Trivia

In addition to excluding chapter breaks in approved DVD releases, he never recorded an audio commentary for any of his films. This is because he believed that films speak for themselves.

He was introduced to Isabella Rossellini at a restaurant by a mutual friend when he was in the process of casting Blue Velvet (1986). Struck by her serene European beauty, he told her, "You could be Ingrid Bergman's daughter." 'You idiot,' my friend said to me," Lynch recalled, "'she is Ingrid Bergman's daughter!'"

Wrote the Gordon Cole character (from Twin Peaks (1990)) with himself in mind.

Personally approved DVD releases of his movies do not have any chapter stops. This was done because he believed that films are meant to be viewed from beginning to end.

After George Lucas saw Eraserhead (1977), he offered Lynch the chance to direct Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) but Lynch turned him down. Lynch felt the film would be more Lucas's vision than his own.

He was so impressed by Sheryl Lee's performance as the dead Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990)' pilot episode that he wrote the role of Maddy Ferguson for her, in order to bring her back in the series.

Served as an usher at the Presidential Inauguration of John F. Kennedy (20 January 1961).

Being an avid coffee drinker, he had own line of special organic blends.

The car accident scene in Wild at Heart (1990) came from his impression of actress Sherilyn Fenn as a china doll, and from the idea of seeing a porcelain doll breaking. He told her, "I envisioned this broken China doll, all bloody, and ranting and raving, and it was you".

In 2018, Oxford English Dictionary added term "Lynchian" into its collection and defined it as "characteristic, reminiscent, or imitative of the works of David Lynch," adding: "Lynch is noted for juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace".

While in college, roomed with Peter Wolf, former lead singer with the J. Geils Band. Lynch kicked him out, however, because he thought Wolf was "too weird."

Some of his favorite films of all time are: 8½ (1963), La Strada (1954), Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Apartment (1960), Lolita (1962), Persona (1966), Hour of the Wolf (1968), Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), Stroszek (1977) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Lynch is one of the few directors who has directed films that have received all five modern MPAA ratings: G (The Straight Story), PG (The Elephant Man), PG-13 (Dune), R (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire) and NC-17 (Wild at Heart). In the last case, the film was edited down to an R rating following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Furthermore, Lynch's debut feature Eraserhead was released without any rating whatsoever.

He was offered the chance to direct Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), but he turned it down, saying that the script was funny, but it wasn't his thing.

Disowned Dune (1984), considering it the only real failure of his career. For the rest of his life he refused to talk about the production in great detail, and declined numerous offers to work on a special edition DVD. Lynch claimed revisiting the film would be too painful an experience to endure.

Ate lunch at Bob's Big Boy in Los Angeles, California, nearly every day for almost eight years in a row.

He drew and wrote the comic strip, "The Angriest Dog in the World" that ran in the Los Angeles Reader newspaper throughout the 1980s.

Was engaged to Italian actress Isabella Rossellini from 1986 to 1990.

He was also an accomplished artist working in paint and such dynamic elements as live ants and rotting flesh. He also frequently designed and built the furniture in his films. These can be seen in the documentary about him, Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch (1997).

After the financial disaster that was Dune (1984), Lynch and Dino De Laurentiis were almost ready to part company but Lynch showed Dino the script for Blue Velvet (1986), which he had been working on for some time, and the two combined talents to make the seminal 1986 classic.

Had Finnish, German and Irish ancestry. His Irish Ancestry can be traced to Galway and as far back as being descended from Rollo, a Viking King.

Announced at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival that he has been shooting a feature length project on digital video called Inland Empire (2006) for over a year. He also announced that he was so impressed with digital that he was giving up directing projects on film.

Cited Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, and Roman Polanski as some of his influences.

Was famous (or infamous) for refusing to discuss Eraserhead (1977). He preferred for viewers to come to their own conclusions.

Practiced Transcendental Meditation for at least 20 minutes each day since 1973. Led his own worldwide organization, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, that started a campaign to raise $7 billion to further its goals. As a result, Lynch had not made a film since 2006's Inland Empire (2006), which turned out to be his last.

