Robert Towne was born Robert Schwartz on November 23 1934 in Los Angeles. He grew up in the San Pedro neighbourhood. His father ran a ladies clothing store called the Towne Smart Shop and later became a real estate developer. His family eventually moved to Rancho Palo Verdes. Robert Towne attended Chadwick Prep School and Redondo Union High School. He attended Pomona College, where he studied English literature and philosophy. He graduated in 1956. He studied acting under actor Jeff Corey, among whose other students was Jack Nicholson.
It was through the legendary Roger Corman that Robert Towne began his career. His first screenplay was for the Corman film Last Woman on Earth (1961). He also appeared in the movie as an actor, playing Matin Joyce using the stage name Edward Wain. The following year he appeared in Corman's Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961), playing Sparks Moranaja (Agent XK150), again using the name Edward Wain. In the Sixties he wrote several episodes of The Lloyd Bridges Show, as well as episodes of the TV shows Breaking Point, The Outer Limits, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He also wrote screenplays for the movies The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) and Villa Rides (1968). He also worked as a script doctor, doing uncredited work on Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
In the Seventies Robert Towne wrote the movies The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), The Yakuza (1974), and Shampoo (1975). He did uncredited work on Drive, He Said (1971), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Cisco Pike (1971), The New Centurions (1972), The Parallax View (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976), Orca (1977), and Heaven Can Credit (1978). As an actor he had appearances in The Zodiac Killer (1971), Drive, He Said (1971), and Shampoo (1975).
In 1982 Robert Towne made his directorial debut with Personal Best. He also directed Tequila Sunrise (1988). He wrote the films Personal Best (1982), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), Tequila Sunrise (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), and The Two Jakes (1990). He did uncredited work on Deal of the Century (1982),8 Million Days to Die (1986), Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987), and Frantic (1988). He appeared as an actor in The Pick-Up Artist (1987).
In the Nineties he wrote the movies The Firm (1993), Love Affair (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Without Limits (1998), and Mission: Impossible II (2000). In the Naughts he served as a consulting producer on the TV show Mad Men. He directed the film Ask the Dust (2006), for which he also wrote the screenplay. As an actor he appeared in the movie Suspect Zero (2004). In the Teens he wrote an episode of Welcome to the Basement.
Robert Towne was certainly a versatile writer. In television alone he wrote for multiple genres. He wrote an episode for the medical drama Breaking Point, an episode for the sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits, and the spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. His screenplays for movies were similarly diverse. He wrote The Tomb of Ligeia, generally considered one of the best of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe movies. He wrote the classic and Academy Award winning neo-noir Chinatown. He wrote the comedy-drama The Last Detail. Robert Towne worked in multiple genres of film and television, and he did all of them well.
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