Robert Towne

Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. His most notable work was his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest movie screenplays ever written. He also wrote its sequel The Two Jakes in 1990, and wrote the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973), and Shampoo (1975), as well as the first two Mission Impossible films (1996, 2000).

Towne has also directed various films such as 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).

Career

Film

Towne is the author of many notable film scripts, including Chinatown (1974), for which he received an Academy Award; its sequel, The Two Jakes (1990); the Oscar-nominated screenplays The Last Detail and Shampoo; as well as the first two Mission Impossible films. Towne has also a "stellar reputation" in the motion-picture industry as an uncredited script doctor, having worked in this capacity on The Godfather, Bonnie and Clyde, The Parallax View, The Rock and on dozens of other Hollywood films.