Robert Towne, Oscar-winning writer of ‘Chinatown,’ dies at 89

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Robert Towne, Oscar-winning writer of ‘Chinatown,’ dies at 89

Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer of "Shampoo," "The Last Detail" and other films whose script for "Chinatown" became a model of the art form and helped define the jaded allure of his native Los Angeles, has died.

apnews.com

RIP to a Oscar winning writer.

Recognizable around Hollywood for his high forehead and full beard, Towne won an Academy Award for “Chinatown” and was nominated three other times, for “The Last Detail,” “Shampoo” and “Greystroke.” In 1997, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America.



His success came after a long stretch of working in television, including “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” and “The Lloyd Bridges Show,” and on low-budget movies for “B” producer Roger Corman. In a classic show business story, he owed his breakthrough in part to his psychiatrist, through whom he met Beatty, a fellow patient. As Beatty worked on “Bonnie and Clyde,” he brought in Towne for revisions of the Robert Benton-David Newman script and had him on the set while the movie was filmed in Texas.