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Mary Sweeney | Director, Writer, Co-Producer

Mary Sweeney (born January 1, 1953) is an award-winning American film editor and film producer best known for collaborating with the avant-garde American film director, David Lynch. Sweeney worked with Lynch on several critically acclaimed films and television series, most notably as a film editor on the cult hits Twin Peaks, Lost Highway (1997), and Mulholland Drive (2001) for Lynch’s Asymmetrical Productions company. She was the co-author, with John Roach, of The Straight Story (1999).

Sweeney was for many years a domestic partner of David Lynch. The couple married in 2006 but filed for divorce one month later, citing irreconcilable differences. Together the couple has one son, Riley Sweeney Lynch, born in 1992.

A long-time Hollywood resident, Sweeney is head of The Sullivan Canyon Riders Club, a Los Angeles equestrian club. The club has worked to prevent land used by horse riders from being sold to developers, an effort that was supported financially by well-known film director Steven Spielberg and actress Kate Capshaw.

Mary Sweeney began her career as an assistant editor working for film editor Duwayne Dunham on such films as Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, and the television series Twin Peaks. She quickly moved up to became director David Lynch’s first choice as film editor. As their working and off-screen relationships developed, Lynch promoted Sweeney to producer (she was responsible for handling the post-production end of each show).

In 1994, Sweeney read an article in the New York Times about an old man who drove a tractor cross country just to see his ailing brother. The article piqued Sweeney’s interest, and for four years she sought to the film rights to the story. Sweeney retraced the journey of the tractor owner, Alvin Straight. Along the way she met several of the same people Straight had met, which helped her and her co-author John Roach draft their screenplay. When Sweeney broached the idea of making a movie based on Straight’s journey to her partner David Lynch, he was initially uninterested in the project, but after he read the script, he changed his mind. Lynch decided to direct the film, which would be his “straightest” narrative film to date.