Description:
Writer, director, producer, actor. Born in Los Angeles, California, USA, and raised in the seaport town of San Pedro. Got his start acting and writing for legendary exploitation director/producer Roger Corman. Came into his own during the 1970s when he was regarded as one of the finest screenwriters in Hollywood. Began directing with mixed success in 1982. One of the best script doctors in Hollywood, he contributed crucial scenes to such films as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Godfather (1972).
Birthday
November 23, 1934
Born In
Los Angeles, California, USA
Alternative names
Robert Tubin
, P.H. Vazak
, Edward Wain
Spouse/Ex-
Luisa Towne October 17, 1984 - July 1, 2024 (his death),Julie Payne November 1977 - 1982 (divorced)
Parents
Helen Dorothy Stein
Trivia
According to an interview Towne gave he said his relationship, in the fifties, with dancer Barrie Chase led to one of his greatest successes. Barrie had been married to a hairdresser named Gene Shacove who had become the hottest stylist in Beverly Hills by the late fifties, as well as one of the most notorious womanizers. Towne was intrigued that a hairdresser was straight and asked to meet him. Barrie arranged for Towne to pick her up when she was getting her hair done, and when he walked into the salon he was stunned. It was full of the most beautiful women in LA, and Shacove was moving from woman to woman running his hands through their hair, whispering in their ear, and generally behaving like a "rooster in the hen house". It took almost twenty years but Towne finally crafted his impressions of that day into a successful script- Shampoo.
Quotes
Because the one thing you know when you're shooting a script, and I've
been on a lot of sets, is space is in a script, and the distance
between the page and the stage is so enormous that it is unbelievable
how even the brightest people can misread your intent or not see it
altogether. Scripts have air in them. Scripts are supposed to leave
things up to interpretation, but people can misread things enormously,
so sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to put on the screen what
you had in mind.
Salaries
$25,000
Trademarks
Reputation as Script Doctor Extraordinaire
