David Lynch's grave stone bearing enigmatic phrase unveiled in Hollywood

Independent

07-04-2025

David Lynch 's grave marker has been unveiled at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, with the simple flat black stone bearing the enigmatic epitaph: 'Night Blooming Jasmine.'
The visionary Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive director died in January at the age of 78. According to reports he was cremated and his ashes were buried at Hollywood Forever.
The storied cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles is the final resting place of many classic Hollywood icons including Judy Garland, Cecil B DeMille and Jayne Mansfield.
Lynch's grave marker bears just his full name, David Keith Lynch, his dates 1946 - 2025, and the three-word phrase which refers to a scent he associated with Los Angeles and nostalgia for a bygone era of Hollwood.
In a 2016 interview with AnOther Magazine, Lynch said: 'When you fly into LA at night, it's all lit up, miles and miles of lights – so beautiful. It's a very fast image. But within it there are these places that talk about memory.
'You know, on a summer's night, maybe more like a spring night, you could drive to certain places and if you smell that night-blooming jasmine, you can almost see Clark Gable or Gloria Swanson. The golden age of Hollywood is still living in some moods here, in the DNA of the city.'
In one of his regular 'Weather Report' YouTube videos posted on December 21, 2020, Lynch said: 'Now, the days are gonna start getting longer, and spring time is right around the corner. When, at least in LA, that night blooming jasmine will once again fill the air with its sublime fragrance.'
Lynch's death was announced in January by his family in a Facebook post, which read: '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.''
In the days before his death, the Oscar-nominated auteur had reportedly been evacuated from his LA home due to the city's devastating wildfires.
In an interview with Sight & Sound magazine last year, Lynch revealed he had been diagnosed with emphysema due to smoking throughout his life, and said he could not 'go out' because of the risk of catching Covid.
'I've gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I'm homebound whether I like it or not. It would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold,' he said, admitting that he could only walk a short distance before he was 'out of oxygen.'
Lynch, who frequently collaborated with Hollywood luminaries such as Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Naomi Watts, Jack Nance and Harry Dean Stanton, left behind an iconic body of work.
He earned critical acclaim and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980), the mystery thriller Blue Velvet (1986), and the psychological drama Mulholland Drive (2001).