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British film director Tony Scott, known for such Hollywood blockbusters as "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "The Taking of Pelham 123," jumped to his death Sunday from the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island, according to Los Angeles County coroner's officials.

Scott, 68, climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge's apex and leapt off "without hesitation" around 12:30 p.m., according to the Coroner's Department and port police.

A suicide note was found inside Scott's black Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge, said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jennifer Osburn.

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http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_21349685/breaking-man-who-jumped-from-vincent-thomas-bridge
 

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 08-20-2012, 04:50 AM:
 
Holy cow!

What could be so bad to cause a guy to do that?

RIP.
 

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Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 08-20-2012, 08:42 AM:
 
Wow! I can say that I will never understand suicide. Very sad!
 

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Posted by Brent Francis (Member # 5008) on 08-20-2012, 08:43 AM:
 
Lotsa people are talking about TOP GUN and TRUE ROMANCE. But THE HUNGER is probably his most influential film. Single-handedly brought goth chic and TV "commercial" style to the mainstream.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-20-2012, 09:52 AM:
 
I was channel surfing yesterday afternoon and saw that Unstoppable was playing on one of the Cinemax channels (I guess the Max channels had a free weekend preview). Later when seeing posts on Facebook about Tony Scott's death I thought it was a joke at first. Pretty shocking that someone with such a successful film career would end it all.

Obviously, none of us know what drove Tony Scott to take his own life. It must have been something that made going on unbearable, be it a very grim medical diagnosis, a personal life catastrophe or any number of other things.

One of my friends in high school killed himself. I didn't know he had serious problems with depression, which included one or more previous suicide attempts. That only came out after his suicide. A girl he had been seeing dumped him and that basically added a little too much to what was already a grim situation. I had a tough time dealing with it since I thought I knew this friend pretty well. He did a good job of hiding his pain.

Hopefully Tony Scott will be remembered most for his best films rather than how his life came to such a tragic end. I liked Top Gun, The Hunger, Crimson Tide and a number of his other movies. I did get pretty annoyed by some of his other efforts, such as Spy Game and Domino due to his over-zealous "style over substance" methods of filmmaking. Parts of Enemy of the State were a laugh riot due to some ridiculous stretches the story made with what could be done with electronic images and video (like being able to rotate some crappy video surveillance footage in 3D). Nevertheless, Tony Scott helped make a lot of money for studios in Hollywood. Just on that point alone I imagine more than a few key players in LA are mourning Scott's loss.
 

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Posted by Ross Oba (Member # 3433) on 08-20-2012, 01:46 PM:
 
Doing some reading around it appears he had inoperable brain cancer. It's still a shame that we lost one of the greats. I will be re-watching True Romance tonight.
 

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Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 08-20-2012, 10:08 PM:
 
Now its being reported that he did not have any cancer...
 

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Posted by Tom Mundell (Member # 4555) on 08-21-2012, 10:34 AM:
 
Wow, I certainly did not expect this!

They may not have been his most popular films, but my favorites are Spy Game and Unstoppable. I actually haven't seen The Hunger yet, I'll have to check that out.
 

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Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-22-2012, 08:09 PM:
 
If you are going to commit suicide, at least this is the way to go. He was going to die a slow painful death due to his cancer. The only better way would be to hand glide off of a cliff and then crash. He supposedly did leave personal notes for his family. He probably wanted to spare them the pain of caring for him.
 

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Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-24-2012, 06:55 PM:
 
Silly me, Fooled by stupid ABC News which has been on a roll when it comes to misreporting rumors as fact. Sloppy journalism.

Now they claim the asst coroner says the family is unaware of the cancer and they are trying to confirm with the family. Geez. Can't even get basic facts right. how tough is it?

THe latest reports I read say that Tony Scott's note to his family didnt leave a motive. If so, then I think he is definitely in the wrong for not explaining to his family why he is doing what he is doing.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-24-2012, 09:15 PM:
 
It's typical journalism now. Ready, fire, aim. IMHO, we can thank the various 24-hour so-called "news" channels for a lot of that crap. The Internet deserves some of the blame too.

Basically, it's now far more important to simply report a story of some kind immediately as FAST as possible regardless of whether or not all the important details are available and whether or not it is known if all those details are correct.

These various news outlets will get out in front of all kinds of bullshit. And why not? They're not held accountable for any of the mistakes.

Remember the "runaway bride" news story? This bride to be in Georgia went missing. The media suspected the bride's fiancé might have killed her. They proceeded to assassinate this guy's character. Nancy Grace was practically calling for this man's head to be severed and put on a pike. But then guess what? The bride to be turns up quite alive and well in New Mexico. IIRC, she left her fiancé for someone else. This poor guy got his heart broken and had a nation of TV news addicts wanting him dead. Was anyone held accountable for this stupid goof? No. Nancy Grace is still on TV judging all kinds of people guilty every day. And lots of people tune in to indulge in the hate. IMHO, it's worse than hardcore porn.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-24-2012, 10:08 PM:
 
All I care about is who's first. Not who's right. That's how I choose the news outlets I watch/read/trust. Who's first is just so important!
 

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Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 08-24-2012, 11:08 PM:
 
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN
 

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-25-2012, 10:27 PM:
 
I'm blaming PROMETHEUS.
 

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