Early life of David Lynch

David Keith Lynch
Lynch's high school senior portrait, 1964
Born	David Keith Lynch (1946-01-20) January 20, 1946 (age 78) Missoula, Montana, U.S.
Alma mater	American Film Institute Conservatory
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	1966–present

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David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, painter, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style,^[1] most often noted for its dreamlike imagery and meticulous sound design. The surreal and, in many cases, violent elements in his films have earned them a reputation as works that "disturb, offend or mystify" general audiences.^[2]

Although born in Missoula, Montana, Lynch spent his youth traveling across the United States due to his father Donald's job for the Department of Agriculture; as a result, Lynch attended school across several states. Raised in a contented, happy family, the young Lynch was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, reaching the highest rank of Eagle Scout. However, Lynch took to building fireworks and playing the bongos in a Beat Generation nightclub as acts of rebellion, before discovering that he could translate his childhood fascination with drawing and painting into a career in fine art. Lynch and his close friend Jack Fisk travelled to Austria hoping to study under Oskar Kokoschka, but the artist was not present at the time.

Returning to the United States, Lynch enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Although initially focusing on oil painting and sculpture, Lynch found himself beginning to experiment with short films. After completing several short animated and partly animated works, Lynch was prompted by his mentor Bushnell Keeler to apply for one of four annual grants from the American Film Institute to fund another film project. The resulting film, The Grandmother, paved the way for Lynch's scholarship at the AFI Conservatory; while studying there, Lynch wrote and directed a film which would take several years to gestate—his feature-length début and the beginning of his commercial film career, Eraserhead.