Following a brief college career, Tony Gilroy began writing with his brother, Dan, in the late '70s and early '80s. Together, they wrote and produced two short films which attracted the attention of some serious agents and profound advocates. Individually, they pursued their escalating options as professional screenwriters.
Tony's first significant mentor was the writer Jay Presson Allen, authoress of such acclaimed screenplays as "Cabaret," "Prince of the City" and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." Under the terms of her overall deal with Lorimar Television and ABC-TV, he wrote a short-lived series called "Hothouse."
Interscope Communications' Robert Cort signed Tony Gilroy to a three-year, first-look deal with the successful independent production company he heads in conjunction with Ted Field. The movie that resulted was "The Cutting Edge," starring D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, in addition to a variety of unproduced projects for film and television.
Gilroy then did a pilot for CBS-TV entitled "The Grey Area." Created by noted film producer Martin Bregman, the show starred Michael Rooker and Paul Guilfoyle. He also picked up his first screenwriting credit on an action picture for Cannon Films.
Another of Tony Gilroy's mentors, the incomparable screenwriter and author William Goldman, introduced him to "DOLORES CLAIBORNE" in the fall of 1993. Given the opportunity to show his stuff and hopefully win the prestigious assignment, Tony turned in an insightful 45-page outline of Stephen King's best-selling book, converting it from the first-person monologue of the novel to a mother-daughter psychological drama juxtaposed between current day and 1975, the summer of the eclipse during which Dolores' husband died under very curious circumstances.
Gilroy's father is the Pulitzer Prize Award-winning playwright Frank Gilroy ("The Subject Was Roses"). Although his parents raised him and his two brothers in upstate New York, far from the hew and cry of Broadway, each of the offspring would eventually succumb to the irresistible urge of show business. In addition to writers Tony and Dan, brother John Gilroy is a film editor.
Tony's frequent presence on location in Nova Scotia allowed the "DOLORES CLAIBORNE" company the luxury of on-site retuning of the script. The most radical example occurred when Studio B burned to the ground on May 31st -- reportedly the worst fire in the city of Lunenburg in 20 years -- eliminating any possibility of filming future flash-backs in the luxurious bedroom suite of Dolores' employer, Vera Donovan, and Tony was able to rewrite the scenes virtually on the spot.
