The movie business in Hollywood and the UK has been shocked by the apparent suicide of one of Britain’s most internationally successful film directors, Tony Scott. He threw himself from a suspension bay into the harbour at Long Beach in southern Los Angeles County.
He followed his older brother, Sir Ridley Scott, from the world of advertising to big budget movies, building up a catalogue of shamelessly entertaining big budget blockbusters, adrenaline-fuelled action films, bursting into Hollywood with the hit that turned Tom Cruise into a global star, Top Gun, in 1986.
He worked with Cruise again four years later in Days of Thunder. During the following decade he worked with many of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, directing Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable.
His other films included The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Enemy of the State and Domino.
Through the film company he founded with his younger brother, Scott Free, Tony Scott also produced a number of films, including Sir Ridley’s Prometheus; the pair were in the early stages of making a sequel. It was also rumoured that he and Tom Cruise had been working on a new Top Gun film.
Tony Scott also produced a number of successful TV shows, including The Good Wife and Numb3rs.
The sixty eight year old director jumped from the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island, just west of Long Beach; his body was found by police divers using sonar equipment, four hours later. A suicide note was found in his office. His reason for taking his own life has not been disclosed.
Tributes have been paid to the film-maker. Duncan Jones, the director of Moon and Source Code, said he had ignited his passion to make films. The director Robert Rodriguez tweeted “Thanks for the inspiration, advice, encouragement and the decades of great entertainment.” The BFI said his Top Gun had reinvented the high concept genre, but he retained an eye for the quirky.
Tony Scott leaves a wife and twin sons.