Laura Dern, one David Lynch‘s biggest muses, has finally addressed her friend and collaborator’s death in an emotional Instagram post. Dern took to social media on Monday evening to both celebrate Lynch’s birthday — he would have turned 79 — and mourn his passing. The director passed away on Jan. 15 from health complications derived from evacuating his L.A. home during the wildfires that ravaged the region.
In recent years, Lynch had suffered from emphysema, a pulmonary condition which reduces the oxygen supply to the blood and causes shortness of breath. The cause, he told People two short months before his death, was nearly seven decades of heavy smoking. He needed supplemental oxygen for most activities and no longer left the house in his final months.
The world of film and entertainment mourned Lynch’s death intensely — his mark on the art form undeniable and eternal. Actors like Mulholland Drive‘s Naomi Watts and Laura Harring, Twin Peaks‘ Sherilyn Fenn and Mädchen Amick, Wild at Heart‘s Nicolas Cage, and Lost Highway‘s Patricia Arquette all paid tribute to the director.
Kyle MacLachlan, Lynch’s most loyal screen companion bar Dern, was quick to share a beautiful, heartfelt, and personal eulogy on his own Instagram page, which moved every fan of the pair’s work to tears. “The most authentically alive person I’d ever met,” he called him. But still, Dern, Lynch’s sweet Sandy in Blue Velvet, passionate Lula in Wild at Heart, and cursed movie star in Inland Empire, opted to grieve the filmmaker in private. Until his birthday rolled around.
“Happy birthday, tidbit,” the actress’ short and sweet message starts. That was the nickname actress and director reserved for each other. Lynch would give all of his actors personalized monikers and Dern was “tidbit,” we guess, due to how young she was when they first worked together in 1985. “I will love and miss you every day for the rest of my life,” she concluded. Few words that convey years of shared experiences and life-changing collaborations.
Dern also chose to turn off the comments on this specific post in light of its sensitive nature, reflecting how deeply she has felt this loss. Though the last time they worked together was in 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, she and Lynch remained close until his death.
Dern was behind the director’s cameo in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical family drama The Fabelmans about a young man who wants to become a filmmaker. In the last few minutes of the film, Lynch shows up as John Ford to give young Sammy (Spielberg’s insert character) fantastic moviemaking advice, specifically about how to frame the horizon. That was plucked straight out of the Jaws director’s real life.
After Spielberg, who, of course, worked with Dern in Jurassic Park, asked the actress to broach the topic with Lynch, he wasn’t too keen — he didn’t think acting was his territory and he didn’t like leaving the house. “[Laura Dern] encouraged me to do it,” Lynch told Empire in February 2024. “She thought that it would be very enjoyable, and it turned out to be very enjoyable,” he continued, adding, “She’s a special person in my life.”

Dern shed more light on the behind-the-scenes of that all-timer partnership in Variety‘s 2022 Actors on Actors with Michelle Williams, who played Sammy’s mom in The Fabelmans.
They spoke, and then I luckily became a bit of a mediator of promising David he could do it. And I even got to read the scenes with him and talk about his wardrobe and just listen to the process once he agreed to do it.”
As Lynch’s family put it in the statement informing the world of his passing, “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.’” May the genius filmmaker and friend to many rest in peace, and may Dern find the comfort she needs to process this loss.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 08:37 am