Father Jacques Marquette

Father Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675),^[1] sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette^[2], was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan. In 1673 Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet were the first Europeans to see and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.

Biography[link]

Jacques Marquette was born in Laon, France, on June 1, 1637 and joined the Society of Jesus at age seventeen. After he worked and taught in France for several years, the Jesuits assigned him to Quebec in 1666 as a missionary to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. He showed great proficiency in learning the local languages, especially Huron. In 1668 Father Marquette (French: Père Marquette) was moved by his superiors to missions farther up the St. Lawrence River in the western Great Lakes region. He helped found missions at Sault Ste. Marie in present-day Michigan and at La Pointe, on Lake Superior near the present-day city of Ashland, Wisconsin. At La Pointe he encountered members of the Illinois tribes, who told him about the important trading route of the Mississippi River. They invited him to teach their people, whose settlements were mostly further south. Because of wars between the Hurons at La Pointe and the neighboring Lakota people, Father Marquette left the mission and went to the Straits of Mackinac; he informed his superiors about the rumored river and requested permission to explore it.

Pere Marquette and the Indians [at the Mississippi River], oil painting (1869) by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838–1906), at Marquette University^[3]

Leave was granted, and in 1673, Marquette was joined by Louis Jolliet, a French-Canadian explorer. They departed from St. Ignace on May 17, with two canoes and five voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry (now recognized as the ethnic group Métis). They followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay and up the Fox River, nearly to its headwaters. From there, they were told to portage their canoes a distance of slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River. At that point the French later built the trading town of Portage, named for its location. From the portage, they ventured forth, and on June 17, they entered the Mississippi near present-day Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

The Jolliet-Marquette expedition traveled to within 435 miles (700 km) of the Gulf of Mexico but turned back at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point they had encountered several natives carrying European trinkets, and they feared an encounter with explorers or colonists from Spain.^[4] They followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which they learned from local natives provided a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. They reached Lake Michigan near the site of modern-day Chicago, by way of the Chicago Portage. In September Marquette stopped at the mission of St. Francis Xavier, located in present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, while Jolliet returned to Quebec to relate the news of their discoveries.

Monument marking where Marquette spent the winter of 1674-75 in what is now Chicago

Marquette and his party returned to the Illinois Territory in late 1674, becoming the first Europeans to winter in what would become the city of Chicago. As welcomed guests of the Illinois Confederation, the explorers were feasted en route and fed ceremonial foods such as sagamite.^[5][6]

In the spring of 1675, Marquette traveled westward and celebrated a public mass at the Grand Village of the Illinois near Starved Rock. A bout of dysentery which he had contracted during the Mississippi expedition sapped his health. On the return trip to St. Ignace, he died at age 38 near the modern town of Ludington, Michigan.

A Michigan Historical Marker at this location reads:

The grave of Father Marquette, St. Ignace, Michigan.

The Ojibway Museum on State Street in downtown St. Ignace is in a building that was constructed over Marquette's gravesite during urban development.

Legacy and honors[link]

Father Marquette is memorialized in the names of many towns, geographical locations, parks, a major university, and other institutions:

• The Pere Marquette Railway was named after him.
• Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• The towns of Marquette, Michigan, Marquette, Wisconsin, Marquette, Iowa, Marquette, Illinois, Marquette Heights, Illinois and others.
• Marquette County, Michigan, Marquette County, Wisconsin.
• Marquette Island in Lake Huron.
• Pere Marquette State Park near Grafton, Illinois.
• Marquette Catholic High School, in Alton, Illinois.
• Father Marquette National Memorial near St. Ignace, Michigan.^[8]
• Pere Marquette Beach, a public beach on Lake Michigan.
• Pere Marquette State Forest, in the State of Michigan.
• Pere Marquette Township, Michigan.
• Marquette Park in Gary, Indiana.
• The Pere Marquette River in the Michigan.
• Place Jacques Marquette, Laon, France (his birthplace).
• "Cité Marquette", former US-City-Base (1956-1966) built by the Americans who were based on the NATO Air Force Base in Couvron (38th Bombardment Wing), Laon, France (his birthplace).
• Marquette Park in Chicago, Illinois
• Marquette Road in Chicago, Illinois
• Marquette Building in Chicago, Illinois
• Hotel Pere Marquette in Peoria, Illinois
• Marquette High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Marquette High School, Michigan City, Indiana.
• Marquette High School, Bellevue, Iowa
• Marquette High School (Ottawa, Illinois)
• Marquette Academy, in Ottawa Illinois

In addition, statues in Marquette's honor have been erected in several places, including the Prairie du Chien Post Office, Parliament Building, Quebec, Canada; at Marquette University; Detroit, Michigan; and Fort Mackinac, Michigan. Other types of memorials were erected, including those at his birthplace in Laon, France; and St. Mary's Church, Utica, Illinois.

