Hollywood icon David Lynch’s death at 78 shocked the world of entertainment last week.

The filmmaker changed the scope of cinema and TV with surreal classics including Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks – with the star never forgetting the unlikely role fast food chain Bob’s Big Boy played in his creative process.

Lynch became a familiar face at the restaurant’s Burbank, California branch in the ’70s – the decade his 1977 debut Eraserhead would be released.  

His to-the-letter routine saw him enjoy coffee and a signature icy chocolate milkshake at 2.30pm, with the resulting ‘sugar and caffeine hit’ galvanizing him into writing.

Many of his dramatic and twisted plots started life as scruffy notes on the All-American diner’s napkins. 

In Lynch’s 2007 book Catching The Big Fish, which focused on his belief on transcendental meditation, he said Bob’s Big Boy gave him ‘safety in thinking’ as he dreamed up his neo-noir storylines. 

Hollywood icon David Lynch’s death at 78 shocked the world of entertainment last week 

The maverick filmmaker changed the scope of cinema and TV and notably credited the unlikely role fast food chain Bob’s Big Boy played in his creative process – pictured at the Burbank branch with John Waters in 1977

He wrote: ‘I used to go to Bob’s Big Boy restaurant just about every day from the mid-seventies until the early eighties. I’d have a milkshake and sit and think. 

‘There’s a safety in thinking in a diner. You can have your coffee or your milkshake, and you can go off into strange dark areas, and always come back to the safety of the diner.’

It was inevitable that Bob’s real life clientele would inspire one of Lynch’s gritty onscreen characters. 

 Lynch revealed a customer sparked the creation of Blue Velvet’s violent drug dealer antagonist Frank Booth, who was played by Dennis Hopper in the 1986 movie.

He told THR: ‘One day though in Bob’s I saw a man come in, and he came in to the counter, and that’s all I remember of this man. But seeing him came a feeling, and that’s where Frank Booth came from.’

Bob’s was even the unlikely setting for his first ‘chemistry lunch’ between future Blue Velvet stars Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern.

Jurᴀssic Park star Dern told W Magazine of the casual meeting in 2019: ‘I got a call that he wanted to meet me at Bob’s Big Boy to see if Kyle MacLachlan and I could get along or something. It was like a chemistry lunch.

‘And so the three of us had lunch at Bob’s Big Boy, and the rest is history. We ordered malts and French fries and David was doodling on napkins while Kyle was doodling with a knife into his ketchup. 

Lynch became a familiar face at the restaurant’s Burbank, California branch (pictured) in the 1970s – the decade his 1977 debut Eraserhead would be released. His routine saw him dine on coffee and a chocolate milkshake at 2.30pm

The five feet Big Boy statue in Burbank has become a shrine to Lynch, with fans leaving red roses, candles, cigars, coffee mugs and Coca Cola bottles on it

Slices of pie, donuts and cigarettes were seen alongside tributes to Lynch

Bob’s was even the unlikely setting for his first ‘chemistry lunch’ between future Blue Velvet stars Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern. Dern told W Magazine of the casual meeting in 2019: ‘We ordered malts and French fries’ – pictured in the 1986 film

It was inevitable that Bob’s real life clientele would inspire one of Lynch’s gritty onscreen characters. Lynch revealed a customer sparked the creation of Blue Velvet’s violent drug dealer antagonist Frank Booth, who was played by Dennis Hopper – seen with Dean Stockwell

‘And I mean, a girl either goes, these are really bizarre men and they are twin souls, or I am in love with both of these people and want to spend the rest of my life with them, which is how I responded. 

In 2015, Lynch revealed in a Bob’s Big Boy YouTube video that he visited the Burbank branch ‘for seven years every day at 2.30pm after lunch’ to order a chocolate milkshake with a cup of coffee.

He said: ‘I stopped going there, I climbed into the dumpster and found one of the milkshake cartons and every ingredient ended in “zine” or “eight”, there was nothing natural anywhere near that garden.’

Read More David Lynch’s children call late filmmaker ‘a guiding light’

Such is Lynch’s influence on the eatery, a framed pH๏τo of him sits inside alongside pH๏τos of MacLachlan and Dern. 

