Robert Towne

Last updated

Robert Towne
Robert Towne 1.jpg
Towne in 2006
Born
Robert Bertram Schwartz [1] [2]

(1934-11-23) November 23, 1934 (age 89)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater Pomona College
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • director
  • producer
  • actor
Years active1960–present
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1977;div. 1982)​
Luisa Gaule
​
​
(m. 1984)​
Children2
Relatives Jocelyn Towne (niece)

Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter and director. He started with writing films for Roger Corman including The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). Later, he was a part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He wrote the Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays. [3] Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), and the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975). He has collaborated with Tom Cruise on the films Days of Thunder (1990), The Firm (1993) and the first two installments of Mission: Impossible franchise (1996, 2000).

Contents

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).

Early life

Towne was born Robert Bertram Schwartz in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in San Pedro, the son of Helen and Lou Schwartz, a clothing store owner and property developer. [4] [5] He is of Romanian descent through his father, and Russian descent through his mother; the family was Jewish. [5] He has a younger brother, Roger, [1] who co-wrote the 1984 film The Natural starring Robert Redford. [6]

He graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California. [7]

Career

Roger Corman

Towne originally sought work as a writer and actor. He took an acting class with Roger Corman taught by Jeff Corey where his classmates also included Jack Nicholson (with whom he shared an apartment), Irvin Kershner, and Sally Kellerman. [8]

Corman was renowned for giving work to untested people of talent. Towne wrote the screenplay for the Corman-financed Last Woman on Earth (1960), in which Towne also played one of the lead roles.

The following year he also starred in the Corman-financed Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961).

Television

Towne started writing for television on such programs as The Lloyd Bridges Show , Breaking Point , The Outer Limits , and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. .

He also wrote a screenplay for the Corman-directed The Tomb of Ligeia (1965). In 1981 Towne said "I worked harder on... [that] screenplay for him than on anything I think I have ever done." [8]

Towne went back to working in television when Corman hired him to write a script for a Western, which became A Time for Killing (1967). Corman left the project during filming and Towne took his name off the credits. Towne said later he "hated" the film. [9]

Script doctor

Towne's script for A Time for Killing had been read and admired by Warren Beatty who asked Towne to help out on the script for Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Towne later claimed his main contributions were removing the ménage à trois relationship between Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D., making some structural changes. [10] Towne was on set during filming and continued to work during post-production. The film was a huge success and although Towne's contribution was credited only as a "special consultant", he began to earn a reputation in Hollywood as a top script doctor. [11]

Towne was credited on Villa Rides (1968), which he later said he did as a favor for Robert Evans, head of Paramount. He hated the experience. [12]

Towne did uncredited work on the scripts for Drive, He Said (1971), directed by Jack Nicholson; Cisco Pike (1972), which Towne said turned into "a pretty good movie" but where he got "so angry with the director" he took his name off; [9] and The New Centurions (1972), where he was to share credit with Stirling Silliphant but asked for his name to be taken off after he saw the film. [13]

He did uncredited work for Francis Ford Coppola during the making of The Godfather (1972), mostly the final scene between Michael and Vito, shortly before Vito dies. [11] Coppola thanked Towne in his Academy Award speech for Best Screenplay.

Towne also did some work on The Parallax View (1974) at the behest of star Warren Beatty.

The Last Detail, Chinatown, and Shampoo

Towne received great acclaim for his film scripts The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), and Shampoo (1975). He was nominated for an Oscar for all three scripts, winning for Chinatown. [14] [15] [16] 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.

According to Sam Wasson's The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, Towne "secretly employed an old college friend named Edward Taylor as his uncredited writing partner for more than 40 years." [17]

Towne was credited for his work on The Yakuza (1975) and did script doctoring on The Missouri Breaks (1976), Orca (1977) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).

Director

Towne turned to directing with Personal Best (1982). He also wrote the script for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes , hoping to direct, but Personal Best was a financial failure, meaning he had to sell the Greystoke script. He grew dissatisfied with the production and credited his dog, P. H. Vazak, with the script. Vazak became the first dog nominated for an Oscar for screenwriting. [18]

Towne did uncredited work on Deal of the Century (1983), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) ( [19] ), Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987) and Frantic (1988).

