The director had been homebound following his 2024 emphysema diagnosis.
It's been a year since cinema lost one of its greatest visionaries, David Lynch.
The acclaimed, four-time Oscar-nominated director died on Jan. 16, 2025, just four days shy of his 79th birthday. His family -- which includes his daughters, Jennifer and Lula, and his sons, Austin and Riley -- announced his death on his Facebook page.
"It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch," the post read. "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."
Over a career that spanned more than five decades, Lynch became known for his strange, often unsettling films that explored the darker side of human nature. He told PEOPLE in 1990 that he liked "things that go into hidden, mysterious places" because "in that disturbing thing, there is sometimes tremendous poetry and truth."
The director first gained attention with 1977's Eraserhead and later earned three Oscar nominations for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001). On TV, he also made a lasting impact with Twin Peaks, a groundbreaking series that earned him nine Emmy nominations.
Lynch's death came less than a year after he announced in an August 2024 interview with Sight & Sound magazine that he had been diagnosed with emphysema, a lung disease, from "smoking for so long" and would remain homebound. The condition later played a factor in his cause of death.
Lynch died from cardiac arrest due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to his death certificate from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Emphysema is a type of COPD, according to the Mayo Clinic.
TMZ was the first to report the news, and the redacted document also listed dehydration as a significant contributor.
In August 2024, the director had gone public with his emphysema diagnosis, telling Sight & Sound magazine, "I've gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I'm homebound whether I like it or not. It would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold."
Lynch also said that he could only walk a short distance before running "out of oxygen" and that he was afraid to leave his home due to fear of getting COVID. He acknowledged that his lifelong smoking habit likely led to his developing the disease.
"Smoking was something that I absolutely loved but, in the end, it bit me," he told Sight & Sound. "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; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it's killing me."
It has not been confirmed where David Lynch died. However, he had stated that he was homebound five months before his death.
The Wild At Heart director had resided in his three-bedroom, 2.5-acre and 11,000 square foot Brutalist compound in the Hollywood Hills since 1987, per The Wall Street Journal. He bought the estate, built by Frank Lloyd Wright's son Lloyd Wright, for $560,000 and later expanded it to include a pool, a pool house and multiple other buildings.
Lynch's estate was listed for $15 million eight months after he died.
Lynch was 78 years old when he died -- just four days away from celebrating his 79th birthday on Jan. 20, 2025.
Though his health had significantly deteriorated, he told PEOPLE in November 2025 that he was "filled with happiness" thanks to his long-time practice of transcendental meditation. The director explained, "When you get it from within, it doesn't go away."
However, Lynch did have some advice for his fellow Americans in what would be one of his final interviews.
"There is so much bulls--- going on these days, it's hard to believe," he said. "We need to be getting along together. There's so many things we'd all agree on. We can solve these problems working together. Divided we fall, united we stand. This is a true thing. This life is not supposed to be a bad joke. This world is supposed to be beautiful. We're supposed to love each other as a family."
Following Lynch's death, tributes poured in from across Hollywood, with actors, filmmakers and musicians praising his vision and lasting influence. Kyle MacLachlan said in an Instagram post that he owed his "entire career, and life" to the director, while Hugh Jackman described him as an "inspiration" to his life on his Instagram Stories.
Former collaborators Naomi Watts and Laura Dern, who also credited him with shaping their careers, paid tribute as well.
Days after his death, his children shared on X that they were organizing a worldwide group meditation in Lynch's honor on what would have been his 79th birthday.
"David Lynch, our beloved dad, was a guiding light of creativity, love, and peace," the post read. "Let us come together, wherever we are, to honor his legacy by spreading peace and love across the world. Please take this time to meditate, reflect, and send positivity into the universe."