 The agency says the merger would also force rival suppliers to shut down their factories in at least seven states. Award-winning screenwriter Robert Towne has died at the age of 89. He won an Oscar for his screenplay for the 1974 film Chinatown. More from NPR's Netta Ulabi. Robert Towne created the characters and wrote their words. In Chinatown, Jack Nicholson played a hard-boiled detective trying to pin a crime on an uncooperative widow.