David Lynch’s Cause of Death Revealed

A cause of death has been determined for filmmaker David Lynch, director of Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and co-creator of Twin Peaks.

A death certificate shared by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Friday reveals Lynch died of cardiac arrest due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last month, with dehydration as a significant contribution, per The Independent.

Sources previously told Deadline that Lynch’s health took a turn for the worse after he was evacuated from his home amid the Sunset Fire in Los Angeles last month. Lynch died on January 16 at age 78.

David Lynch behind the scenes of ‘Twin Peaks’ (ABC/Courtesy: Everett Collection)

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist David Lynch,” the director’s family wrote on Facebook that day. “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.”

In an interview with Sight and Sound published in November 2024, Lynch said he was homebound and only able to walk short distances after developing emphysema due to his past smoking habit.

“Smoking was something that I absolutely loved but, in the end, it bit me. 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,” Lynch reflected at the time. “Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit it.”

Lynch also said in that interview he’d have to direct future projects remotely. “Now, because of COVID, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold,” he said. “So I probably would be directing from my house. And because of COVID, they’ve now invented ways where you can direct from home. I wouldn’t like that so much. I like to be there amongst the thing and get ideas there. But I would try to do it remotely, if it comes to it.”

 

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Many of Lynch’s frequent collaborators have mourned his death on social media and in the press. “It somehow doesn’t shock me that gratitude and despair are so closely aligned at this moment for our city and our loss of you — a genius who gave us not only some of our most iconic imagery and impacted our dreams but also forever wove Los Angeles into them,” Laura Dern, who starred in Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Inland Empire, and the Twin Peaks revival, wrote in a letter published in the Los Angeles Times.

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Naomi Watts, who had roles in Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and the Twin Peaks revival, wrote on Instagram, “My heart is broken. My buddy Dave… the world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful. … Every moment together felt charged with a presence I’ve rarely seen or known. Probably because, yes, he seemed to live in an altered world, one that I feel beyond lucky to have been a small part of.”

And Kyle MacLachlan, who starred in Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, and Lynch’s version of Dune, also grieved on Instagram. “David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human,” the actor wrote. “He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.”