Tony Scott Dead At 68 - Reports Say He Commited Suicide

Tony Scott, one of the most successful British directors in contemporary Hollywood, has committed suicide at the age of 68. LA's Daily Breeze first reported the news that has now sadly been confirmed by other news outlets, including the BBC. Eye witnesses say Scott climbed a fence on the south side of the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island and jumped "without hesitation" at around 12.30pm on Sunday. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office has confirmed his death is being treated as suicide. Lt Joe Bale revealed that the director was seen parking his car and voluntarily jumping into the water at about 12:30 (19:30 GMT) yesterday. His body took three hours to recover. Scott is known for inventing the modern day action movie with the popular 80's classic Top Gun, starring a young Tom Cruise. He was actually up until recent years trying to get a sequel off the ground and had conducted extensive research into the state of modern aerial warfare. His CV boasts Beverly Hills Cops II, Days of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123 and what sadly is now his final film, Unstoppable. Few directors had their finger on the pulse the way Scott did. Top Gun hit a pop culture wave like no movie before in the mid 80s and his best movies were always the ones that hit an on-going concern of the time. He never made movies that were set at any other period than the present and in his recent works, had touched on the economic crises with Denzel Washington as his surrogate "American everyman" trying to navigate in this world. His movies were always slick, masterfully cut and edited, frantically paced and always without pretension. Scott's only goal was to entertain audiences, his movies didn't carry the subtext of his brother Ridley Scott, they were what you see is what you get. His villains were often black and white, the plot simple and the action heavy. If indeed his goal was to entertain, he succeeded in doing so for millions of us and he rarely released a mis-fire. We were looking forward to him entertaining us more in the future but tragically, it wasn't to be. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Scott family at this time.