Photo gallery[link]

• 

  Memorial to Jacques Marquette in his birthplace of Laon, France

• 

  Alfred Laliberté's Jacques Marquette sculpture in front of Parliament Building (Quebec)

• 

  Sketch of Father Marquette

• JMMarquette.jpg

  Statue of Père Jacques Marquette, Detroit, Michigan

• 

  Ca. 1681 map of Marquette and Jolliet's 1673 expedition.

• 

  The statue of Père Jacques Marquette in front of Fort Mackinac

• 

  Statue of Father Jacques Marquette on Marquette University campus, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

• Pere marquette.jpg

  Pere Marquette at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Utica, IL

• 

  Michigan Historical Marker "Marquette's Death"

• 

  Statue of Pere Marquette in Marquette, Michigan

• 

  Jacques Marquette memorial Ludington, Michigan

• FrMarquetteStatue.jpg

  A statue of Father Marquette at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

Notes[link]

See also[link]

New France portal

• Sagamite
• Marquette for other places, buildings and geographic objects named after Father Jacques Marquette.
• Chicago Portage
• Chicago Portage National Historic Site

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jacques Marquette

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791, including Marquette's journal
•  "Jacques Marquette". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Marquette University

Louis Jolliet
Alfred Laliberté's Louis Jolliet sculpture in front of Parliament Building (Quebec)
Born	September 21, 1645
Died	1700 (aged 54)
Awards	Jolliet was also granted land south of Quebec in return for his favors
Other work	Canadian explorer

Louis Jolliet (September 21, 1645 – last seen May 1700), also known as Louis Joliet, was a Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary, were the first Europeans to explore and map much of the Mississippi River in 1673.^[1]

Early life[link]

This section requires expansion.

Jolliet was born in 1645 in a French settlement near Quebec City. When he was seven years old, his father died and his mother remarried a successful merchant. Jolliet's stepfather owned land on the Ile d'Orleans, an island in the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec that was home to First Nations. Jolliet spent much time on Ile d'Orleans, so it was likely that he began speaking Aboriginal languages at a young age. During his childhood, Quebec was the center of the French fur trade. The Natives were part of day-to-day life in Quebec, and Jolliet grew up knowing a lot about them.

Jolliet attended a Jesuit school in Quebec and received minor orders in 1662, but abandoned his plans to become a priest in 1667.^[2] He spoke English, Spanish, and French.

Discovery of the Mississippi[link]

Ca. 1681 map of Marquette and Jolliet's 1673 expedition.

Plaque commemorating Jolliet in Chicago.

May 18, 1673, Jolliet and Marquette departed from St. Ignace with two canoes and five other voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry (today's Métis). They followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay (Lake Michigan) a distance of slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River. At that point Europeans eventually built a trading post, Portage, named for its location. From there, they ventured on and entered the Mississippi River near present-day Prairie du Chien on June 17.

The Jolliet-Marquette expedition traveled down the Mississippi to within 435 miles (700 km) of the Gulf of Mexico, but they turned back north at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point, they had encountered natives carrying European goods, and they were concerned about an encounter with explorers or colonists from Spain.^[3] They followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which they learned from natives was a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. Following the Illinois and the Des Plaines rivers, via the Chicago Portage, they reached Lake Michigan near the location of modern-day Chicago. Marquette stopped at the mission of St. Francis Xavier in Green Bay, Wisc., in August, while Jolliet returned to Quebec to relate the news of their discoveries.

