Laura Dern Reacts to David Lynch’s Death on What Would Have Been His 79th Birthday

Laura Dern is mourning the loss of her longtime collaborator and friend David Lynch on what would have been his 79th birthday.

The filmmaker died at 78, his family announced on Thursday, Jan. 16. Dern reacted to his death in a Jan. 20 Instagram tribute.

“Happy birthday, tidbit,” the Oscar winner wrote in the caption of a photo of them together, using the “Tidbit” nickname he bestowed upon her.

Dern added, “I will love and miss you every day for the rest of my life.”

Dern was among many of Lynch’s frequent collaborators, a group that included Harry Dean Stanton, Naomi Watts, Justin Theroux and Isabella Rossellini. The four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker first cast Dern in 1986 mystery thriller Blue Velvet when she was 17 years old. 

The actor-director pair then reunited for 1990’s Wild Heart, in which Dern played a leading role opposite Nicolas Cage. That same year, she and Cage starred in Industrial Symphony No. 1, an avant-garde concert performance. She also appeared in Lynch’s experimental feature Inland Empire in 2006 and his 2017 revival of the hit series Twin Peaks.

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During an interview with Greta Gerwig on Inside the Actors Studio in 2019, Dern said it was Lynch who helped her avoid being typecast in films.

“It was an amazing gift that a filmmaker who knows you would say,” she said at the time, per Entertainment Tonight, adding with an impression of Lynch, “‘Now I want you to play the complete opposite of what you did last time.’”

In 2006, Lynch famously campaigned for Dern to earn an Oscar nomination for her work in Inland Empire. He sat with a live cow on a street corner in Los Angeles in front of a sign praising her performance for the consideration of passersby. 

Lynch is survived by his four children. Many of the filmmaker’s collaborators spoke out about his loss on social media on Thursday. Kyle MacLachlan, who worked with him on Blue Velvet, Dune, Twin Peaks and more, wrote in an Instagram post, “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.”

Following last year’s Lonely Planet and Palm Royale, Dern will next star in Jay Kelly, from writer-director Noah Baumbach.