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Robert Towne
Known for: WritingRobert 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). Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Towne, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography 25
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible II
Days of Thunder
The Firm
Chinatown
Shampoo
Tequila Sunrise
Director, Screenplay
The Pick-up Artist
as Stan
The Two Jakes
Writer
The Yakuza
The Last Detail
The Tomb of Ligeia
Screenplay
Without Limits
Director, Writer
8 Million Ways to Die
Writer
Villa Rides
Screenplay
Love Affair
Screenplay
Ask the Dust
Director, Screenplay
Salinger
as Self - Screenwriter
Creature from the Haunted Sea
Personal Best
Director, Writer
Last Woman on Earth
Drive, He Said
as Richard
The Zodiac Killer