Ridley Scott became ”very close” to his younger brother Tony Scott before his death. The 76-year-old filmmaker’s sibling died at age 68 in August 2012 when he committed suicide, leaving Ridley devastated. However, the Prometheus director is grateful that he spent a lot of time with Tony before the tragedy occurred due to the Top Gun creator’s lengthy battle with brain cancer – something the family kept secret. Speaking about his brother’s ”inexplicable” death publicly for the first time, Ridley told Variety: ”Tony had been very unwell, actually, and that’s the moment I realized I had to get very close to him again, though we were always close.”
Ridley – whose older brother Frank died from skin cancer in 1980 at the age of 45 – misses Tony everyday but has so many fond memories of him, including their impromptu drinking sessions when he was being treated for his cancer. He said: ”I miss a friend. I’d go to him even when he was doing his recovery, and I’d say, ‘F**k the chemo, have a Vodka Martini,’ and he and I would go out.” Ridley ends his new film Exodus: Gods and Kings – which hit theaters December 12 – with a dedication to Tony.