Film-maker who specialised in surreal, noir style mysteries made a string of influential, critically acclaimed works including Wild at Heart and Eraserhead

David Lynch, the maverick American director who sustained a successful mainstream career while also probing the bizarre, the radical and the experimental, has died aged 78.

“There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us,” his family wrote in a Facebook post. “But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’”