Robert Towne: Tributes to Chinatown and Mission: Impossible writer

The Oscar-winning writer penned the scripts for films like Chinatown and Mission: Impossible.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatchHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUK General ElectionUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersRevered screenwriter Robert Towne dies aged 895 hours agoBy Ian Youngs, Culture reporterShareGetty ImagesRobert Towne, who wrote films including Chinatown and Mission: Impossible, has been remembered as one of Hollywood's greatest screenwriters following his death at the age of 89.

Towne won an Oscar for his 1974 crime and corruption thriller Chinatown, which starred Jack Nicholson as a private detective.

He was nominated for four Oscars during his career in total, including for co-writing 1975's Shampoo with the film's star Warren Beatty.

Lee Grant, who won best supporting actress for her role in that film, paid tribute to Towne on X. "His life, like the characters he created, was incisive, iconoclastic & entirely originally [sic]," she wrote.

"He gave me the gift of Shampoo. He gave all of us the gift of his words & his films. There isn’t another like him. There won’t be again."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3g3dy6jdlpo

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