Hollywood Legend David Lynch, Known for ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’, Dead at 78

David Lynch — an acclaimed director-writer who changed the scope of American cinema with films like Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet, as well as network television with Twin Peaks — has died. He was 78.

Lynch revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with emphysema after a lifetime of smoking and that he’d likely not be able to leave his house to direct any longer. Lynch was forced to relocate from his house due to the Sunset Fire earlier this month and then took a turn for the worse, Deadline reports.

His family announced his death in a Facebook post.

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” his family wrote. “We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. 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.”

In August, Lynch said he could not walk long distances before running out of oxygen. “Smoking was something that I absolutely loved, but in the end, it bit me. It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it, and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things,” Lynch said at the time. “Nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit.”

Lynch radicalized movies and television with his signature elements of horror, film noir, whodunit and surrealism, as evident in Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.

The eccentric filmmaker earned Oscar nominations for writing and directing 1980’s The Elephant Man and for directing Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet. In 2000, he received an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. He also won Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1990 for Wild at Heart and was nominated for the award three other times. He won Best Director at Cannes for Mulholland Drive in 2001.

Born in Missoula, Montana on January 20, 1946, Lynch started off in his career by making short films in the ’60s. His first features film, Eraserhead, debuted in 1977; he wrote and directed the cult classic. The Elephant Man, starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, was his next great success. Hurt’s John Merrick memorable cries, “I’m not an animal! I’m a human being — a man!”

His career soared in the ’80s, following The Elephant Man with Dune and Blue Velvet, the latter of which starred Kyle MachLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern. In 1989, he created, directed and co-wrote Twin Peaks, a bizarre detective series/soap opera/sci-fi mystery hybrid. Known for its disturbing opening scene of a beachside discovery of a plastic-wrapped corpse, Twin Peaks was known as Lynch’s masterpiece. “Who killed Laura Palmer?” became a national obsession among TV fans.

Lynch’s other credits include Lost Highway (1997), The Straight Story (1999) and Inland Empire (2006).