Flashback: David Lynch Makes Final On-Screen Appearance With Unforgettable ‘Fabelmans’ Cameo
While the late David Lynch made an inimitable and indelible mark on cinema from the director’s chair, his final big-screen contribution came in front of the camera with an unforgettable cameo in The Fabelmans.
In Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film, Lynch appears toward the end of the movie as another legendary filmmaker, John Ford, who is visited by an aspiring young filmmaker.
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While just a cameo, Lynch-as-Ford steals every second of the scene and distills the entire art of filmmaking with one piece of advice: “When the horizons at the bottom, it’s interesting. When the horizons at the top, it’s interesting. When the horizons in the middle, it’s boring as shit.”
“Now, good luck to you,” the curmudgeonly Westerns director tells Fabelman. “And get the fuck out of my office.”
As Vanity Fair reported in 2023, Lynch was at first reluctant to appear in The Fabelmans, twice turning down Spielberg’s overtures to play Ford. It took some convincing from Laura Dern, the star of Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Inland Empire, for Lynch to even consider the role.
“David took it so seriously because he would never let another filmmaker down. He’s like, ‘I don’t want to say yes if I can’t do this,’” Dern told VF. Finally, Lynch agreed, on one condition. “He said, ‘All I want, all I’ll ask for, is I want to have my costume two weeks before I shoot because I’m going to wear it every day,” Spielberg said.
While best known for his visionary work behind the camera with films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr., Lynch also had an always-magnetic on-screen presence, even if he was just reading weather reports on social media. Most notably, he played FBI bureau chief Gordon Cole in his own Twin Peaks — which allowed him to share the screen with David Bowie — and co-starred in the 2017 film Lucky, where he appeared alongside his friend and sometime collaborator Harry Dean Stanton.
A pioneering filmmaker who focused on the dark and surreal underbelly beneath society’s facade, Lynch’s death at the age of 78 was announced Thursday on social media.
Lynch’s family confirmed his death on Facebook, writing, “It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. 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.’”
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