Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer of Shampoo, The Last Detail, Greystroke, and other acclaimed films whose work on Chinatown became a model of the art form and helped define the jaded allure of his native Los Angeles, has died. He was 89. Towne died Monday surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said publicist Carri McClure. She declined to comment on any cause of death, the AP reports. In an industry that gave birth to rueful jokes about the writer's status, Towne for a time held prestige comparable to the actors and directors he worked with. Through his friendships with two of the biggest stars of the 1960s and '70s, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, he wrote or co-wrote some of the signature films of an era when artists held an unusual level of creative control.
The rare "auteur" among screenwriters, Towne managed to bring a highly personal and influential vision of Los Angeles onto the screen. "It's a city that's so illusory," Towne told the Associated Press in a 2006 interview. "It's a sort of place of last resort. It's a place where, in a word, people go to make their dreams come true. And they're forever disappointed." Recognizable around Hollywood for his high forehead and full beard, Towne won an Academy Award for Chinatown and was nominated three other times. In 1997, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America. Towne's success came after a long stretch of working in television and on low-budget "B" movies; he also contributed to Bonnie and Clyde uncredited, and for years he was a favorite ghost writer. (More on Towne's life and the making of Chinatown here.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
