Nicolas Cage, Naomi Watts and Patricia Arquette are among the stars to pay tribute to the late David Lynch

Nicolas, who starred in Lynch's Palme d'Or winning 1990 movie 'Wild at Heart' told Deadline: "[David] was a singular genius in cinema, one of the greatest artists of this or any time.

"He was brave, brilliant, and a maverick with a joyful sense of humour.

"I never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch. He will always be solid gold."

Meanwhile, Naomi dec lared her heart to be "broken" as she thanked the director for putting her "on the map" with 2001's 'Mullholland Drive'.

Sharing a series of photos of them together, she wrote on Instagram: "My heart is broken. My Buddy Dave... The world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful. He put me on the map.

"The world I'd been trying to break into for ten plus years, flunking auditions left and right. Finally, I sat in front of a curious man, beaming with light, speaking words from another era, making me laugh and feel at ease. How did he even "see me" when I was so well hidden, and I'd even lost sight of myself?!

"It wasn't just his art that impacted me - his wisdom, humor, and love gave me a special sense of belief in myself I'd never accessed before.

"Every moment together felt charged with a presence I've rarely seen or known. Probably because, yes, he seemed to live in an altered world, one that I feel beyond lucky to have been a small part of. And David invited all to glimpse into that world through his exquisite storytelling, which elevated cinema and inspired generations of filmmakers across the globe.

"I just cannot believe that he's gone. I'm in pieces but forever grateful for our friendship.??I'm yelling from the bullhorn: Godspeed, Buddy Dave! Thank you for your everything. ?-Buttercup xox (sic)"

Patricia had worked with the director several times and expressed her regret at not getting to see him before he passed away.

Speaking on 'Andy Cohen Live', she said: "I worked on 'Lost Highway' with him and I was just at the Morocco Film Festival and the woman who ran it, Melita, she loves David and they're good friends, and we were talking about David, and then I called my friend Baltazar, who was in 'Lost Highway' with me, and I was like, 'We gotta go see David,' and I tried to leave word for him. I have this feeling like I needed to see David.

"David was really incredible. There's nobody like him."

Kyle MacLachlan worked with Lynch on 'Dune', 'Blue Velvet' and 'Twin Peaks' and paid a heartfelt tribute to his "dear friend".

He shared photos on social media and wrote: "What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.

"While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I've lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own.

"I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he's gone."

Laura Harring, who also starred in 'Mulholland Drive' paid a brief tribute on Instagram.

She wrote: "All artists and humans who came across you, will mourn your passing on, but I know you are creating movies, writing, painting and meditating from up above."

And her co-star Lee Grant recalled becoming fascinated by the "dreamscapes" of 'Twin Peaks' in the 1990s, so jumped at the chance to work with the filmmaker.

She wrote on X: "In the early 90s the production manager of a film I was working on built part of our shooting schedule around the broadcast of a TV show the crew refused to miss. The show was Twin Peaks. I became fascinated by David Lynch's dreamscapes along with everyone else on the film.

"Years later, when offered the chance to work with him for a day, I jumped at the opportunity to see how a mind like that directed. It was a day on Mulholland Drive. He was, in actuality, a one of a kind artist."