KTLA: Director Tony Scott jumps from San Pedro Bridge

[Elihu]

Er... he stopped his car on a two lane bridge span - don't you imagine that might've slowed traffic behind him?

apologies for my confusion around the notion of "witnesses saw him park" somewhere. there is no conventional "parking" nearby. so succinctly, he stopped his car in the middle of traffic, got out, scaled the fence, etc... that makes sense.

inoperable brain cancer could explain alot. i shoulda kept quiet. may he rest in peace...

[norton ash]

Claude Jutra (March 11, 1930 - November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director and writer. The Prix Jutra are named in his honor because of his importance in Quebec cinema history. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec.

Claude Jutra was born in Montreal, Quebec and studied to be a doctor before turning to his first love, the cinema. In 1954 he went to work at the National Film Board of Canada where he trained in all facets of filmmaking. In 1958 he went to France to work with François Truffaut and Jean Rouch.

With financing and production provided by the National Film Board of Canada, Jutra co-wrote and directed the acclaimed 1971 film Mon oncle Antoine as well as directing several cinema verite shorts such as La lutte and The Devil's Toy. He also co-directed with Norman McLaren and starred in the pixilation short A Chairy Tale.

In 1984, he was awarded the Prix Albert-Tessier, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Québec cinema.

Jutra was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in the early 1980s. He died, an apparent suicide, in 1986. His body was found in the St. Lawrence River some months after he disappeared, with a note in his pocket reading "I Am Claude Jutra."

When I first heard the news about T Scott, Claude Jutra came to mind first thing... I thought, "Maybe he was very sick and did a Claude Jutra."

Maybe so, and being Tony Scott he chose to make something of a scene. Thanks, Cuda, for the 'To Live and Die in LA' clip, Scott would have known it.

[MinM]

That just happened. Wow. WTF?

Adding to the bizarre nature of reading about this (although the inoperable brain cancer angle mitigates most of that) this morning was thinking of the Frank Olson case last night. There was a scene in Twilight Zone that had Frank Olson written all over it. Also two months or so ago, on that very same network, there was an episode of Columbo which hit even closer to the Frank Olson story.

[JackRiddler]

When I hear about a power male around 70 who kills himself, my first intuition is that he's got cancer.

[barracuda]

The beginning of The Hunger, easily one of the best openings scenes I've encountered in a Hollywood film (warning, blood and stuff):

[82_28]

I will prosaically give the brain cancer the benefit of the doubt.

However, watching NBC's Today show as it opened, they literally went from announcing the death to cutting to the outside plaza where a bunch of Air Force dudes were there to show us Aurora the Falcon -- the mascot of the US Air Force. Literally it took 30 seconds. I fell asleep after that and am now up again and just remembered.

Taken as what it is, I can't help but be struck by the coincidence of Scott working on Top Gun 2, ostensibly as told up thread, to show kinda how much the Air Force has changed in the last 24 years, to the news of his suicide, to NBC just having the falcon named Aurora ready to go live and on air with his Air Force handler and other Air Force officers immediately.

So I decide to run some searches:

Many of the victims were Air Force peeps. Count how many times "Air Force" comes up in this summary of "remembering the dead":

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/07/21/n ... -released/

Note the Falcon-ish nature of Aurora as well. . .

https://www.google.com/search?q=Aurora+the+falcon

Also of note is the proximity of Gun Club Road. Being from Denver I've never understood how that road ever got its name.

I only bring any of this up because I happened to catch that bit this morning and the introduction of AURORA, a falcon and AIR FORCE films being on the mind. Also this is the year of 12. 12+12, 24.

Oh, good old RI. Where else could one speculate like this?

Gonna crosspost to Aurora thread btw. . .

[jlaw172364]

Hmmmmm.... so if you have inoperable brain cancer, the thing to do is prematurely end your life in a spectacular manner?

And what about your wife and two kids? Wouldn't you rather spend every last living minute or second with them?

