‘Chinatown’ Screenwriter Robert Towne Lifeless at 89

Robert Townea super-famous screenwriter who won an Oscar for his script for “Chinatown,” is useless.

Robert died Monday at his LA home, keeping with an announcement Tuesday from his publicist, Carrie McClure. The reason for loss of life was not revealed.

Along with winning an Academy Award for 1974’s classic film “Chinatown,” Robert also wrote two other massive films in the 70s … “The Final Element” and “Shampoo.”

Robert can be identified for writing the 1988 film “Tequila Dawn” … which starred Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer.

A revered figure in Hollywood, Robert was probably the most in-demand screenwriter of all time … usually being introduced in to physician scripts — fixing them up.

A pair of well-known examples … Warren Beatty ran to Robert for assistance on 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde” and Robert cooked up the Marlon Brando backyard scene in 1972’s “The Godfather,” even getting a shoutout in Francis Ford Coppola‘s acceptance speech on the Oscars.

The final time we got Robert out was method again in 2009, when he talked to one in all our photogs about his “Chinatown” script and dished on working with Roman Polanski and Tom Cruise.

Robert wrote two films starring Tom in the Nineties … “Days of Thunder” and “The Agency” … and he is credited on the primary two ‘Mission: Unattainable’ motion flicks.

RT was 89.