Screenwriter Robert Towne died at the age of 89 at his home in Los Angeles. His death was confirmed by publicist Carrie McClure in recent statement. He was Oscar winning screenwriter. His career began in the 1960s when he started working as an actor and writer for B-movie directed by Roger Corman. He then became one of the most sought script writer in the movies history.
He came into limelight in the 1970s when he released three critical hits within a period of 14-months: ‘The Last Detail’, ‘Chinatown’, and ‘Shampoo’. All these three were Oscar-nominated with ‘Chinatown’ winning in its year.
He was then hired by Warren Beatty as a special consultant for 1967’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’. Clyde’s charming bravado falls flat when Bonnie’s mother responds, “You try to live three miles from me and you won’t live long, honey.” Towne’s work delighted the director Arthur Penn. “It helped Warren play the scene, and it certainly helped Faye and the mother,” Penn said.
Though most of Towne’s script doctoring went uncredited — for example, in ‘The Parallax View’, ‘Marathon Man’, ‘The Missouri Breaks’, and ‘Heaven Can Wait’.
He has also received a rare honour in 1973 when direct Francis Ford of “The Godfather” thanked him in his Oscar acceptance speech for his script of the touching and pivotal Pacino-Brando Garden scene.