Sorry, this smells.

[wetland]

Looking down the narrow passage into The No More Fun Club, he chose to go for the spectacular finale.

Sounds like he had his business in order.

[JackRiddler]

Hmmmmm.... so if you have inoperable brain cancer, the thing to do is prematurely end your life in a spectacular manner?

And what about your wife and two kids? Wouldn't you rather spend every last living minute or second with them?

Sorry, this smells.

This is the thing people in this situation do all the time. The highest suicide rates in this country are of men over 65, with loss of health and financial troubles as frequent factors. Look it up. Wouldn't you expect someone who's been the big boss on set all his life to find nothing more unbearable than a loss of control? And how could he have not, in contemplating this, on some level viewed it as a movie scene?

Or don't, we can insinuate fantasy scenarios about why T.H.E.Y. offed the director of the most aggressive and repulsive Pentagon milit-prop films of all time, Top Gun and Blackhawk Down.

By the way, the only defensible script of "Top Gun II" would feature Tom Cruise as an ugly, fat bastard on a cushioned chair in Colorado, hunting and murdering "militants" and their families in Yemen, then switching to a couch in his home (decor almost indistinguishable from the drone base) where he wanks off to violent porn.

I did not recall Scott having been the director of "The Hunger," which prompts a small, final rise in my estimation of him. (He was brought in after the script was already in development and the stars were attached.) In recent RI posts he had featured, I would say deservedly, in a thread called "Name the worst of all living film directors," although there was some unfortunate confusion between him and his brother.

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... 45#p396007

Check out the ouevre... His next project was going to be a book by Bill O'Reilly.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-5 ... oved-ones/

August 20, 2012 11:59 AM
Tony Scott, "Top Gun" director, left behind notes to loved ones


Tony Scott arrives at the premiere of "Unstoppable"on Oct. 26, 2010, in Westwood, Calif.
(Credit: Getty)

(CBS/AP) Tony Scott, director of such Hollywood hits as "Top Gun," ''Days of Thunder" and "Beverly Hills Cop II," left several notes to loved ones in his car before jumping from a Los Angeles bridge on Sunday, according to coroner's officials investigating his death.


Pictures: Tony Scott - 1944-2012
Pictures: The films of Tony Scott
"Top Gun" director dead after leaping off bridge


The 68-year-old Scott's death was being investigated as a suicide, Los Angeles County Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale said.


"I can confirm that Tony Scott has passed away. The family asks that their privacy is respected at this time," Scott's spokesman, Simon Halls, said in a statement.


An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, coroner's Chief of Operations Craig Harvey said. He said investigators located several notes to loved ones that Scott left in his car and at another location, but that they were not described in initial reports as suicide notes.


He said Scott parked his car at the crest of the bridge, which is 185 feet above water, before leaping to his death.


The British-born Scott, who lived in Beverly Hills, was producer and director Ridley Scott's younger brother. Distinct visual styles mark both siblings' films - Ridley Scott mastering the creation of entire worlds with such films as "Gladiator," ''Blade Runner," ''Alien" and this year's "Prometheus," Tony Scott known for hyper-kinetic action and editing on such films as his most recent, the runaway train thriller "Unstoppable," starring regular collaborator Denzel Washington.


The two brothers ran Scott Free Productions and were working jointly on a film called "Killing Lincoln," based on the best seller by Bill O'Reilly. Along with countless commercials, their company produced the CBS dramas "NUMB3RS" and "The Good Wife" as well as a 2011 documentary about the Battle of Gettysburg for the History Channel.


Besides "Unstoppable," Scott worked with Washington on four other movies: "Crimson Tide," ''Man on Fire," ''Deja Vu" and "The Taking of Pelham 123."


Other Scott films include "True Romance," written by Quentin Tarantino, "The Fan," with Robert De Niro, and "Enemy of the State," starring Will Smith.


Scott was married to actress Donna Scott, who appeared in several of her husband's films. They have twin sons.


