STORY: American filmmaker, writer and artist David Lynch has died at age 78, according to his family on Thursday.

Lynch is best known for co-creating the groundbreaking TV series "Twin Peaks,"

and directing films including "The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive,"

which was named the best film of the 21st century so far in a 2016 BBC poll.

Lynch also won Best Director Oscar nominations for all three films.

His films were known their visually stunning style, and his often disturbing and inscrutable works were filled with dream sequences and bizarre images.

Lynch was considered a master of surrealism and one of the most innovative filmmakers of his generation.

He received an honorary Academy Award in 2019 for his lifetime achievements.

His style of filmmaking prompted the term Lynchian, which Vanity Fair magazine described as weird, creepy, and slow.

He told the Guardian newspaper in a 2018 interview, quote:

"A film or a painting, each thing is its own sort of language and it's not right to try to say the same thing in words. The words are not there."

The acclaimed director was married four times and fathered four children.

No cause of death was released.

Lynch disclosed in August 2024 that he had been diagnosed with emphysema, a lung disease, caused by many years of smoking.

A statement on Lynch's Facebook page attributed to his family said, quote:

"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.'"