NEW YORK—Robert Towne, Oscar-winning screenwriter shampoo, last detail and other films whose scripts Chinatown The jaded charmer who became an exemplar of the art form and helped define his hometown of Los Angeles has died. He is 89 years old.
Publicist Carri McClure said Towne died Monday at her home in Los Angeles surrounded by her family. She declined to comment on any cause of death.
In an industry that spawned tragic jokes about the status of writers, Tong once enjoyed a cachet that rivaled that of the actors and directors he worked with. Through his friendship with two of the biggest stars of the 1960s and 1970s, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, he created or co-created a number of iconic films that reflected the extraordinary creative control artists of this era had. force.
A rare “auteur” among film screenwriters, Towne successfully brought a highly personal and impactful vision of Los Angeles to the screen.
“It’s such an unreal city,” Tang told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. “This is the westernmost point in the United States. It’s the last refuge. All in all, it’s a place where people go to live their dreams. And they’re never disappointed.”
Towne is well known in Hollywood for his high forehead and thick beard, for which he won an Academy Award Chinatown and was nominated three other times The last detail, shampoo and Greystoke. In 1997, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America.
“His life, like the characters he created, was profound, iconoclastic and completely (original),” said shampoo X. Actor Lee Grant
Towne achieved success after working in the television industry for a long time, including man from uncle and The Lloyd Bridges Show, and a low-budget film from “B” producer Roger Corman. In a classic showbiz story, his breakthrough was partly due to his psychiatrist, through whom he met one of his patients, Betty. as beatty did bonnie and clyde, He invited Towne to make revisions to the Robert Benton-David Newman script and had him on set while the film was being shot in Texas.
Towne’s contribution is not credited bonnie and clyde, The landmark crime film was released in 1967, and he remained a favorite ghostwriter for many years. he helped The Godfather, Parallax View and heaven can wait Among them, calling himself a “relief pitcher who can pitch an inning instead of a whole game.”
But the Towne got its name from Nicholson’s masculinity last detail sex comedy with beatty shampoo and be immortalized Chinatown, This 1974 thriller is set during the Great Depression.
Chinatown Directed by Roman Polanski, Nicholson plays JJ “Jack” Gittes, a private detective assigned to track down the husband of Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway). Husband is the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Gittes finds himself caught in a chaotic spiral of corruption and violence, embodied by Evelyn’s ruthless father Noah Cross (John Huston).
Influenced by the novels of Raymond Chandler, Towne recreates the menace and mood of classic Los Angeles noir but frames Gittes’ labyrinthine adventures as a grander, more sinister portrait of Southern California. The clues accumulate into a timeless detective story and lead inexorably to tragedy, summed up in one of the most repeated lines in film history, which Gittes hears from his partner Laurence Walsh (Jo Mantle) Cruel fatalism: “Forget it, Jack, this is Chinatown.”
Soup’s screenplay has been a staple in film writing courses ever since, though it also serves as a lesson in how movies are typically made and the risks of attributing any film to a single point of view. He admits to working closely with Polanski, revising and refining the story, and having a heated debate with the director over the film’s despairing ending—an ending that Polanski pushed for and that Towne later deemed the right choice. (No one is officially credited with writing “Forget it, Jack, this is Chinatown.”)
But the concept was started by Tang, who declined the chance to adapt the great gatsby so that he can work on the screen Chinatown, Partly inspired by a 1946 book by Carey McWilliams Southern California: Islands on land.
“There was a chapter in it called ‘Water, Water, Water,’ and that was a revelation to me. I thought, ‘Why not make a movie about a crime that’s in front of everyone?'” he told THR in 2009, reporter.
“Instead of a jeweled falcon, make it something as common as a faucet and create a conspiracy out of it. After reading about what they did, dump water and starve farmers and lose their land , I realized the dramatic possibilities for visual effects were huge.
the story behind Chinatown has become a kind of detective story in itself, explored in producer Robert Evans’ memoir, The child stays in the frame; In Peter Biskind’s Eastern Cavaliers, Raging Bulls, The history of Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s, and Sam Wasson’s Big farewell, fully committed to Chinatown. exist Big farewell, Published in 2020, Watson claimed that Towne received extensive help from a ghostwriter, former college roommate Edward Taylor. according to Big farewell, Towne declined to be interviewed, and Taylor did not request credit for the film, citing his “friendship with Robert” as more important.
Watson also writes that the film’s famous closing line comes from a deputy constable telling Tong that crimes in Chinatown are rarely prosecuted.
“Robert Towne once said that Chinatown is a state of mind,” Watson writes. “Not just a place on a map of Los Angeles, but a state of complete consciousness almost indistinguishable from blindness. Dreaming that you’re in heaven, waking up in the dark – that’s Chinatown. Thinking you’ve got it figured out, and then Then I realized it was dead—that was Chinatown.
After the mid-1970s, as the studios gained more power, Towne’s status declined. His own efforts in directing include personal best score and Tequila sunrise, The results are mixed. two jacks, The long awaited sequel Chinatown, When it was released in 1990, it was a commercial and critical disappointment, and led to a temporary estrangement between Towne and Nickerson.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, Tong said his biggest regret was Greystoke turn out. Towne based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan and wanted to direct it. But there was a problem with production personal best score hope seeping into him Greystoke. Hugh Hudson directed the 1984 film. And at the same time Greystoke Nominated for three Oscars, including for Towne’s screenplay, he wasn’t happy with the outcome. Towne named his dog PH Vazak in recognition of his screenwriting credits, making it unlikely that Vazak would receive an Oscar nomination.
Around the same time, he agreed to make a film that was far removed from the art-house aspirations of the 1970s, a Don Simpson-Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film day of thunder, Tom Cruise plays the race car driver and Robert Duvall plays the race car driver. The 1990 film was widely criticized for its budget overruns, although its admirers include Quentin Tarantino and countless racing fans. Towne’s script popularized the expression Duvall uses after Cruise complains that another car hit him: “He didn’t hit you, he didn’t hit you, he didn’t push you. He brushed you.”
“Rubin, ‘Son, is playing.'”
Towne later collaborated with Cruise The company and the first two mission Impossible Movie. His latest film is Ask the dust, L.A. Story, which he wrote and directed, was released in 2006. His brother Roger Towne, whose credits include nature.
Born Robert Bertram Schwartz in Los Angeles, Towne moved to San Pedro after one of his father’s clothing stores closed due to the Great Depression. (His father changed his surname to Tang). He had always loved writing and was inspired to work in films by his proximity to the Warner Bros. Theater and by reading the work of critic James Agee. Towne spent time working on a tuna boat and often spoke of its impact.
“I equate fishing with writing,” he told the Writers Guild in 2013. “Every script is like a trip you’re on and you’re fishing.” “Sometimes, they all involve an act.” …There are There are times when sheer faith sustains you because you think, ‘Oh my god, nothing – nothing happened today.'”