British-born filmmaker
Tony Scott, director
of such Hollywood blockbusters as “Top Gun” and “Crimson Tide,” jumped to his death on Sunday from a bridge over Los Angeles Harbor, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said.
Onlookers saw Scott parking his car on the Vincent Thomas Bridge and leaping into the water below at about 12:30 p.m. local time (1930 GMT), according to Lieutenant Joe Bale, a watch commander for the coroner’s office.
Bale said the body was recovered by law enforcement from the harbor shortly before 3 p.m. and was subsequently identified as being that of the filmmaker and younger brother of fellow movie director Ridley Scott.
A note was found in Scott’s car that Bale said he believed would turn out to be a suicide note, though he was not familiar with its contents.
A spokeswoman for the filmmaker, Katherine Rowe, said in a brief statement, “I can confirm that Tony Scott has indeed passed away,” adding only, “The family asks that their privacy be respected at this time.”
He got his start making TV commercials for his older sibling’s London-based production company, Ridley Scott Associates, and segued into movies for television and film.
His feature directorial debut – 1983 vampire movie “The Hunger” starring British rocker David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve was a flop.
But he bounced back three years later with the fighter jet adventure “Top Gun,” which starred Tom Cruise as a hot-shot pilot and followed that with another big hit, the 1987 Eddie Murphy comedy “Beverly Hills Cop II.”
Other notable directing credits include the 1990 racing drama “Days of Thunder,”, “Crimson Tide,”, “Enemy of the State,” and “Spy Game”
Scott is survived by his third wife, Donna, with whom he had two children. (Reuters)