David Lynch, the filmmaker behind the Washington-shot “Twin Peaks,” “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” and “Twin Peaks: The Return,” as well as films like “The Elephant Man,” “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive” and “Inland Empire,” died Thursday at the age of 78. Lynch, who spent some of his childhood in Spokane, shared last August that he had been diagnosed with emphysema “from smoking too long,” which had limited his ability to direct.
The impact of the director’s death was felt around the world with tributes pouring in throughout the day. Among them was Lynch’s longtime collaborator, Yakima-born actor Kyle MacLachlan, who starred as FBI agent Dale Cooper in “Twin Peaks.” MacLachlan, who was not available for an interview Thursday, wrote in a post on Instagram, “I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.” Lynch discovered and cast him in the actor’s 1984 feature debut “Dune” as lead Paul Atreides.
“David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath,” MacLachlan wrote. “While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own. … I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. “
Last October, following a screening in Seattle at SIFF Cinema Downtown, MacLachlan spoke about how Lynch, whom he also worked with on “Blue Velvet,” helped shape his life and art.
“Everything I’ve done with him has been so special,” MacLachlan said. “That joyful experience of working with David, which everyone who has done that comes away better because of [him]. I know I certainly did.”
Lynch’s legacy lives on in Washington in those who worked with him, those who were partly inspired by him to work in film, and those who just appreciate the visions he made. Dave Drummond, a local location scout who has worked for various Washington productions such as the recent “Penelope,” recalled driving around with Lynch to scout for “Twin Peaks: The Return.”
“It was before everybody knew about it,” Drummond said, discussing how they tried to be stealthy to keep it a secret. “He sort of looked like my grandpa at the time. He just looked like a regular dude wearing a baseball cap and a camera around his neck. It was fun, it was definitely a memorable experience.”
Now knowing this was the last significant project Lynch got to make, Drummond said, as a “Twin Peaks” fan himself, it went beyond being a career highlight to something he’ll cherish forever.
“I remember, middle of the night at the end of a shoot, shaking his hand. He was remarkably like Gordon Cole from ‘Twin Peaks’ in terms of his demeanor. He was just affable and friendly to everybody. He gave me a thumbs up like, ‘Thanks, Dave! You’re one in a million!’ That sort of a thing,” Drummond said. “It was really cool to just be a small part of his world, a true artist.”
Ronald Leamon, a longtime local costume designer who recently worked on Seattle filmmaker Mel Eslyn’s feature debut “Biosphere,” had first met Lynch on “Blue Velvet.” He then worked on the director’s three-episode limited series “Hotel Room” and the “Twin Peaks” pilot. Lynch was both a great collaborator and a great person, Leamon said: “He always turned around to the crew and asked what they thought and wanted their opinion. That’s what I respected the most about him. … I look back and it was an education for me. It brought me into the career that I have now. ”
There is also a new generation of artists who’ve been moved by Lynch’s work and are carrying on his torch. Carlos A.F. Lopez, Seattle-based director of the buzzy locally made horror film “Dream Creep,” pointed to Lynch as the first filmmaker who he “got completely obsessed with” growing up.
“He showed that you could use all of the darkness, humor, grotesqueness, love and beauty that made your heart ache and transform it into something truly transcendent,” Lopez said. “Knowing that he was pulling stories from the same trees I was looking at had a profound effect on how I viewed my environment and how that related to the films I wanted to make. Ultimately it made me confident to stay and do it from here.”
To Lacey Leavitt, local producer and board president of Scarecrow Video, Lynch’s impact in the region runs deep, leaving a lasting legacy.
“Growing up in the [Pacific Northwest] in the ’90s, I can’t really remember a time where David Lynch wasn’t part of my cultural or artistic landscape. Angelo Badalamenti’s ‘Twin Peaks’ score is just as representative of Washington state to me as Seattle grunge,” Leavitt said. Between Lynch’s “films, television shows, and his writing and work with transcendental meditation, I doubt his influence on our culture can be overstated.”