted) | 1997-01-15 |
Movie | Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch | Self | 1997-10-14 |
Movie | The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money | Self | 1996-11-17 |
Movie | Nadja | Morgue Receptionist | 1994-09-13 |
Movie | Don Van Vliet: Some YoYo Stuff | Himself | 1994-09-09 |
Movie | Made in the USA | Self | 1993-09-25 |
Movie | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me | Chief Gordon Cole | 1992-06-03 |
Series | Twin Peaks | FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole | 1990-04-08 |
Movie | Hollywood Mavericks | Self | 1990-09-07 |
Movie | Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night | Self - Audience Member | 1988-01-03 |
Movie | Barracuda | Constable Fletcher | 1988-04-04 |
Movie | Zelly & Me | Willie | 1988-04-15 |
Series | Anzacs | Max Earnshaw | 1985-10-27 |
Movie | Dune | Spice Miner (uncredited) | 1984-12-14 |
Movie | Destination Dune | Self | 1984-01-01 |
Movie | Heart Beat | Painter | 1980-04-25 |
Movie | The Elephant Man | Man in the Bowler Hat in the Mob Chasing Merrick (uncredited) | 1980-10-09 |
Movie | The Amputee | Nurse | 1974-01-01 |
Movie | Sailing with Bushnell Keeler | 1967-01-01 | |
Movie | Rock Around the Clock | Himself | 1956-03-21 |
Series | The Oscars | Unknown | 1953-03-19 |