Kyle MacLachlan pays tribute to David Lynch: “I will miss him more than my heart can bear”
As tributes continue to pour in following the passing of film visionary David Lynch, Kyle MacLachlan has shared a heartfelt message honouring the director who gave him his first big break in acting.
Lynch, best known for his surrealist projects such as Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet, announced in 2024 that he had been struggling with complications battling emphysema. He explained that the disease had been brought about due to a lifetime of smoking.
Lynch’s family confirmed the director’s death in a statement, saying, “It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. 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.”
Since his debut collaboration with Lynch as Paul Atreides in the 1984 adaptation of Dune, MacLachlan became one of the director’s most frequent and trusted creative partners. He went on to star in Lynch’s next film, Blue Velvet, before becoming an iconic figure in the Twin Peaks series, where he played FBI agent Dale Cooper. MacLachlan also reprised his role in the show’s 1992 film adaptation, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, cementing his place as a defining presence in Lynch’s work.
Posting on social media following the news of Lynch’s death, MacLachlan talked about how eternally grateful he was that Lynch gave him a shot 42 years ago, saying, “David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big-budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.”
The actor went on to say that what struck him the most about meeting Lynch was the ocean of creativity he had at his disposal. Despite his tragic passing from complications caused by battling emphysema, MacLachlan has remembered Lynch as someone who cherished every second of life, calling him “the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.”
MacLachlan also details how much news of Lynch’s death has impacted him, explaining, “I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell, and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.”
While Lynch had moved on since his days on Twin Peaks with MacLachlan, they managed to reconnect when the show was brought back in 2017. However, it would prove to be one of the final projects that he would direct after becoming too ill to leave the house due to his ongoing health problems.
Read Kyle MacLachlan’s tribute in full below.
“Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.
“What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.
“Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.
“David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.
“While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own.
“I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh.
“His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other.
“I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.
“David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.”
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