Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married, and fathered future director Jennifer Chambers Lynch shortly after he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in a particularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspired ERASERHEAD(1977), a film that he began in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he would work on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasable, but thanks to the efforts of distributor Ben Barenholtz, it secured a cult following and enabled Lynch went on to make such cult films as THE ELEPHANT MAN, DUNE, BLUE VELVET, WILD AT HEART, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, LOST HIGHWAY, and the television series TWIN PEAKS. Lynch is also a renowned painter and author.