The party returned to the Illinois Territory in late 1674, becoming the first Europeans to winter over in what would become the city of Chicago. As welcomed guests of the Illinois Confederation, the explorers were feasted en route and fed ceremonial foods such as Indian corn.^[4][5]

Later years[link]

Jolliet married Claire-Francoise Bissot, who was Canadian. In 1680, he was granted the Island of Anticosti, where he created a fort and maintained soldiers. In 1693 he was appointed "Royal Hydrographer", and on April 30, 1697, was granted the Seigneurial system of New France seigneury (fiefdom) of Jolliet, southwest of Quebec City, making him a minor "lord", roughly the colonial equivalent of a hereditary baronet with the title of "Sieur Jolliet" (Sir Jolliet).

In 1694 he sailed north from the Gulf of St. Lawrence north along the coast of Labrador as far north as Zoar, a voyage of five and a half months. He recorded details of the country, navigation, the Inuit and their customs. His journal (“Journal de Louis Jolliet allant à la descouverte de Labrador, 1694,”) is the earliest known detailed survey of the Labrador coast from the Strait of Belle Isle to Zoar.

In May, 1700, Louis Jolliet left for Anticosti Island and was presumed to have died, although his body was never found, and the place and date of his death are unknown. A mass for his soul was said on September 15, 1700.^[6]

Jolliet was one of the first people of European descent born in North America to be remembered for significant discoveries. Though no authentic period portrait is known to exist, Jolliet is often portrayed wearing either typical frontiersman garb consisting of scortums and fur hat or in sharp contrast, ensconced in the European nobleman's accoutrement his personal wealth and prestige would have commanded when living in colonial society.

Legacy[link]

Louis' main legacy is most tangible in the Midwestern United States and Quebec, mostly through geographical names, including the cities of Joliet, Illinois; Joliet, Montana; and Joliette, Quebec (founded by one of Jolliet's descendants, Barthélemy Joliette); and the Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Illinois. Also, there are numerous Joliet High Schools in North America.

The several variations in the spelling of the name "Jolliet" reflect spelling that occurred at times when illiteracy or poor literacy was common, and spelling was still highly unstandardized.^[7] Jolliet's descendants live throughout eastern Canada and the United States. The Louis Jolliet rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honor.^[8]

The Jolliet Squadron of cadets at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in the Province of Quebec was named in his honor.

See also[link]

• French colonization of the Americas
• Jacques Marquette
• Indian corn, food eaten by Jolliet and Marquette on their trip to the Mississippi

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Jolliet 1645-1700
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• 2006 Expedition following Jolliet's journey down the Mississippi

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Louis Joliet". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Jolliet

Joe Dante
Joe Dante as member of the jury for the 2009 Venice Film Festival
Born	Joseph Dante, Jr. (1946-11-28) November 28, 1946 (age 65) Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Director, producer, actor
Years active	1968–present
Influenced by	Chuck Jones Frank Tashlin Roger Corman H. C. Potter James Whale Jean Cocteau

Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. (born November 28, 1946) is an American film director, producer and actor of films generally with comedy and science fiction content.

His films include Piranha (1978) and The Howling (1981), both from scripts by John Sayles; Segment 3 of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); Gremlins (1984), his first major hit, and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990); Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987); The 'Burbs (1989), Matinee (1993), Runaway Daughters (1994), The Second Civil War (1997), The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998), Small Soldiers (1998), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), and Homecoming (2005). In 1995–1996, Dante worked on The Phantom, and when he was removed from the film, he chose screen credit (as executive producer) rather than pay. He was creative consultant on Eerie, Indiana (1991–1992) and directed five episodes. He played himself in the series finale.

Early life[link]

Dante was born in Morristown, New Jersey. His father was a professional golf player.^[1] Dante began his movie career working for Roger Corman, similar to Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. He worked as an editor on films such as Grand Theft Auto before codirecting Hollywood Boulevard with Allan Arkush. His first full feature film, Piranha, was released in 1978. After the release of The Howling, he was noticed by Steven Spielberg for whom he directed the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, wherein a woman is 'adopted' by an omnipotent child. His first really big hit, Gremlins, which was also produced by Steven Spielberg, was released in 1984. He would work with Spielberg again on Innerspace and Gremlins 2. His films are well known for their movie in-jokes and their special visual effects.^[2]

Dante's long time friend and business associate, Sylvia, portrays one of the nuns at the concert in Arkush's Rock 'n' Roll High School, which Joe co-wrote and directed five scenes when Arkush was ill. Joe's garage is frequently mentioned in audio commentaries as holding many of the props from his various films, such as the Peltzer Peeler Juicer from Gremlins, and where the mock-pornographic scene in The Howling was shot.

