David Lynch, the legendary director of "Twin Peaks" and "Mulholland Drive," is dead at 78, his family announced Jan. 16 on Facebook.

Lynch was born in Missoula, Mont., in 1946 and grew up in Spokane, Wash., and Boise, Idaho. His father was a forest research scientist, and Lynch spent much of his childhood outside, exploring. Those same mysterious Pacific Northwest woods would eventually inspire Twin Peaks.

Famed director David Lynch, who dared to be different in his often dark and surrealistic storytelling in film and on television, has died. He was 78. “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,’” wrote a family member on Facebook.