Robert Towne, celebrated Chinatown screenwriter who also left his mark on The Godfather – obituary
He was astonished when Chinatown became a film-school set text, having written it ‘just by a kind of monkey-at-a-typewriter trial and error’
![Robert Towne: he won an Oscar for his 1974 Chinatown screenplay, but in his less cynical original John Huston's character is killed off](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2024/07/03/TELEMMGLPICT000384270313_17200026592650_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq8mN9XGu_urT_DQFdi79lbF6KrNGY2leU1uvz58G3D7Q.jpeg?imwidth=350)
He was astonished when Chinatown became a film-school set text, having written it ‘just by a kind of monkey-at-a-typewriter trial and error’
A retired consultant, Taylor resisted NHS bureaucrats and New Labour downgrading Kidderminster General, and took the fight to Westminster
Sharpe compared the obscure art of detecting a Soviet submarine with its ‘rattles and bangs’ to crossing a field of cows in darkness
‘The thing about surfing is that it’s a very Darwinian culture,’ he said. ‘Only the strong survive’
‘It is a very physical activity,’ he said of choral singing, ‘and after rehearsing for two hours a pint of beer goes down very well’
During his early career he got into scrapes, but later as a senior commander he aired frank criticisms of new systems on-board ship
He regretted Uefa’s response to the Bosman Ruling, which gave more power to players and their agents
‘We are aware that people have paid good money to come out on a cold night, and we want to play to them as convincingly as possible’
She later worked with her husband, the director Joseph Losey, as well as founding a theatre company and becoming a historian of needlework
Her pieces are all over Ireland, including Pope John Paul II at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and an altar at the Honan Chapel, Cork
In a chilling episode, a corporal known as a coward ordered Rawlins to stay by himself with no support where he was almost sure to be killed
He formed a high-energy double act with Pauline Black as the band spread the 2 Tone gospel
The Voyager craft beamed back methane oceans, ash-spewing volcanoes and five-mile-tall geysers on moons of Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune
‘Technology should live and breathe with you,’ he said. ‘It should respond to you, not you to it’
Siedentop’s book Democracy in Europe was a study of the fraught history of the EU that won admiration from both Eurosceptics and Europhiles
Nicknamed ‘The Iron Man’, he helped Wales to defeat the All Blacks at Cardiff in 1953. Since then, New Zealand have won every single match
Rakish and loose-limbed, with a hang-dog expression, he exerted a brooding sexual appeal which many women found irresistible
Reeve himself was as colourful as any of his paintings, and friends could tell countless stories of his eccentricities and bad behaviour
She became the first woman to win Book of the Year, with her 1993 novel based on her grandfather’s life as a white boy sold into slavery
‘We were all entertainers, and my job was to give the fans something to talk about each game,’ he said