Completed in 1963, the 6,060-foot Vincent Thomas Bridge links rises 185 feet at its highest point above the Los Angeles Harbor. Many have taken their lives by jumping from the span.


The bridge has been used in many Hollywood productions, among them "Charlie's Angels," ''Gone in 60 Seconds" and "The Fast and the Furious."


Harvey said the bridge has not been used frequently by suicide jumpers in recent years.

15 Photos
Tony Scott: 1944-2012

[barracuda]

Hey - Phyllis Diller, Scott McKenzie and Tony Scott. They go in threeeeeeeeeeees...

[8bitagent]

I was on the phone late last night with my good friend, we were both talking of being in our mid 30's hoping to finally find success and happiness one day. My dream has long been working with media, entertainment, film, etc. But I lamented that it's a scary thought to think that success could lead to becoming more depressed and riddled with anxiety. So reading about Tony Scott's death
reminded me that even someone who has it all and is one of the world's most well known and prolific directors can come to a point where life seems meaningless.

The Hunger is one of my favorite films, and I absolutely loved The Taking of Pelham 123 remake. The Fan, Enemy of the State, True Romance and Crimson Tide were other films he did I was absolutely thrilled by. He was panned as "just an action director", but I found something very engaging with how he sets things up. I love how most of his movies are about an ordinary man(often Denzel Washington) thrown into extra ordinary circumstances. One of his latest films, Pelham, I just felt fully engrossed in. Directors like Michael Bay who do action I feel absolutely nothing when watching.

I think he made the films he wanted to make and may not have been bothered that he wasnt considered a higher end director like his brother. Then again, Ridley Scott went way down hill after his initial visionary sci fi films. Ridley Scott became style over sunstance, much in the way Tony was accused of doing. But I could always relate to Tony action films, whereas Ridley scott ended up by the turn of the millennium going for this way over stylized look that often wasnt met with a strong story. I consider Alien and Blade Runner some of my top favorite movies, but not too much after that caught my fancy.

Anyways, the question to me is what is it in a 68 year old man's life, who (seemingly) has it all to make him decide to shuffle off this motel coil?

[jlaw172364]

@Jack

Tony didn't do Blackhawk Down, that was Ridley.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001716/

I never bought the "Blackhawk Down = pro-U.S. military," since it basically depicts them slaughtering thousands of Somalis and only losing over a dozen men in the process, and the film is faithful to the book. It makes the U.S. military look like techno-empowered bullies, since Farah Aidid was never VIVIDLY depicted as a monstrous villain.

It blows my mind that people on here think that it is normal for someone ALLEGEDLY terminally ill, with a FAMILY, to commit suicide in such a public, spectacular fashion. Had he wanted to off himself, he could have done it painlessly, and discretely in any number of ways with his family at his side.

Instead, he allegedly jumps off a bridge and turns the whole thing into a spectacle with the foreknowledge that his family will have to deal with the aftermath. Imagine his kids, going to school with the knowledge that all their classmates know how their father died.

However, I'm not saying he wasn't that insensitive, but merely that the allegation that he had a brain tumor or had financial troubles doesn't automatically lead to suicide by leap to death.

Also, suicide doesn't solve financial problems. Life insurance won't pay out for suicide.

[justdrew]

he took the Highway to the Danger Zone

[8bitagent]

justdrew: Ok, I admit I "LOL"d a little. Ok that's bad. But zing.




So Tony Scott was about to direct a "drones are sexy and heroic" propaganda movie, and the CIA takes him out? Yeah, not buying that folks.

The brain chemistry and emotions of people are very complex...ya get brain cancer, youre almost 70, mega rich. Who knows what chemicals were flying around. Maybe he was driving and just had a moment of weakness?

[kelley]

granted it's only an isolated photo posted above, but a guy who's one of the most powerful filmmakers in the world shows up in public dressed like his eight year old kids? this is kind of telling, at the very least.