The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin[4] and produced by Irwin Allen,[4] featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman[5][6][7] and Steve McQueen.[8]It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant[4] from the novels The Tower (1973) by Richard Martin Stern[9][10][11][12][13] and The Glass Inferno (1974) by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson.[10][11][12][13][14] The film earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and was the highest-grossing film of 1974. The picture was nominated for eight Oscars in all, winning three. In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman, and Jennifer Jones in her final role.[4][10]