Portrait of David Lynch

Birthday profile

David Lynch

American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor (1946–2025)

Born
January 20, 1946
Died
January 16, 2025
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1946

About David Lynch

David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, actor, painter, and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, with his films often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility that gave rise to the adjective "Lynchian". In a career spanning more than five decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, a Palme d'Or and Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and a (posthumous) Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards. A longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, he founded the David Lynch Foundation to fund meditation lessons for at-risk populations. Lynch co-created (with Mark Frost) and directed the ABC surrealist horror-mystery series Twin Peaks (1990–1991; 2017), for which he received nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations. At the Pennsylvania Academy, Lynch made his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967). His romantic crime drama film Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

David Lynch timeline

  1. At the Pennsylvania Academy, Lynch made his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967).
  2. Lynch co-created (with Mark Frost) and directed the ABC surrealist horror-mystery series Twin Peaks (1990–1991; 2017), for which he received nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
  3. His romantic crime drama film Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The world when David Lynch was born

David Lynch was born in 1946. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1946

  • #1 song"The Christmas Song" – Nat King Cole
  • Top movieThe Best Years of Our Lives
  • Best-selling bookThe King's General – Daphne du Maurier

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst NBA (BAA) season begins
  • Top headlineUnited Nations General Assembly holds its first session
  • Technology milestoneENIAC — first general-purpose electronic computer
  • Defining fadBaby boom begins
  • Notable inventionTupperware
  • World population2.43 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population141.4M

1946 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in David Lynch's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19462026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,600$435,000
Average income$4,300$67,500
Minimum wage$0.40$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.35$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population141.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.