The affinity between Lynch and Bob’s saw film fans raise coffee and chocolate milkshakes to the star following his death.

The five feet Big Boy statue became a shrine to Lynch, with fans leaving red roses, candles, cigars, coffee mugs and Coca Cola bottles on it.

Fans wore attire inspired by his works including Eraserhead and Twin Peaks with studio employees working nearby also raising a glᴀss to Lynch at Bob’s.

While Lynch indulged at Bob’s, the rest of his diet was notably healthier and stricter. 

In a 2001 interview with LA Weekly, Lynch said: ‘Now, I have cappuccino in the morning, many coffees during the day, and salad that’s put in a Cuisinart so each bite tastes the same,’ he said.

‘No meat. This has got nuts and eggs and some lettuce and different kinds of greens. So it’s a little bowl of Cuisinart salad with Parmesan cheese on top,’ he said of his midday meal.

Lynch is pictured with Laura Dern in in Los Angeles in May 2017

Such is Lynch’s influence on the eatery, a framed pH๏τo of him sits inside alongside pH๏τos of MacLachlan and Dern  – pictured with MacLachlan in 2017

‘And then at night I have a block of Parmesan cheese, maybe a 2-inch cube, and red wine.’

Lynch died after a long battle with emphysema. 

After earning Oscar nominations for directing The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet, the versatile and quirky writer and director changed the TV landscape with his breakthrough series Twin Peaks, a thriller about an FBI agent who travels to a small town to investigate the death of a prom queen.

The mystical mystery series won two Emmys during its three seasons.

After his 2006 movie Inland Empire, an eerie story about an actress who begins to adopt the persona of her film character with nightmarish results, the prolific writer and director began to focus on short films and videos written, produced and directed by Lynch.

It wasn’t until 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, that he sold a major project to a network on studio. All 18 episodes of the sequel, starring Dern and Twin Peaks veteran MacLachlan, were shown on Showtime.

Lynch is survived by his wife Emily Stofle, and three children Jennifer Lynch, Austin Jack Lynch, and Riley Lynch.

In an interview with Sight & Sound in August, Lynch said that he got the disease ‘for smoking so long.’

Lynch said: ‘I’m homebound whether I like it or not. I can’t go out. And I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen.’

The director of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks got real as he said his love of cigarettes put him in this position.

Twin Peaks developed a cult following after its run on ABC which later resulted in the 1992 prequel feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk. In 2017 Lynch’s signature franchise made a comeback with Twin Peaks: The Return. – pictured with Sherilynn Fenn in the show

Lynch said: ‘Smoking was something that I absolutely loved, but in the end, it bit me.

‘It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it, and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things.

‘Nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit.’

In November, he told People that he required supplemental oxygen for most activities and could ‘hardly walk across a room.’

‘It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head,’ he said of his battle with emphysema.

Despite not having any regrets, Lynch hopes his devastating health update will encourage other smokers to quit.

He also told the outlet: ‘Think about it. You can quit these things that are going to end up killing you.’

Lynch admitted there had been a ‘big price to pay’ for his lifelong habit but said he didn’t regret it.

By the time he gave up cigarettes the father-of-four could ‘hardly move without gasping for air.’

‘Quitting was my only choice,’ he said.

His most recent major project before his health issues was the revival of his series Twin Peaks for Showtime in 2017.

The original series had ran from 1990 to 1991 as it followed the investigation into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee) as it took place in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, Washington.

When it first aired in the early 1990s the series had developed a cult following after its run on ABC which later resulted in the 1992 prequel feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk.

Over two decades Lynch’s signature franchise made a comeback with Twin Peaks: The Return.

In an interview with Sight & Sound in August, Lynch said that he got emphysema  ‘for smoking so long’ (seen in 1984)

Some of Lynch’s other signature projects included The Elephant Man (1980), and Mulholland Drive (seen above in 2001 with Naomi Watts), and Inland Empire (2006)

MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Mädchen Amick, Lee and David Duchovny – who starred in the original – returned for the revival.

Other stars were also added into the mix including Dern, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Szohr, Michael Cera, Richard Chamberlain, and Trent Reznor.

Lynch’s other signature projects included Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001), and Inland Empire (2006).