Career[link]

Dante developed a stock company of actors who worked with him over a long period of time, in the Woody Allen mode. Dick Miller, for example, has been in all of Dante's feature films and most of his television work, while Belinda Balaski, Archie Hahn, and Robert Picardo come in at close second, third, and fourth, with one less production each, respectively. Other actors Dante has worked with more than once include John Astin, Paul Bartel, Phoebe Cates, Roger Corman, Cory Danziger, Rick Ducommun, Kevin Dunn, Corey Feldman, Carrie Fisher, Joe Flaherty, Courtney Gains, Zach Galligan, Henry Gibson, Charles S. Haas, Heather Haase, Phil Hartman, Bob Holt, Rance Howard, Chuck Jones, Jackie Joseph, Omri Katz, Denis Leary, Sarah Lilly, Kevin McCarthy, Mark McCracken, Michael McKean, Don McCloud, Cathy Moriarty, Shawn C. Nelson, Ron Perlman, Jason Presson, Kathleen Quinlan, Neil Ross, Diane Sainte-Marie, John Sayles, Wendy Schaal, William Schallert, Michael Scheehaan, Dan Stanton, Don Stanton, Christopher Stone, Meshach Taylor, Kenneth Tobey, Dee Wallace and Alexandra Wilson.^[3] His respect for the screenwriter extends to the point where, in order to make sure he can confer with the writer on-set and provide some minor, additional remuneration, he always casts the writer in a small part of the production itself. The studio is normally unwilling to pay to have the writer on-set in any other way.^[4]

He has cited among his major influences Roger Corman, Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, James Whale, and Jean Cocteau, as well as an admiration for the film, Hellzapoppin', from which he frequently borrows jokes because of how difficult the film is to see in the United States.^[5]

In 2007, Dante launched the web series Trailers From Hell,^{[citation needed]} which provides commentary by directors, producers and screenwriters on trailers for classic and cult movies. He is also a contributor to the website.^{[citation needed]}

Dante's 2009 film "The Hole 3D"^[6] was awarded the first Premio Persol at the 2009 Venice Film Festival's for the "3-D feature deemed the most creative among those produced globally between September 2008 and August 2009."^[7]

Dante produced also alongside Roger Corman the web series Splatter for Netflix, the series stars Corey Feldman.^[8]

Filmography[link]

Director[link]

• The Movie Orgy (1968)
• Hollywood Boulevard (with Allan Arkush) (1976)
• Piranha (1978)
• Rock 'n' Roll High School (with Allan Arkush) (1979) (uncredited)
• The Howling (1981)
• Police Squad! (1982) (TV)
• Twilight Zone: The Movie (with Steven Spielberg, George Miller and John Landis) (1983)
• Gremlins (1984)
• Explorers (1985)
• The Twilight Zone (1985) (TV)
• Amazing Stories (1986) (TV)
• Innerspace (1987)
• Amazon Women on the Moon (with John Landis, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton & Robert K. Weiss) (1987)
• The 'Burbs (1989)
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
• Eerie, Indiana (1991–1992) (TV)
• Matinee (1993)
• Rebel Highway: Runaway Daughters (1994) (TV)
• Picture Windows (1994) (TV)
• The Second Civil War (1997) (TV)
• The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998) (TV)
• Small Soldiers (1998)
• Night Visions (2001) (TV)
• Haunted Lighthouse (2003)
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
• Trapped Ashes (2004)
• Masters of Horror (2005–2006)
• The Greatest Show Ever (2007) (TV)
• CSI: NY (2007) (TV)
• The Hole 3D (2010)
• Hawaii Five-0 (2011) (TV)

Producer[link]

• (1994) Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror
• (1996) The Phantom
• (1998) The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy
• (2002) Jeremiah

Writer[link]

• (1979) Rock 'n' Roll High School (story)

Actor[link]

