Robert Towne

Biography

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). Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Towne, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

Suspect Zero

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature

Shampoo

The Pick-up Artist

A Decade Under the Influence

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

Salinger

All Movies (20)

• What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael2019 · as Self
• Salinger2013 · as Self - Screenwriter
• You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story2008 · as Self
• Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde'2008 · as Self
• Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That2005 · as Self
• Suspect Zero2004 · as Professor Dates (uncredited)
• A Decade Under the Influence2003 · as Self
• Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film2002 · as Self (uncredited)
• Rescued from the Closet2001 · as Self
• A Sad Flower in the Sand2001 · as Self
• Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy1998 · as Self
• Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature1997 · as Self - Screenwriter, 'Chinatown'
• Halloween Monster Bash1991 · as Sparks Moran (archive footage)
• The Pick-up Artist1987 · as Stan
• Shampoo1975 · as Party Guest (uncredited)
• Drive, He Said1971 · as Richard
• The Zodiac Killer1971 · as Man in Bar #3
• Creature from the Haunted Sea1961 · as Sparks Moran / Agent XK150 / Narrator
• Last Woman on Earth1960 · as Martin Joyce
• Robert Towne—

All TV Shows (2)

• The Story of Film: An Odyssey2011 · as Self
• Cadillac Desert1997 · as Self - Screenwriter, 'Chinatown'