David Lynch: An Introduction

 Introduction for David Lynch Month on the podcast.

David Keith Lynch was born January 20th, 1946 in Missoula, Montana. He was the first of three children born to Donald Walton Lynch, a research scientist with the Department of Agriculture, and Edwina Sundburg Lynch a homemaker and English tutor.

The family moved around for Donald's work, principally in the Pacific Northwest, (including a long stint in Boise, Idaho) and the South (North Carolina, Virgina). Lynch was raised a Presbyterian, was an Eagle Scout, amature carpenter, and in high school developed an interest in painting.

He attended The Pennslvania Acadamy of Art in Philadelphia. One day some wind coming in from an open window in class caused a ripple motion to play across his canvas, this implanted in David's mind a desire to see his paintings move. In 1967 he would premier his moving painting 'Six Figures Geeting Sick (Six Times)' which would run on a sixty second loop. This lead to his first short film 'The Alphabet' in 1968. Lynch was then accepted into the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles where he made his next short films 'The Grandmother' in 1969 and ' The Amputee' in 1974.

At AFI Lynch was granted use of an abandonded stable on Conservatory land to make his first feature. The sureal 'Eraserhead' (1977) was filmed in fits and starts over the course of years, becoming an unexpected hit on the Midnight movie scene of the 1970's. Mel Brooks as a producer was looking for someone to direct a biopic on Victorian England's famous 'Elephant Man' John Merrick. After seeing 'Ereaserhead' he hired Lynch telling him "Your weird, you can direct my movie." Brooks was also responsible for giving Lynch the nickname "Jimmy Stewart from Mars".

'The Elephant Man' (1980) was both a commercial and critical hit, earning Lynch a directing Oscar nomination for his first Studio backed motion picture. George Lucas approached Lynch to direct 'Return of the Jedi', which is a funny story, there is a video on YouTube of Lynch telling it which is worth seeking out. David turned down Lucas but accepted an offer from Dino De Lurentis to direct an adaption of the Frank Herbert sci-fi epic 'Dune' (1984). Part of the deal was after making 'Dune' Lynch could direct a film of his choice. While Dune flopped with critics and audiences 'Blue Velvet' (1986) was a hit with both, and is now his signature film.

In the late 1980's Lynch was approached by a desperate ABC network to make a television series, the resulting show 'Twin Peaks' would be an International sensation when it premeried in 1990, counting both Queen Elizabeth II and Mikeal Gorbachev as fans. The show would suffer in its second season when Lynch was distracted making the movie 'Wild at Heart' (1991), and would be canceled. The following year Lynch would make a much darker prequel film to the series called 'Fire Walk With Me' (1992). In 2017 he would direct every episode of a Twin Peaks revival series on Showtime to much critical acclaim.

In the 1990's Lynch would do another short lived series for ABC,  a sort of sitcom called 'On the Air'. He would also be involved in an anthology documentary series for Fox, also short lived. He would go against type and make 'The Straight Story' (1998), a G rated family movie for Disney based on real events.

Lynch would cap out his feature film directing career and return to the dream logic of his early work with his "Califorina Trilogy", consisting of 'Lost Highway' (1997), 'Mulhallen Drive '(2000) and 'Inland Empire' (2006).

In addition to his feature work Lynch would direct a short film for French Televison 'The Cowboy and the Frenchman' (1987), as well as a music video for German hard rock group Rhamstien and a concert film for Duran Duran, plus animated and live action content for his website David Lynch.com, including daily weather reports for the Los Angeles area where he lives. Lynch has also written multiple books and done art and photography exhibits. He has even released several albums of music I don't know how to describe.

David Lynch has been married 4 times and has 4 children, including Jennifer Lynch, a writer and prolific televison director who has also helmed the feature films 'Boxing Helena' (1992) and 'Survailance' (2007). Lynch has for decades been an avid practitioner and advocate for the practice of transcendental meditation and has a non profit Foundation to promote the practice. 

Lynch has been nominated and won multiple awards for his work and despite a cannon of only 10 feature films, is widely considered one of the most unique and important American directors of the last 50 years.