Tony Scott directed some of the most maligned, loud, and alternately irresistible films Hollywood has ever seen. On Sunday evening it was reported by the Los Angeles Times that he committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in San Pedro, California. He was 68 years old.
UPDATE: Word is now coming from sources close to the Scott camp that the director was recently diagnosed with an inoperable form of brain cancer, which lead to his despondence. An autopsy was to be performed today on the late director.
Director and producer Scott, the younger sibling of director Ridley Scott, was behind such manly blockbusters as Top Gun, Days Of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout (that opening football massacre is the most memorable thing), Crimson Tide, and Enemy Of The State. His last directorial effort was 2010's Unstoppable.
His movies were full of blood, guns, bullets, and high octane explosions, but light on the things that make critical darlings, though his filmography is the stuff of weekend-long SPIKE TV marathons. They were stupid fun, but not quite on the level of the stack of films (Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner) older brother Ridley had racked up.
Any obit of Scott would be remiss to not mention 1983's softcore vampire flick The Hunger starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon.
Once Scott teamed with bad-boy misogynist producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer for Top Gun, his career arc was changed forever.
He helmed True Romance, which is most notable as one of the scripts that got scribe Quentin Tarantino on the map in the industry. The Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette vehicle is still worshiped for it's slick QT noir.
I have a soft spot myself for 2005's Domino, which brought Mickey Rourke and Kiera Knightley as bounty hunters, if only because for once the uber-girly Knightley was a gun-toting heroine, something you she had never attempted before.
Witnesses saw Scott jump a fence near the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California. He did leave a note for family and authorities inside his parked car.
According to IMDb, Scott was lined up to direct the sequel to 1986's Top Gun, but his re-teaming with Tom Cruise didn't yet have a start date, or from the sound of Hollywood chatter, a reasonable script.
