Robert Towne was an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. He was born on November 23, 1934, in Los Angeles, California, and raised in the seaport town of San Pedro.
Towne got his start with his screenplay for 1960's Last Woman on Earth before writing for such early-'60s TV series as The Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Lloyd Bridges Show. He went on to work with Roger Corman on films including The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) and later co-penned with Sam Peckinpah the 1968 Mexican Revolution film Villa Rides starring Yul Brynner, Robert Mitchum and Charles Bronson.
Towne won an Oscar for his Chinatown original screenplay and was nominated for his Shampoo, The Last Detail and Greystoke scripts. He also earned BAFTA, Golden Globe and WGA awards for Chinatown, the L.A.-set 1974 thriller starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was one of three Writers Guild Awards he won during his career, along with Shampoo and the drama series Mad Men, on which he was a consulting producer during the final seventh season. He also was nominated for The Last Detail (1973) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1985). He was honored with the guild's Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement in 1997.
Towne died on July 1, 2024, at his home. He was 89.
