Sarah Morris · Attribution

Wrote Chinatown, winning the Academy Award for a screenplay widely taught as a model of the form, and helped define the New Hollywood era after cutting his teeth writing for Roger Corman. He also wrote The Last Detail and Shampoo for Hal Ashby, and later directed the sports dramas Personal Best and Without Limits himself. His long collaboration with Tom Cruise produced The Firm and the first two Mission: Impossible films.