ROBERT TOWNE
(23 November 1934 - 1 July 2024)
Robert Towne, the American screenwriter, who has died aged 89, was an Academy Award winner for his original screenplay for Roman Polanski’s Chinatown in 1975. However, writing for films was not the only strand in his wide-ranging career, for he was also an actor, a producer and a director - the complete Hollywood man. His working life began, like others before him, with Roger Corman who recognised his talent and so his career developed from there and the experience paid off. His cv reads like a history of Tinseltown. He was born Robert Bertram Schwartz in Los Angeles to Lou Schwartz, a clothing store owner and property developer, and his wife Helen. The Jewish family was of Romanian-Russian descent. Robert had a younger brother, Roger, with whom he wrote the Robert Redford film The Natural in 1984.
After graduating, Towne sought work as a writer and actor. He attended acting classes by that fine actor Jeff Corey with students such as Jack Nicholson, Sally Kellerman and the future director Irvin Kershner. Having been discovered by Corman, in 1960 Towne wrote Last Woman on Earth, a post-apocalyptic science-fiction movie in which he also acted. He appeared in Corman’s Creature from the Haunted Sea, a parody of movie genres – gangsters, spies and monsters. Towne also appeared in it as Edward Wain. Still working for Corman, Towne adapted Edgar Allan Poe’s Ligeia, about a woman’s soul that refuses to die. With Vincent Price and Elizabeth Shepherd it became The Tomb of Ligeia. Then Towne got TV work on The Lloyd Bridges Show, Breaking Point, The Outer Limits and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In 1967 he was appointed special consultant on Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde which brought new impetus to American cinema. This biographical drama about the infamous pair of bank robbers on the run, played by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, depicted scenes of sex and violence, although that didn’t stop it from winning Oscars for supporting actress Estelle Parsons and cinematographer Burnett Guffey. Towne went on to write Buzz Kulick’s western Villa Rides starring Yul Brynner, and wrote but was uncredited on Jack Nicholson’s Drive, He Said, even though he also acted in the film. He was also uncredited on Cisco Pike with Gene Hackman, Richard Fleischer’s The New Centurions with George C. Scott and for his work on The Godfather. More uncredited work was for The Parallax View, The Missouri Breaks, Marathon Man, Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Deal of the Century, Swing Shift, Frantic and Crimson Tide.
However, there are more than enough films where Towne’s true mettle was recognised. Chinatown will remain his chef d’oeuvre for which he won an Academy Award for best original screenplay, although it was actually nominated for eleven Oscars. Towne also won a Bafta and a gong from the Writers’ Guild of America. The Guardian newspaper called it “the best film of all time.” Towne carried on working on high-profile productions. His last screenplays were for the first two Mission: Impossible movies with Tom Cruise. As writer-director he made Personal Best with Mariel Hemingway, Tequila Sunrise with Mel Gibson, the sports drama Without Limits, with Billy Crudup, and Ask the Dust with Colin Farrell, the last two being co-produced by Tom Cruise. Apart from his early acting roles, Towne was also in Shampoo, The Pick-Up Artist and Suspect Zero. He was married to the actress Julie Payne from 1977 to 1982. They had a daughter, Katharine. In 1984 he married Luisa Gaule with whom he had a daughter, Chiara.
MICHAEL DARVELL