Biography

Tony Scott

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Overview

Born
June 21, 1944 · North Shields, Northumberland, England, UK
Died
August 19, 2012 · San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA (suicide)
Birth name
Anthony David Leighton Scott
Nickname
- T-Scott
Height
5′ 6½″ (1.69 m)

Biography

Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British military, his family moved around a lot. Their mother loved the going to the movies and instilled a love of cinema in her children. At age 16, Tony made his first appearance on screen as 'the boy' in his brother's directorial debut, the short film Boy and Bicycle (1965). In 1969, Tony directed his own short film One of the Missing (1968) about a soldier in the American civil war.

Tony had a talent for art and painting. He spent a year in Leeds College of Art and Design and went on to study for a fine arts degree at the School of Art at the University of Sunderland. He won a scholarship to study for his Masters of fine arts at the Royal College of Art. Following university, he spent several years as a painter. But life as a painter proved a struggle, so he decided to forge a different career path and partnered with Ridley in advertising at Ridley Scott Associates. It was there that he began shooting commercials. In 1971 he wrote, produced and directed Loving Memory however his vampire movie The Hunger (1983) starring Susan Sarandon, David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve wasn't a critical success but it attracted attention from Hollywood. He was asked by producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to direct Top Gun (1986) starring Tom Cruise. He would work again with Cruise on another high adrenaline film Days of Thunder (1990), which proved less successful. He followed the success of Top Gun with the sequel Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) with Eddie Murphy, which was well received.

In 1993, he directed True Romance (1993), which was written by emerging director Quentin Tarantino. Scott had a lot of control over the film and received some great reviews.

Tony has worked five times with actor Denzel Washington with Crimson Tide (1995), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), Deja Vu (2006), Man on Fire (2004) and Scott's final film in the director's chair Unstoppable (2010).

Tony Scott passed away at age 68 on August 19, 2012 in California, USA.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anoynmous

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Constantly wore a faded red baseball cap. It often appeared in his films.
Often cast Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken.
[director's trademark - camera pan across a large tower] The "top of the world" tower at the casino in Domino and Beat The Devil, the tower in Mexico City at the start of Man on Fire.
Has used dogs in many of his movies including Top Gun (1986), True Romance (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), The Fan (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004) and Domino (2005).
Kinetic, choppy editing

Trivia

Left two suicide notes that have not been publicly disclosed. Police have said the notes do not explain his motivation for suicide.
Was set to direct Man on Fire (1987), based on a A.J. Quinnell's novel, but he was rejected by the producers because they believed he was not accomplished enough to pull off the project. 17 years later, Scott directed Man on Fire (2004), a new version of the same novel.
Tony Scott killed himself August 19, 2012 by jumping from the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge in San Pedro, Los Angeles. According to his brother Ridley Scott he probably committed suicide because he had cancer. [The Guardian, May 2017].
Younger brother of director Ridley Scott.
Once linked romantically to Brigitte Nielsen, whom he directed in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). Both were married at the time, Nielsen to Sylvester Stallone. Scott has since admitted the affair was what led to his divorce from his second wife.

Quotes

[on Ridley Scott] Nobody does toga movies like my brother.
[on Tom Cruise] A magnet for women.
[on Days of Thunder (1990)] The problem was, we started on the movie without a script. Tom [Cruise] was already part of the line-up when I arrived and they said: "Tom can sit behind the wheel of a race car and smoke a cigarette and this movie will make a fortune." And that was the attitude we went in with. Robert Towne would be writing the scenes at night, we would shoot in the morning. It was a dangerous way to work. But we really thought, "Look - it's racing cars and it's Tom Cruise!" But you always have to get a story and you've got to get character first, and we hadn't.
(The studio) saw a cut of The Hunger (1983) and all of a sudden my parking spot at Warner Brothers was painted out.
I always get criticized for style over content, unlike Ridley's films that go into the classic box right away. Mine sort of hover. Maybe with time people will start saying they should be classics, but I think I'm always perceived as reaching too hard for difference, and difference doesn't categorize you as the 'classic category'.