Veteran director Tony Scott committed suicide last night by jumping off a bridge in California.
Little is known about the circumstances surrounding his death, although a source has told ABC that Scott had inoperable brain cancer.
Scott's passing is a huge blow to cinema. Scott was an incredibly hard-working director, knocking out a vast array of films in a career spanning four decades. Scott also founded his own style of directing action, utilising a frenetic hand-held camera style which has been adopted by the likes of Michael Bay and parodied by Edgar Wright in Hot Fuzz, whom many regard as a love letter to Scott's work.
Scott was unashamedly an audience's director, a crowd-pleaser, a mainstream entertainer. His brother, Ridley, may have won over the critics with Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator but Tony Scott gave us guilty pleasures which are every bit as memorable: Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Beverley Hills Cop 2 and that was just the eighties.
Scott went onto bigger budgets, bigger stars and bigger box office takings in the nineties and beyond, worked with an unbeatable list of Hollywood's finest: Robert Redford (Spy Games), Robert de Niro (The Fan), Christopher Walken (True Romance), Gene Hackman (Crimson Tide), Will Smith (Enemy of the State), Denzel Washington (Man on Fire) and John Travolta (The Taking of Pelham 123).
Scott famously stayed loyal to his collaborators, often returning to the same actors, supporting actors and composers over and over again. Indeed, the musical scores of Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams are as synonymous with Scott's films as his gritty camera-work and chaotic action scenes.
Aside from directing, Scott tried his hand at producing with his old brother Ridley. Together they produced the A-Team reboot and hit TV shows The Good Wife and Numb3rs.
And what's more, Scott directed a George Michael music video back in the eighties. Awesome.
Scott has been survived by his wife and two children and of course his brother Ridley. The world of cinema has united in sending their thoughts to Scott's family in this difficult time.
On a personal note, I will remember Tony Scott as director of True Romance: one of the greatest films I have ever seen (and seen and seen again). Scott took a Quentin Tarantino script and turned it into a super-cool, hyper-violent, ever-memorable and utterly convincing love story between a geek and a call girl.
The appeal of the material and Scott's reputation as director attracted a hugely-enviable ensemble cast of big names, such as Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer and James Gandolfini, many of which only show up for one scene and a handful of lines. And the infamous cantaloupe scene between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken remains a master-class in cinematic deliverance: atmospheric directing, sublime writing and two phenomenal performances.
And Scott's ultimate contribution to True Romance? He changed the ending. Clarence was originally set to die in Tarantino's script but Scott didn't want to end his film on such a flat note. After all, his hero had been through hell. He deserved to live happily ever after with his true love and his baby. It's the ending that audiences needed and deserved. And after the change had been made, even Tarantino agreed that it was a good move. And that right there is the trademark of a good director: Tony Scott understood his audience. He trusted his instincts and he delivered time and time again.
Tony Scott will be missed.
