, the screenwriter as superstar whose Oscar-winning work on the 1974 classic is widely recognized as the gold standard for movie scripts, has died. He was 89. Towne died Monday at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Carri McClure announced.
He also received Academy Award nominations for (1973) and (1975) in the years surrounding his most famous work. His takes on Los Angeles were etched with melancholy and painted the city as one of beauty and sadness. In and , gumshoe J.
J. ( ) and Beverly Hills hairdresser George ( ) end up alone. (Towne collaborated often with those actors.
) This squinty vantage on Southern California, as a temptress who dashes hopes, also was evident in his script for (1988), which starred as a retired drug dealer, Kurt Russell as a cop and as the femme fatale. Towne also was highly regarded for his work as a script doctor, contributing the Marlon garden scene to (1972) and supplying crucial pieces to other films like Arthur Penn’s (1967). When director Francis Ford accepted the Oscar for best screenplay (co-written with Mario ), he thanked Towne from the stage.
The writer had been prominently credited as a “special consultant” on after Beatty, the star and producer on that film, came to him for help. Towne again collaborated with Beatty on (1994), a remake of the classic 1932 Irene Dunne-Charles Boyer movie. Towne was renowned for his ability to construct ornate but compact screenplays and write pungent that conveyed rich, and, at times, complex, con.
