Tony Scott
© Gus Ruelas/APDirector Tony Scott arrives at the premiere of Unstoppable in Los Angeles in 2010
On Sunday afternoon Scott, 68, parked his car at the crest of the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge in San Pedro, scaled a towering 18-foot barrier fence and - as witnesses looked on in horror - jumped some 185 feet to his death in Los Angeles Harbor.

An element of mystery surrounded Tony Scott's suicidal leap from a Los Angeles bridge as authorities Monday shot down a report that the action movie maestro had suffered from inoperable brain cancer.

"Through a family spokesperson, we have been advised that Mr. Scott did not have brain cancer or (an) inoperable tumor," Chief Coroner Investigator Craig Harvey told the Daily News late Monday.

ABC News had reported the dire health diagnosis earlier in the day, citing a source close to the famed director of Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II and Crimson Tide.

An autopsy was begun Monday. "We will look at any medical history," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told The News. "We don't have anything medically confirmed at this time."

Winter said Scott left a suicide note in his office and another note in his car that listed contact numbers. He declined to discuss the contents of the note.

On Sunday afternoon Scott, 68, parked his car at the crest of the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge in San Pedro, scaled a towering 18-foot barrier fence and - as witnesses looked on in horror - jumped some 185 feet to his death in Los Angeles Harbor.

"He was on the roadway close to the fence looking around. ... He looked nervous," David Silva, a passenger in a vehicle that was crossing the bridge at the time, told The Los Angeles Times. "I thought it was some extreme sports guy."

"(Scott) paused a couple of seconds and then began to climb the fence," Silva continued. "He put his foot on the top of the fence and paused again - and then he threw himself off."

A bystander made the first 911 call around 12:35 p.m. Hours later divers recovered Scott's body from the murky harbor, authorities said. In an eerie coincidence, the director had visited railroad tracks adjacent to the bridge exactly two years earlier for work related to his Denzel Washington flick Unstoppable.

"Very sad. We did reshoots of Unstoppable in the RR yard on Pier A Street under the bridge," location scout Scott Trimble wrote on Twitter. "Tony Scott was a good man." Trimble told The News he was surprised to find photos dated August 19, 2010 - two years to the day of Scott's suicide - showing the director in the shadow of the bridge, wearing his trademark red hat.

"I was shocked and devastated to learn of Tony Scott's death," producer powerhouse Jerry Bruckheimer said in a statement to the Daily News. "He was not only a brilliant filmmaker, but a wonderful man and dear friend."