Lee Donowitz was a major character in the 1993 action-romance film True Romance, which is part of the Tarantinoverse. He was a nefarious movie producer and the son of Donny Donowitz from Inglourious Basterds.
He was portrayed by Saul Rubinek.
Biography[]
Lee Donowitz was born circa 1940, the son of US Army soldier Donny Donowitz, who was killed in action during World War II. He went on to become a film producer in Hollywood, where he competed with big-name film producers by making war films with special attention paid to accuracy. His late 1980s war film Coming Home In a Body Bag was a major success; by 1993, his films had made $2.8 billion. Donowitz also participated in the trafficking of cocaine to Hollywood stars, making a side fortune through his illicit dealings.
In the film, he agrees to buy $200,000 worth of cocaine from an acquaintance of his protégé Elliot Blitzer, Clarence Worley, and meets Clarence at the Beverly Ambassador Hotel. Donowitz took a liking to Clarence, who was a fan of his films and shared many interests with Donowitz. However, the agreement is broken by the LAPD, who had wired Elliot as part of an undercover operation, as well as by the Mafia under Vincenzo Coccotti, who are looking to get his cocaine back from Clarence. Donowitz is first saddened, then irritated by Elliot's betrayal after Elliot addresses one of the policemen by name and asks permission to leave, and Donowitz begins angrily throwing hot coffee at his former protégé. Detective Cody Nicholson responds by shooting Donowitz, which escalates the situation and leads to a shootout between Donowitz's bodyguards, the LAPD and the mob, in which Elliot and almost all the other participants are killed.