Tony Scott obituary

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June 21 1944 - August 19 2012

On Sunday, August 19 2012, Hollywood director Tony Scott took his own life, jumping from a bridge in Los Angeles. He was 68. Born in North Shields on Tyneside, Tony Scott followed his older brother Ridley Scott through art school and into advertising, and worked on a number of short films before making his feature debut with oddball art-shocker ‘The Hunger’ in 1983. The film wasn’t a success, but Scott’s big break came three years later with the release of ‘Top Gun’ (1986), the film that set the template – and the bar – for countless high-concept, big-budget, fast-moving Hollywood action flicks.

Scott’s name became synonymous with overblown, overpriced multiplex fare, and while his weaker films – ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’ (1987), ‘Days of Thunder’ (1990), ‘Domino’ (2005) – fit that template, his finest work displays the hand of a master of cinematic spectacle and by-the-throat intensity. ‘The Last Boy Scout’ (1991) set the gold standard for trash-talking buddy comedy, while ‘True Romance’ (1993) remains the best adaptation of a Quentin Tarantino screenplay not directed by Tarantino himself.

His shouty submarine classic ‘Crimson Tide’ (1995) is brilliantly claustrophobic, while Scott’s last (and, perhaps, greatest) film, blue collar runaway train thriller ‘Unstoppable’ (2010), proved that his gift for mayhem had not abated. Modest, unpretentious, unashamedly populist and intermittently brilliant, Tony Scott will be sorely missed.

Tony Scott films

Top Gun

Maverick, an arrogant piece of Officer Material, climbs the ladder of fly-boy success, falls in love with his aeronautics instructor, and has his best friend and navigator fall off the ladder and into a concrete cloud.

Read Top Gun review
True Romance

When Detroit comic-store assistant Clarence and novice whore Alabama meet, not only do they immediately fall in love, but the tone of her voice-over lets us know that we're in for a Badlands-style rerun.

Read True Romance review
The Hunger

Deneuve is the ageless, possibly final survivor of an ancient immortal race dependent on humans for both sustenance and companionship. Her superior blood allows her lovers a triple lifetime until they ultimately succumb to instant decline.

Read The Hunger review