Robert Towne
Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934 - July 1, 2024) was an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays ever written. 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. Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990); the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975); and the first two Mission: Impossible films. 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).
Suspect Zero
as Professor Dates (uncredited)A killer is on the loose, and an FBI agent sifts through clues and learns that the bloodthirsty...
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The Pick-up Artist
as StanA womanizer meets his match when he falls for the daughter of a gambling addict who is in debt...
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Shampoo
as Party Guest (uncredited)A Beverly Hills hairdresser runs around town on the eve of the 1968 presidential election trying...
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Salinger
as Self - ScreenwriterAn in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger...
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Last Woman on Earth
as Martin JoyceHarold Gern, a shady businessman from New York, is spending a holiday in Puerto Rico with his...
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You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
as SelfJack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland...
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Creature from the Haunted Sea
as Sparks Moran / Agent XK150 / NarratorA crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea...
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The Zodiac Killer
as Man in Bar #3The San Francisco area is beset by a series of seemingly random murders without motive or...
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What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
as SelfPauline Kael (1919–2001) was undoubtedly one of the greatest names in film criticism. A...
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A Decade Under the Influence
as SelfA documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of...
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Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That
as SelfDocumentary about filmmaker Budd Boetticher.
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The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made
as Agent XK150 (archive footage)There are some movies that are so bad they're good. And there are some movies that are so bad-...
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Rescued from the Closet
as SelfA collection of interviews recorded for the making of the 1995 documentary "The Celluloid...
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Drive, He Said
as RichardHector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards....
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Revolution! The Making of 'Bonnie and Clyde'
as SelfThe making-of documentary of Bonnie and Clyde.
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Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature
as Self - Screenwriter, 'Chinatown'Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the...
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Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
as SelfA profile of writer-director Billy Wilder
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A Sad Flower in the Sand
as SelfAbout a largely unsung writer of the twentieth century: John Fante, the renegade author whose...
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AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
as SelfTo commemorate the first century of American filmmaking, the American Film Institute embarked on...
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The Story of Film: An Odyssey
as SelfA worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema...
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