David Lynch Caricature

David Lynch Caricature, illustrated here in Paris, 2006, age 60.

Lynch is an American filmmaker, painter, musician, singer, sound designer, photographer, and actor.
He is best known for writing and directing films such as Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001), which are often regarded by critics as among the best films of their respective decades, and for his successful television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991).

Born to a middle-class family in Missoula, Montana, Lynch spent his childhood traveling around the U.S. before he studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films.

After Eraserhead, Lynch was hired to direct the biographical film The Elephant Man (1980), from which he gained mainstream success.

In 1990, Lynch adapted the novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula, into a film called Wild at Heart, a crime and road movie starring Nicolas Cage as Sailor and Laura Dern as Lula. Describing his plot as a “strange blend” of “a road picture, a love story, a psychological drama and a violent comedy”, Lynch altered much from the original novel, changing the ending and incorporating numerous references to the classic film The Wizard of Oz.

In 1997 he released the non-linear, noiresque Lost Highway, which was co-written by Barry Gifford and starred Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette. The film failed commercially and received a mixed response from critics. Lost Highway was the last film appearance of several notable actors: Richard Pryor, Jack Nance, and Robert Blake.

The acclaimed film maker Stanley Kubrick said that Eraserhead was one of his all-time favorite films.

Few quirky facts: Lynch started smoking when he was five-years-old and always buttons the top button of his shirt, because he feels too vulnerable with the top button open.