His second feature film as director was Tequila Sunrise (1988), which he wrote back in the early 1980s. Towne told The New York Times that Tequila Sunrise is "a movie about the use and abuse of friendship." [15]

The Two Jakes

Towne has expressed his disappointment in The Two Jakes in many interviews.[ citation needed ] He told writer Alex Simon, "In the interest of maintaining my friendships with Jack Nicholson and Robert Evans, I’d rather not go into it, but let’s just say The Two Jakes wasn’t a pleasant experience for any of us. But, we’re all still friends, and that’s what matters most." [20]

In a November 5, 2007, interview with MTV, Jack Nicholson claimed that Towne had written the part of Gittes specifically for him. In the same interview, Nicholson also said that Towne had conceived Chinatown as a trilogy, with the third film set in 1968 and dealing in some way with Howard Hughes. [21] However, Towne says he "does not know how that got started" and denies there was any trilogy planned.

Tom Cruise

Towne wrote the script for Days of Thunder (1990) and formed a close friendship with its star Tom Cruise.

He was one of the writers on Cruise's The Firm (1993), then Beatty's Love Affair (1994). Cruise brought him on to Mission: Impossible (1996) and co-produced Towne's third film as director, Without Limits (1998). He also co-wrote Mission Impossible II (2000) for Cruise.

Later career

A project Towne had long sought to bring to the screen came to fruition in 2006 with Ask the Dust , a romantic period piece set in Los Angeles based on the acclaimed novel by John Fante and starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Towne had found the novel decades earlier during his research for Chinatown, as he was looking for authentic descriptions of 1930s Los Angeles. He enjoyed the book, considering it "the best book about Los Angeles ever written", and arranged a meeting with Fante, himself a screenwriter. As a result of that meeting, Towne was granted the screen rights to the novel. The rights eventually lapsed, and the new owner was Mel Brooks. In 1993, Towne wrote the script for free in exchange for the chance to direct the film. [22] Tom Cruise (with Paula Wagner and Cruise/Wagner Productions) served as one of the film's producers. Ask the Dust received mixed reviews and failed at the box office. The film was entered into the 28th Moscow International Film Festival. [23]

Towne has framed several of his signature films as elaborate melodramas. He told The New York Times "I think melodrama is always a splendid occasion to entertain an audience and say things you want to say without rubbing their noses in it. With melodrama, as in dreams, you're always flirting with the disparity between appearance and reality, which is a great deal of fun. And that's also not unrelated to my perception of my life working in Hollywood, where you're always wondering, 'What does that guy really mean?'" [15]

In 2006, Towne was the subject of artist Sarah Morris's film, Robert Towne. Morris describes him as an “elliptical figure” whose career exemplifies a certain characteristic mode of working in the film industry, marked by collaboration, shared or changing roles. [24] Morris's 19,744-square-foot (1,834.3 m2) painting installation in the lobby of the Lever House in Manhattan, commissioned by the Public Art Fund, was also titled "Robert Towne". [25]

Return to television

In the 2010s, Towne returned to television, working as a consulting producer on Mad Men and writing two episodes of Welcome to the Basement. [26]

Personal life

In 1968, Towne met actress Julie Payne; they were married from 1977 to 1982. [27] According to Sam Wasson's The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, Towne was addicted to cocaine during this period and was occasionally violent, which led to a bitter divorce and custody battle over their daughter Katharine (born 1978).

In 1984, Towne married Luisa Gaule. They have one daughter, Chiara. [28]

He is the former son-in-law of late actor John Payne and actress Anne Shirley. Through his daughter Katharine, he is former father-in-law of actor Charlie Hunnam.

Filmography

Credits as writer-director

Credits as writer only

Credits as actor

Other credits

Unmade projects

Legacy and honors

In the book Fifty Filmmakers, journalist Andrew J. Rausch argues, "There is a strong case to be made that Robert Towne is the most gifted scribe ever to write for film. There can be little doubt that he is one of the finest ever." [43]

