Robert Towne, Oscar-winning Chinatown writer, dead at 89

Considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time, Towne also wrote ‘Shampoo’, ‘Days of Thunder’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’

Robert Towne attending the Writers Guild Awards in Los Angeles in 2016 (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Writers Guild of America, West)

Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Chinatown, has died. He was 89.

In a long and storied career, Towne also wrote the scripts for Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail and Shampoo and collaborated with Tom Cruise on Days of Thunder, The Firm and the first two Mission: Impossible films.

Towne, widely considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time, died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Carrie McClure said in a statement to Variety.

He was born Robert Bertram Schwartz in Los Angeles on November 23, 1934 and grew up in the nearby port city of San Pedro.

His film career began in the 1960s, working as an actor and writer for renowned B-movie director Roger Corman. His script for the 1967 Western A Time For Killing brought him to the attention of Warren Beatty, who hired him as a script doctor to rework Bonnie and Clyde.

Towne also did uncredited work on the script for 1972’s The Godfather, although director Francis Ford Coppola did thank him in his Oscar speech, saying: “Giving credit where it’s due, I’d like to thank Bob Towne who wrote the very beautiful scene between Marlon and Al Pacino in the garden; that was Bob Towne’s scene.”

Robert Towne with ‘Chinatown’ star Faye Dunaway in 2008 (Getty Images for AFI)

The early 1970s were the most successful years of Towne’s career. He scored three consecutive hits with his screenplays for The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), and Shampoo (1975). He was nominated for an Oscar for all three, winning only for Chinatown.

“Chinatown for me began when I was living in Benedict Canyon and some developer bought up acreage in nearby Deep Canyon and started a rapacious building concern. Land was being destroyed because of greed,” Towne told Variety for the film’s 50th anniversary. He returned to the film with sequel The Two Jakes in 1990, and recently confirmed that he wrote a prequel series which David Fincher is developing at Netflix.

Towne turned to directing with sports drama Personal Best in 1982, but the film was such a commercial failure that he was forced to sell off the next screenplay he hoped to direct, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. When the script was produced in 1984, Towne took his name off the script and replaced it with that of his dog, PH Vazak. Vazak became the first dog to be nominated for an Oscar for screenwriting.

Towne’s second film as director was the 1988 romantic crime dramaTequila Sunrise, and a decade later he directed another sports drama, Without Limits. His final film as a director was the 2006 John Fante adaptation Ask The Dust.

In 1990, Towne wrote the script for motorsports drama Days of Thunder and became close friends with the film’s star, Tom Cruise. The pair continued to collaborate on the 1993 legal thriller The Firm and the first two Mission: Impossible films.

In 2013, Towne was a consulting producer for the final season of Mad Men.

He is survived by two daughters: Katherine, from his marriage to Julie Payne, and Chiara, from his second marriage to Luisa Gaule.

On X/Twitter, Towne was remembered by Shampoo star Lee Grant, who wrote: “Shaken to hear that Robert Towne has left us. His life, like the characters he created, was incisive, iconoclastic, & entirely originally. He gave me the gift of “Shampoo”. He gave all of us the gift of his words & his films. There isn’t another like him. There won’t be again.”