Claimed one of his favorite films to be The Wizard of Oz (1939), and included many references to the classic in his own work, most notably Wild at Heart (1990). He also cited Vertigo (1958) and Glen or Glenda (1953) as his other favorites.

Said that he is an admirer of Ronald Reagan, and supported the Natural Law Party in the 2000 Presidential Election. In both the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Elections, he supported Barack Obama.

Directed 3 actors in Oscar nominated performances: John Hurt, Diane Ladd, and Richard Farnsworth.

Insisted his name be struck from the 190-minute Extended Cut of Dune (1984), which was prepared specially for television. That version credits the pseudonymous "Judas Booth" as writer/director. Yet in 2009 - the movie's 25th anniversary - Lynch (by a fan's request) actually signed Booth's name to a vintage "Making of Dune (1984) paperback at West Hollywood's famous Book Soup.

He has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Eraserhead (1977).

Though on the surface his alliance with Mel Brooks on The Elephant Man (1980) would seem unlikely to many, a number of Lynch's films are interpreted as being satirical of traditional Hollywood clichés (Mulholland Drive (2001), Wild at Heart (1990), Blue Velvet (1986) albeit in a much darker and artistic way than in the films that made Brooks a success (Young Frankenstein (1974), Blazing Saddles (1974), etc.).

His son, Austin Jack Lynch, appeared in an episode of Twin Peaks (1990) as Pierre Tremond, or the Creamed-Corn Kid. The role (billed as Pierre Tremond/Chalfont) went to Jonathan J. Leppell in the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). It is widely rumored that Jonathan is Lynch's nephew, but Jonathan and his mother had never heard of Lynch or the TV show when he was cast in Seattle. Julee Cruise, who appears in Twin Peaks (1990), is his musical protégée. Lynch wrote the lyrics on her first album, some of the lyrics of her second album, and occasionally plays an instrument on her recordings.

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.

Currently (2002) runs his own personally authorized Web site, www.davidlynch.com and has been rumored to appear in the chat area of the site under a more than obvious name.

Was very good friends with Jack Nance.

Daughter, Director Jennifer Lynch (b. 1968), with first wife actress Peggy Reavey. Son, Austin Jack Lynch (b. 1982), with second wife Mary Fisk. Son, Riley Lynch (b. 1992), with film editor Mary Sweeney (she later became his third wife).

Although having planned to study with painter Oskar Kokoschka in Austria for three years, he returned to the US after only 15 days.

Worked with real-life father-son pair José Ferrer and Miguel Ferrer in Dune (1984) and Twin Peaks (1990); and real-life mother-daughter pair Diane Ladd and Laura Dern in Wild at Heart (1990) and Blue Velvet (1986).

In the late 1980s, he directed 4 TV commercials for Calvin Klein's Obsession perfume based on excerpts from novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence and Gustave Flaubert and featuring Benicio Del Toro, Heather Graham, Lara Flynn Boyle, James Marshall, Rodney Harvey and Ian Buchanan.

Was asked to direct Manhunter (1986).

Was friends with Kyle MacLachlan.

In 2002, Lynch paid $1 million to spend a month studying Transcendental Meditation along with a few other well-heeled adherents in a compound in the Netherlands with the movement's founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Maharishi was living in the house, but only communicated with the group via TV conferencing.

Sheryl Lee credits him as one of the most incredible teachers that she's ever had in terms of filmmaking.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis offered him the chance to direct "Hand-Carved Coffins" based on a Truman Capote work, but Lynch turned it down; to date the project has not been produced.

Born to Donald Lynch, a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and his wife Sunny, an English language tutor.

Among the places he lived in his rootless childhood were Missoula, Montana (his birth place), Sandpoint, Idaho (where his family moved when he was only 2 months old), Spokane, Washington, Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho and Alexandria, Virginia (where he attended high school).

Sherilyn Fenn, who worked with him in Twin Peaks (1990) and Wild at Heart (1990), later starred in his daughter Jennifer Lynch's directorial debut Boxing Helena (1993).

Was friends with Mädchen Amick.

Frequently worked with Crispin Glover.

Had three siblings, including brother John Lynch.