Tony Scott Family Sets Up AFI Scholarship Fund to Honor Famed Director

To honor the life and work of filmmaker Tony Scott, the Scott family has created The Tony Scott Scholarship Fund at AFI to celebrate his creative legacy. The family ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the fund to help encourage and engage future generations of filmmakers.

AFI is a non-profit educational and cultural organization whose key aims are to preserve the history of the motion picture, honor artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers. AFI provides leadership in film, television and digital media and is dedicated to initiatives that engage the past, the present and the future of the moving image arts.

Contributions to the Tony Scott Scholarship Fund may be sent to:

American Film Institute

Tony Scott Scholarship Fund

2021 North Western Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90027

Last week it was reported that Scott died in an apparent suicide, jumping off San Pedro, California's Vincent Thomas Bridge. The director, born in North Shields, England in 1944, first worked as an actor in older brother Ridley Scott's film "Boy and Bicycle."

In 1986, Scott helmed his first major hit, "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. Eddie Murphy's action comedy "Beverly Hills Cop II" quickly followed. His other big budget action films included 1990's "Revenge" starring Kevin Costner and "Days of Thunder," with Tom Cruise. Scott directed Will Smith and Gene Hackman in 1998's "Enemy of the State."

In 2002, the ScOtt Brothers received an Emmy Award for the television movie "The Gathering Storm." Scott also was nominated for the Emmy as a producer for the CBS drama "The Good Wife." He was currently serving as executive producer of the TV miniseries "Coma," which will air later this year.