Filmmaker Tony Scott, director of such Hollywood blockbusters as Top Gun and Crimson Tide, has died.
Mr Scott, who was 68, was seen parking his car on the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles and jumping into the water below at about 12.30pm yesterday (8.30pm Irish time).
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said Mr Scott’s body was recovered shortly before 3pm (11pm Irish time).
Lieutenant Joe Bale, a watch commander for the coroner's office, said there was no immediate evidence leading investigators to believe that Mr 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.
A spokeswoman for the filmmaker, Katherine Rowe, said in a brief statement: "I can confirm that Tony Scott has indeed passed away," adding only: "The family asks that their privacy be respected at this time."
Mr 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 films 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 co-starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.
His directing credits also include the 1987 Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop II, the 1990 racing drama Days of Thunder, which also featured Mr Cruise, the 1998 espionage thriller Enemy of the State, which paired Hackman and Will Smith, and the 2010 runaway-train blockbuster, Unstoppable, which starred Mr Washington again.
Mr Washington appeared in two other Scott-directed pictures, his 2009 remake of The Taking of the Pelham 1 2 3, a subway hostage thriller that co-starred John Travolta, as well as the 2004 vengeance drama Man on Fire.
Mr Scott and his older brother were executive producers together on two successful television dramas, Numb3rs, and The Good Wife, which bgean in 2009 and is still running on CBS.
