Tony Scott

Born: 21st July 1944
Where: Stockton on Tees, England, UK

The former painter has brought his distinct visual style to action thrillers including Top Gun, Enemy of the State and Man on Fire.

The brother of Ridley "Gladiator" Scott, he spent nearly a decade at art school and as an unsuccessful career as an artist.

However, while at art school in Sunderland and latterly Leeds, he developed an interest in cinematography and made the short film One of the Missing.

He then went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree at London's Royal College of Arts, completing Loving Memory, from an original script financed by Albert Finney.

In 1973, Scott partnered brother Ridley to form London-based commercial production company, RSA, who went on to create some of the world's most entertaining and memorable commercials.

Scott made his feature directorial debut with The Hunger in 1981, a supernatural thriller starring Susan Sarandon, David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve.

The film flopped and he was deemed unbankable for the next several years...until Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer gave him a call to direct Top Gun.

The movie, starring Tom Cruise as a crack combat jet pilot, was a huge success and marked Scott down as an accomplished action director.

Following this, the same producing-directing trio guided Eddie Murphy through his blockbuster success, Beverly Hills Cop II.

On set, Scott had an affair with actress Brigitte Nielsen - who was married to Sylvester Stallone - which he blames for breaking up his own marriage.

Next they made stockracing actioner Days of Thunder, followed by the less successful adventure yarn, The Last Boy Scout, starring Bruce Willis.

In 1993 Scott enjoyed greater creative control over True Romance, which marked his first collaboration with writer-director Quentin Tarantino.

He teamed up again with Simpson and Bruckheimer, for the submarine-set thriller, Crimson Tide, which proved a huge success.

As partners in the production company Scott Free, the Scott brothers bought London's Shepperton Studios in 1995.

Scott's next production was the 1996 thriller The Fan starring Robert de Niro as a stalker of Wesley Snipe's celebrity baseball player.

The same year he Turned down a chance to direct Beautiful Girls, because he felt he couldn't do justice to Scott Rosenberg's script, which placed characterization and dialogue above dramatic event.

In 1998, the Scott brothers co-produced the black comedy, Clay Pigeons, and the directot went on to produce the slick thriller Enemy of the State.

Next up for the brothers were co-producing roles for the Paul Newman caper Where the Money Is, after which Scott directed Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in the thriller The Spy Game.

After the short The Hire: Beat the Devil, starring Clive Owen and Gary Oldman, Scott teamed up with Denzel Washington for the brutal thriller Man on Fire.