• (1975) Japan Sinks - (American version "Tidal Wave" only)
• (1976) Hollywood Boulevard - Party Waiter
• (1976) Cannonball - Kid
• (1978) Piranha - Scuba Diver #2
• (1978) Corvette Summer - Mr. Lucky
• (1984) Gremlins - voices of Gremlins
• (1987) Innerspace - Vectorscope Employee
• (1990) Gremlins 2: The New Batch - Grandpa Fred Director/voices of Beanie Gremlin and Wicked Witch Gremlin
• (1991) Eerie, Indiana - Himself

• Episode 19: "Reality Takes a Holiday"

• (1991) Oscar - Face on the Cutting Room Floor
• (1992) Sleepwalkers - Lab Assistant
• (1994) Beverly Hills Cop III - Jailer
• (1994) Silenzio dei prosciutti, Il - Dying Man

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview with Joe Dante, Part 1, MUBI
• Interview with Joe Dante, Part 2, MUBI
• Joe Dante at the Internet Movie Database
• Joe Dante at AllRovi

Betsy Jones-Moreland
Betsy Jones-Moreland in "Last Woman on Earth"
Born	Mary Elizabeth Jones (1930-04-01)April 1, 1930 Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died	May 1, 2006(2006-05-01) (aged 76) El Monte, California, USA
Occupation	actress
Years active	1956–1993

Betsy Jones-Moreland (April 1, 1930 – May 1, 2006) was an American actress.

She was born as Mary Elizabeth Jones in Brooklyn, New York, and began her career in small roles in the mid-1950s, appearing in several Roger Corman films, including a lead role in Last Woman on Earth (1960). Subsequently she appeared mostly on television through 1975.

She guest-starred in an episode of the television series Ironside starring Raymond Burr, and in the early 1990s appeared in a recurring role as a judge in a series of his Perry Mason television films. In Have Gun - Will Travel, Ms. Jones-Moreland guest-starred as "Topaz", a saloon hostess who befriended Paladin in the episode "Brother"s Keeper" that aired May 6, 1961.

She died in El Monte, California from cancer at age 76.

External links[link]

• Betsy Jones-Moreland at the Internet Movie Database

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Robert Towne
Towne in 2006
Born	(1934-11-23) November 23, 1934 (age 77) Los Angeles, California
Spouse	Julie Payne (m.1977) Luisa Gaule (1984-)

Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;^[1][2] November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter and director. His most notable work may be his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974).

Career[link]

Film[link]

Towne is the author of many notable film scripts, including Chinatown (1974), for which he received an Academy Award, plus its sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), and Oscar-nominated screenplays The Last Detail and Shampoo as well as the first two Mission Impossible films. Towne has also a "stellar reputation" in the motion-picture industry as an uncredited script doctor,^[3] who has worked in such a capacity for The Godfather, Bonnie and Clyde, The Parallax View, The Rock and dozens of other Hollywood films.^[4][5]

After working for years on a script of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) he grew dissatisfied with the production and credited his dog, P.H. Vazak, with the script. Vazak became the first dog nominated for an Oscar for screenwriting, but he did not fetch the award. Towne co-wrote the film 8 Million Ways to Die using the alias David Lee Henry.^[6]

Towne also wrote and directed Personal Best (1982), a fictional drama of female track-and-field athletes, and Without Limits (1998), a biopic based on the life of distance runner Steve Prefontaine. His crime story Tequila Sunrise (1988) co-starred Mel Gibson as a reformed cocaine dealer and Kurt Russell as a detective, with Michelle Pfeiffer as a woman who becomes romantically involved with both. Towne told The New York Times that Tequila Sunrise is "a movie about the use and abuse of friendship."^[7]

A project Towne had long sought to bring to the screen came to fruition in 2006 with Ask the Dust, a romantic period piece set in Los Angeles based on the acclaimed novel by John Fante and starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Towne had found the novel while researching Chinatown, looking for material that would honestly describe that particular era of Los Angeles. He became so entranced by the book that he arranged to meet with its author—himself a screenwriter—in person. "I was an unknown," Towne said. "I hadn't written anything of note." But Fante greeted the young fan with accusations like "What makes you think you're any kind of judge of my work?"^[8] Ask the Dust received mixed reviews and failed at the box office.

