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Director Tony Scott left a suicide note

Los Angeles – Top Gun director Tony Scott, who jumped to his death from a bridge over Los Angeles Harbour, left a suicide note in his car, according to reports.

The Torrance Daily Breeze newspaper, citing a US Coast Guard official, reported in an online story that a suicide note was found inside Scott's car, which was parked on the cable-suspension bridge.

Onlookers saw British-born Scott, who was 68, parking his car on the Vincent Thomas Bridge and leaping into the water below at about 12:30, according to Lieutenant Joe Bale, a watch commander for the coroner's office.

Bale said the body was recovered by law enforcement from the harbour shortly before 15:00 and was subsequently identified as being that of the filmmaker and younger brother of movie director Ridley Scott.

Suicide

Bale said there was no immediate evidence leading investigators to believe that Scott's death was anything but a suicide. He said an autopsy had not yet been performed.

The bridge, the surface of which clears the harbour's navigation channel by a height of about 56m, connects the port district of San Pedro at the southern tip of Los Angeles to Terminal Island in the harbour.

Scott, born in North Shields, Northumberland, in England, and frequently seen behind the camera in his signature faded red baseball cap, is credited with directing more than two dozen movies and television shows and producing nearly 50 titles.

He was best known for his work on the 1986 fighter jet adventure Top Gun, which starred Tom Cruise as a hot-shot pilot, and Crimson Tide, the 1995 submarine thriller whose cast included Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.

His directing credits also include the Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop II, the racing drama Days of Thunder, which also featured Cruise, and the runaway train blockbuster, Unstoppable, which also starred Washington.

* Share your memories of your favourite Tony Scott movie by sending us a review or tribute to Movies@Channel24.co.za and get published on Channel24.

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