Awards

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References

  1. 1 2 Biskind, Peter (1999). Easy Riders, Raging Bulls . Simon & Schuster. p. 30. ISBN   978-0-7475-4421-0.
  2. ↑ According to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Searchable at http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/39461
  3. ↑ Tobias, Scott (29 October 2019). "Being John Malkovich at 20: why the surrealist comedy demands a rewatch". The Guardian . Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  4. ↑ "Robert Towne Biography (1934–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Lennon, Elaine: The screenplays of Robert Towne 1960-2000. Dublin Institute of Technology, 2009" . Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  6. ↑ The Natural at the American Film Institute Catalog
  7. ↑ "The Robert Towne Page". SuperiorPics.com. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  8. 1 2 Brady p 390
  9. 1 2 Brady p 388
  10. ↑ Brady p 396-398
  11. 1 2 Brady p 399
  12. ↑ Brady p 386-387
  13. ↑ Brady p 387
  14. ↑ McDougal, Dennis (2008) Five easy decades pp.146, 182, 416
  15. 1 2 3 Turan, Kenneth (27 November 1988). "Robert Towne's Hollywood Without Heroes". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  16. ↑ Nicolas Cage, DVD commentary, The Rock Criterion Collection
  17. ↑ Horowitz, Mark (15 March 2020). "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". No. Book Review p. 21. The New York Times Company.
  18. ↑ Ward, Jason (20 February 2015). "Intriguing film credits that you probably missed". hwww.dazeddigital.com. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  19. ↑ Kornits, Dov (27 August 1999). "Robert Towne – From Chinatown to Hollywood". eFilmCritic.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  20. ↑ Towne, Robert (6 December 2012). "Robert Towne Dusts Off a Classic". The Hollywood Interview (Interview). Interviewed by Alex Simon. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  21. ↑ "Jack Nicholson Talks! In Rare Interview, Actor Reveals Details Of Never-Shot 'Chinatown' Sequel". Mtv.com. 5 November 2007. Archived from the original on 6 November 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  22. ↑ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (7 February 2006). "Interview with Robert Towne: From 'Dust' to 'Dust'". Combustible Celluloid. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  23. ↑ "28th Moscow International Film Festival (2006)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  24. ↑ "Public Art Fund"
  25. ↑ Schlesinger, Toni (18 September 2006). "Wonderful Towne! Lever House Hosts Homage to Screenwriter". The New York Observer. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  26. ↑ "Robert Towne". IMDb. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  27. ↑ "Julie Payne Obituary (2019) Los Angeles Times". Legacy.com. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  28. ↑ "Chiara Towne". IMDb. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  29. ↑ Finstad, Suzanne (2006). "Act 4: The Pro". Warren Beatty: A Private Man. Crown/Archetype. p. 440. ISBN   9780307345295.
  30. ↑ Mitchell, Deborah C. (2001). "1978–1971 The Muse". Diane Keaton: Artist and Icon. McFarland. p. 63. ISBN   9780786410828.
  31. ↑ Mark McGee, Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures, McFarland, 1996 p201
  32. ↑ Kernan, Michael (15 September 1975). "Briefs on the Arts". The New York Times . Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  33. ↑ "Screenplay Review – The Mermaid". ScriptShadow. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  34. ↑ Horowitz, Josh (5 November 2007). "Jack Nicholson Talks! In Rare Interview, Actor Reveals Details of Never-Shot 'Chinatown' Sequel". MTV News . Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  35. ↑ Galbraith, Jane (6 December 1992). "A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : THE SAGA OF 'COP III' : 'I'll Never Work With That &?! Again!' or, 'Did I Hear You Say $15 Million ?'". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  36. ↑ "Top team plots espionage film". South China Morning Post . 27 May 1994.
  37. ↑ "Hollywood embarks on 39 Steps programme". The Guardian . 29 December 2003. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  38. ↑ "Towne to retrace Hitch's '39 Steps'". Los Angeles Times . 3 January 2004. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  39. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (4 April 2011). "Oscar Winner Robert Towne to Write Script For 'Pompeii'". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  40. 1 2 Kit, Borys (4 October 2011). "'Chinatown' Screenwriter Robert Towne Penning 'Battle of Britain' for GK Films". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  41. 1 2 Fleming, Mike Jr. (4 October 2011). "GK Films Plans WWII 'Battle Of Britain'". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  42. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (19 November 2019). "Netflix Teams Robert Towne And David Fincher for 'Chinatown' Prequel Series Pilot Script". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  43. ↑ Rausch, Andrew J. (2008). Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian. McFarland. p. 244. ISBN   978-0786431496.

Notes

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