Towne has framed several of his signature films as elaborate melodramas. He told The New York Times "I think melodrama is always a splendid occasion to entertain an audience and say things you want to say without rubbing their noses in it," he says. "With melodrama, as in dreams, you're always flirting with the disparity between appearance and reality, which is a great deal of fun. And that's also not unrelated to my perception of my life working in Hollywood, where you're always wondering, 'What does that guy really mean?'"^[7]

In 2006, Towne was the subject of artist Sarah Morris's film, Robert Towne. Morris describes him as an “elliptical figure” whose career exemplifies a certain characteristic mode of working in the film industry, marked by collaboration, shared or changing roles.^[9] Morris's 19,744-square-foot (1,834.3 m²) painting installation on the ceiling of the Lever House in Manhattan, commissioned by the Public Art Fund, was also titled "Robert Towne".^[10]

Television[link]

Towne has also written for television, including an acclaimed episode of the 1962-1963 CBS anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show entitled "My Daddy Can Beat Your Daddy," with starring roles for Jeff Bridges and Gary Lockwood.

As performer[link]

On occasion, he has acted on screen, as in 1960's Roger Corman sci-fi film Last Woman on Earth, which Towne also wrote. He also starred in another Corman film, Creature From the Haunted Sea.

Future projects[link]

Towne has been announced as writer-director of The 39 Steps, a 2011 remake of the 1935 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The British producer Graham King revealed that he had hired Towne to write a remake of The Battle of Britain in a December 2011 interview.

Two Jakes[link]

Robert Towne expressed his disappointment in The Two Jakes in many interviews.^{[citation needed]} He told writer Alex Simon "In the interest of maintaining my friendships with Jack Nicholson and Robert Evans, I’d rather not go into it, but let’s just say The Two Jakes wasn’t a pleasant experience for any of us. But, we’re all still friends, and that’s what matters most."^[11]

In a November 5, 2007 interview with MTV, Jack Nicholson revealed that Towne had written the part of Gittes specifically for him. In the same interview, Nicholson also revealed that Towne had conceived Chinatown as a trilogy and that the third film was to be set in 1968 and deal in some way with Howard Hughes.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Towne’s parentage was Romanian on his mother’s side, Russian on his father’s.^[13] He grew up in San Pedro, Los Angeles, the son of Helen and Lou Schwartz.^[14] His father ran a ladies clothing shop called the Towne Smart Shop, and changed the family name to Towne. Lou then moved into real estate and moved his family to the affluent Rolling Hills, a gated community in Palos Verdes, where Robert attended Chadwick School. Robert has a brother Roger, who is six years younger.^[1] He is married to Luisa Gaule. His former father-in-law is late actor John Payne, star of the western series, The Restless Gun. Towne's daughter (with actress Julie Payne) is Katharine Towne. He is a former father-in-law of Charlie Hunnam.

He is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California.^[15]

Filmography[link]

Credits as Writer-Director[link]

• Personal Best (1982) - Also Producer
• Tequila Sunrise (1988)
• Without Limits (1998)
• Ask the Dust (2006)

Credits as Writer Only[link]

• Last Woman on Earth (1960)
• The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (credited as 'special consultant')
• Villa Rides (1968)
• Cisco Pike (1972)
• The New Centurions (1972)
• The Last Detail (1973)
• Chinatown (1974)
• The Parallax View (1974)
• The Yakuza (1974)
• Shampoo (1975)
• The Missouri Breaks (1976)
• Orca (1977)
• Heaven Can Wait (1978)
• Deal of the Century (1983)
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
• Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)
• Frantic (1988)
• The Two Jakes (1990)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• The Firm (1993)
• Love Affair (1994)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Mission: Impossible II (2000)
• The Thirty Nine Steps (2011) - announced

Awards[link]

• Academy Award
  • 1974: Nominated, Best Adapted Screenplay, The Last Detail
  • 1975: Won, Best Original Screenplay, Chinatown
  • 1976: Nominated, Best Original Screenplay, Shampoo
  • 1985: Nominated, Best Adapted Screenplay, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan
• BAFTA Award
  • 1975: Won, Best Screenplay, The Last Detail and Chinatown
• Golden Globe Award
  • 1975: Won, Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, Chinatown
• Edgar Award

References[link]

External links[link]

• Robert Towne at the Internet Movie Database