Robert Towne
Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934 - July 1, 2024) was an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays ever written. He later said it was inspired by a chapter in Carey McWilliams's Southern California Country: An Island on the Land (1946) and a West magazine article on Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles. Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990); the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975); and the first two Mission: Impossible films. Towne directed the sports dramas Personal Best (1982) and Without Limits (1998), the crime thriller Tequila Sunrise (1988), and the romantic crime drama Ask the Dust (2006).
Known For
Credits
- 2019 · What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael as Self
- 2013 · Salinger as Self - Screenwriter
- 2011 · The Story of Film: An Odyssey as Self
- 2008 · You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story as Self
- 2008 · Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde' as Self
- 2005 · Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That as Self
- 2004 · Suspect Zero as Professor Dates (uncredited)
- 2004 · The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made as Agent XK150 (archive footage)
- 2003 · A Decade Under the Influence as Self
- 2001 · Rescued from the Closet as Self
- 2001 · A Sad Flower in the Sand as Self
- 1998 · AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies as Self
- 1998 · Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy as Self
- 1997 · Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature as Self - Screenwriter, 'Chinatown'
- 1987 · The Pick-up Artist as Stan
- 1975 · Shampoo as Party Guest (uncredited)
- 1971 · Drive, He Said as Richard
- 1971 · The Zodiac Killer as Man in Bar #3
- 1961 · Creature from the Haunted Sea as Sparks Moran / Agent XK150 / Narrator
- 1960 · Last Woman on Earth as Martin Joyce