Tony Fingleton

Tony Fingleton is a resident of New York where he has lived since 1967. He has written numerous screenplays, most of which have been optioned by major film studios. Tony wrote and co-produced with Working Title Films Drop Dead Fred which starred Phoebe Cates, Rik Mayall, Marsha Mason, Carrie Fisher, and Tim Matheson. The film was released by New Line Cinema and is now considered a worldwide cult film; Universal released a Blu Ray version of the film to celebrate its 25th Anniversary.

Tony is the co-author with Michael Sutton of Over My Dead Body, a comedy which was originally produced at the Hartman Theater in Stamford, Connecticut, starring Fritz Weaver and Tammy Grimes. It subsequently played for nine months at the Savoy Theatre in London and starred Donald Sinden and June Whitfield (dir. Brian Murray). The play is now performed extensively around the U.S. as well as in Japan and England. It is published by Dramatists Play Service Inc.

In 2003, Tony wrote and co-produced an autobiographical film called Swimming Upstream about his childhood in Australia, where he was a champion swimmer. It starred Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush and Academy Award nominee Judy Davis as his parents, and Jesse Spencer (House, Chicago Fire) as Tony. The film received five nominations for the Australian Film Institute Awards including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Screenplay. Tony won the Australian Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay. The film was released worldwide by MGM. A best-selling book of the film was published by New Holland Publishing.