'Chinatown', 'Shampoo' screenwriter was 89


Robert Towne, superstar screenwriter whose 1974 classic won an Oscar chinatown considered the gold standard for film screenplays, has died. He was 89.

Towne died Monday at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Carrie McClure said.

He also received an Academy Award nomination Final Details (1973) and Shampoo (1975) was his most famous work in the years around.

His view of Los Angeles was tinged with melancholy and he depicted the city as being full of beauty and sadness. chinatown And ShampooGumshoe JJ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) and Beverly Hills hairdresser George Round (Warren Beatty) remained alone. (Towne often worked together with those actors.)

This skewed view of Southern California, as a temptress that subverts expectations, was also evident in his screenplay Tequila Sunrise (1988), starring Mel Gibson as a retired drug dealer, Kurt Russell as a police officer, and Michelle Pfeiffer as a femme fatale.

Towne was also highly respected for his work as a script doctor, contributing to Marlon Brando garden view Saint (1972) and providing key pieces for other films such as Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

When? Godfather Director Francis Ford Coppola Accepted the Oscar Award for Best Screenplay (co-written with Mario) Peugeot), he thanked Towne from the stage. The author was prominently credited as a “special adviser” Bonnie and Clyde Beatty, the star and producer of that film, came to him for help.

Towne collaborated with BT again Love affair (1994), a remake of the classic 1932 Irene Dunne-Charles Boyer film.

Towne was renowned for his ability to write ornate but concise screenplays and sharp dialogue. Negotiation which expressed rich and sometimes complex, contradictory meanings.

Film critic Michael said, “He knows how to use sly indirection, clever repetition, unexpected counterpoint, and a unique poetic vulgarity to stretch a scene or an entire screenplay to its peak emotional potential.” Srago wrote in 1998. “He's also a brilliant visual artist, with an eye for images that trigger the left and right sides of the brain simultaneously.”

chinatown His masterpiece was The Classic Noir Detective Story, which appeared on many critics' “best of” lists. Built around the story of the Mulholland family and a feud over L.A. water rights, the Raymond Chandler-inspired film also starred Faye Dunaway and was directed by John Houston and directed by Roman PolanskiThis film received 11 Oscar awards. NameBut only Towne won.

(Towne talked about writing “a leading male role for Nicholson” in Sam Wasson's book The Big GoodbyeWho THR (Quoted in 2020. The book also mentions that Edward Taylor, Towne's former college roommate and frequent collaborator, did much work on the screenplay without credit.)

His chinatown Follow, Two Jakes (1990), this time directed by Nicholson, was also based on it Gittes Despite scrutiny, critics found his script lackluster and the much-anticipated sequel was a bitter disappointment. (In November 2019, it was revealed that Towne and David Fincher were working on a prequel series for Netflix.)

Towne also wrote Tom Cruise films Firm (1993) and days of Thunder (1990) and the first two were credited to him Impossible Goal Blockbusters, released in 1996 and 2000.

He removed his name from the credits Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, King of the Apes (1984) and replaced the nickname PH WazaakThe unsung writer then received an Oscar nomination alongside Michael Austin – the fourth nomination of Towne's career. WazaakTurns out, it was the name of the Town’s sheepdog.

After his more successful years, Towne was troubled by mysterious ailments that sapped his energy for writing original screenplays, limiting him to rewrites. “I was like a man whose arm is only long enough to play a few innings. I couldn't keep up,” he said in 1992.

In fact, some of his best work was done on screenplays by others – e.g. Yakuza (1974) and 8 million ways to die (1986), which included screenplays by Paul Shredder and Oliver Stone, respectively – or on abandoned projects.

Towne also added scenes to Nicholson's play He said, drive on (1971) and uncredited Polish The New Centurions And Cisco PikeBoth were released in 1972. He also assisted in Marathon Man and starring Nicholson Missouri BreaksTwo films from 1976.

Tequila Sunrise This was his second project as writer-director, personal best (1982), the story of a gay track athlete Marielle Hemingway also played a dual role on Steve. Prefontaine Biopic without limit (1998) and ask the dust (2006), another piece set in L.A. 1930s,

In 2017, Vulture ranked him third on their list of the 100 best screenwriters of all time; only Billy Wilder and Joel and Ethan Coen ranked him higher.

Robert Bertram Schwartz was born on November 23, 1934, in San Pedro, home to the Port of Los Angeles. His father owned a women's clothing store called the Town Smart Shop in the neighborhood and then became a real estate developer, and the family moved to the tony Rancho Palos Verdes.

Towne attended Chadwick Prep School, Redondo Union High, and Pomona College, where he studied English literature and philosophy and graduated in 1956. He (along with college friend Richard Chamberlain) studied acting with blacklisted actor Jeff Corey, and it was there that he met Nicholson. The two bonded immediately.

Like many others, Towne got his start in show business at another institution of higher learning, Roger Corman’s “school.” His first screenplay was a post-apocalyptic opus for a director-producer called The last woman on earth (1960).

Towne had also starred in that film under the pseudonym Edward Wayne and played a secret agent in another Corman film. Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961). He then prepared the script for the director. Tomb of Ligeia (1964), based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, starring Vincent Price.

When BT needed help on the script Bonnie and ClydeHe turned to Towne. The author then declined the opportunity to adapt the great Gatsbychose to complete the job chinatown. He got the idea for the story when he was working with Nicholson Final Detailshe told in an interview in 2009.

“I went to Jack and said, ‘What if I write a detective story set in L.A. in the ’30s?’ He said, ‘Great,’” Towne recalled. “I had the same feeling of trying to recreate the city.

“Then I had to go to Oregon where Jack was filming He said, drive onI hadn't read Raymond Chandler up to that point, so I started reading Chandler. When I was at the University of Oregon, I took a book out of the library. [written by Carey McWilliams] called Southern California Country: Island on LandThere was a chapter called 'Water, Water, Water', which was a revelation for me.

“And I thought, 'Why not make a picture about a crime that's out in the open?' Instead of a bejewelled hawk, make it something as mundane as water taps and build an intrigue out of that. And when I read about what they were doing, throwing out the water and starving the peasants off their land, I realised the visual and dramatic possibilities were huge. So that was really the start of it.”

Survivors include his second wife, Luisa, whom he married in 1984; his daughters Kathleen (who is an actress) and Chiara; his brother Roger and sister-in-law Sylviane; niece Jocelyn; and nephew Nick.

Information regarding a celebration of life will be announced.


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