Silencio, maestro. Oscar-nominated auteur David Lynch died Thursday at 78 years old. His family confirmed his passing in a Facebook post, writing: “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.’”

In an interview with Sight and Sound magazine last August, Lynch revealed that he had been diagnosed with emphysema and was no longer able to leave his house. “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long,” he explained. “I can’t go out. I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen.”

Lynch’s profile—both with and without a cigarette—was a familiar one in Hollywood. The Montana-born filmmaker arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1970s and enrolled in the American Film Institute’s just-founded conservatory. Out of that fertile creative environment sprouted Eraserhead, Lynch’s first feature and a cult movie calling card that established him as a singular artistic voice.

The major Hollywood studios quickly came calling.

Lynch’s next projects included The Elephant Man, produced by Mel Brooks, and the first big-screen version of Frank Herbert’s mammoth sci-fi epic Dune. (Fun fact: before journeying to Herbert’s far, far away galaxy, Lynch famously turned down the opportunity to direct the third Star Wars installment, Return of the Jedi.)

But Dune was a notoriously troubled production that drove Lynch back to basics. In 1986, he returned to artistic form—and commercial success—with Blue Velvet, a pioneering pastiche of 1940s film noir, 1950s suburbia, and 1980s eroticism. That film kicked off a run of acclaimed features that included Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., The Straight Story, and Inland Empire.

But Lynch’s most lasting contribution to pop culture is Twin Peaks. It’s no exaggeration to say that the two-season ABC series—plus a cinematic prequel and a Showtime revival—that he created with Mark Frost redefined what a primetime drama could look like. To this day, the show remains referenced, imitated, and satirized… but never equaled.

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