Robert Towne
Writing
Born November 23, 1934 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA
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).
Filmography
Robert Towne
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
Self
Salinger
Self - Screenwriter
Welcome to the Basement
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Self
You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
Self
Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde'
Self
Mad Men
Ask the Dust
Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That
Self
Suspect Zero
Professor Dates (uncredited)
A Decade Under the Influence
Self
Rescued from the Closet
Self
A Sad Flower in the Sand
Self
Mission: Impossible II
Without Limits
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
Self
Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature
Self - Screenwriter, 'Chinatown'
Cadillac Desert
Self - Screenwriter, 'Chinatown'
Mission: Impossible
Love Affair
The Firm
Halloween Monster Bash
Sparks Moran (archive footage)
The Two Jakes
Days of Thunder
Tequila Sunrise
Frantic
The Pick-up Artist
Stan
Tough Guys Don't Dance
The Bedroom Window
8 Million Ways to Die
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Deal of the Century
Personal Best
Heaven Can Wait
Shampoo
Party Guest (uncredited)
The Yakuza
Chinatown
The Parallax View
The Last Detail
The New Centurions
The Godfather
Cisco Pike
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Drive, He Said
Richard
The Zodiac Killer
Man in Bar #3
Villa Rides
Bonnie and Clyde
The Tomb of Ligeia
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Outer Limits
The Lloyd Bridges Show
Creature from the Haunted Sea
Sparks Moran / Agent XK150 / Narrator
Last Woman on Earth
Martin Joyce