Hollywood pays tribute to David Lynch: ‘A unique, visionary dreamer’ | David Lynch

Actors and directors have paid tribute to director David Lynch, who died this week aged 78.

The death of Lynch, whose works include Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, was announced by his family on Facebook earlier Thursday. “There is a great hole in the world now that he is no longer with us,” they wrote. “But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut, not the hole.’

Steven Spielberg, who cast Lynch as John Ford in his semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans, praised him as “a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade” in a statement.

“The world will miss such an original and unique voice,” he wrote. “His films have already stood the test of time, and they always will.”

Nicolas Cage, who starred in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, said Deadline that he was “one of the greatest artists of this or any time”. He continued: “He was brave, brilliant and a maverick with a happy sense of humour. I’ve never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch. He will always be solid gold.”

Twin Peaks star Lara Flynn Boyle shared this statement Deadline: “There goes the true Willy Wonka of film production. I feel like I got the golden ticket and got a chance to work with him. He will be sorely missed.”

Kyle MacLachlan, who starred in Blue Velvet, Dune and Twin Peaks, wrote on Instagram that he owes “my whole career, and life really, to his vision”. He added: “While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I have lost a dear friend who envisioned a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own.”

Laura Harring, who starred in Mulholland Drive, also paid tribute Instagram. “All artists and people who encountered you will mourn your passing, but I know you create films, write, paint and meditate from above,” she wrote.

Ron Howard called him “a gracious man and fearless artist who followed his heart and soul and proved that radical experimentation could make for unforgettable cinema”.

The Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn wrote that he “inspired so many of us,” as Harmony Korine recounted Indiewire that he was “a once-in-a-generation talent who absorbed the embers of America’s wildness”.

Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, whose films I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World Fair have been compared to Lynch’s films. wrote: “He was the first to show me another world, a beautiful one of love and danger, I sensed but had never seen outside sleep.”