Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiarfrom his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from onestate to another as his research scientist father kept gettingrelocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch andthen fathered future directorJennifer Lynch shortlyafter he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in aparticularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspiredEraserhead (1977), a film that hebegan in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he wouldwork on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judgedto be almost unreleasable weird, but thanks to the efforts ofdistributorBen Barenholtz, it secured acult following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film (inan unlikely alliance withMel Brooks), thoughElephant Man (1980) was shotthrough with his unique sensibility. Its enormous critical andcommercial success led toDune (1984), ahugely expensive commercial disaster, but Lynch redeemed himself withthe now classicBlue Velvet (1986),his most personal and original work since his debut. He subsequentlywon the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the dark, violentroad movieWild at Heart (1990),and achieved a huge cult following with his surreal TV seriesTwin Peaks (1990), which headapted for the big screen, though his comedy seriesOn the Air (1992) was lesssuccessful. He also draws comic strips and has devised multimedia stageevents with regular composerAngelo Badalamenti. He had amuch-publicized affair withIsabella Rossellini in the late1980s.