Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana (born September 12, 1951) is an American screenwriter, writer, and television producer. Fontana worked on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street and created HBO's Oz.[1]
Early life and education
Fontana was born on the west side of Buffalo, New York, and is the fourth of five children in an Italian-American family;[2] he is a cousin of actress Patti LuPone. He attended Cathedral School, Canisius High School, and Buffalo State College. He worked at the Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo in various capacities before moving to New York City in 1973. [3]
Career
Television
Having started out as a playwright, Fontana was hired by Bruce Paltrow as a writer for St. Elsewhere. Fontana has been the creator/showrunner for OZ, Copper, The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, The Philanthropist and he was also the showrunner on Homicide: Life on the Street.
Fontana wrote the HBO film Strip Search, directed by Sidney Lumet, and contributed two pieces to the September 11 special, America: A Tribute to Heroes. He was the executive producer of American Tragedy for CBS, Shot in the Heart for HBO Films, the independent film Jean, and the documentary The Press Secretary for PBS. Fontana also created the historical drama TV series Borgia for the French premium-pay channel Canal+, produced by Atlantique Productions and EOS Entertainment. The series recounts the Borgia family's rise to power and subsequent domination of the Vatican during the Renaissance. Fontana also co-created Copper, an 1860s police procedural set in the turbulent Five Points neighborhood of New York.
Fontana has received three Emmy Awards, four Peabody Awards, three Writers' Guild Awards, four Television Critics Association Awards, the Cable Ace Award, the Humanitas Prize, an Edgar Award, and the first prize at the Cinéma Tout Ecran Festival in Switzerland. In 2003, Fontana was the recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Outstanding Television Writer Award.
Articles
Fontana has written articles for such periodicals as The New York Times, TV Guide, and Esquire, and has taught at Columbia, Syracuse, Rutgers, and the State University College at Buffalo, his alma mater, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary Doctorate of Letters.
Plays
Fontana has had numerous plays produced in New York City, where he lives, and at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Buffalo Studio Arena Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and McCarter Theatre Company.
Personal life
Fontana's sister is a nun. He lives in New York City's West Village in a building that was formerly a branch of the New York Public Library. The book-lined, two-story main reading room is now a living room where he often hosts fund raisers for arts and civil-rights organizations.
Fontana was married to actress Sagan Lewis for 12 years until their divorce in 1993.[1] Sagan and Fontana remarried on July 10, 2015, and remained together until her death on August 7, 2016.[1][4]
Fontana has a tattoo of the Oz logo on his upper right arm, which he is shown receiving in the opening credits of the series.[5]
Fontana does not own or use a computer, and writes all of his scripts longhand on a yellow legal pad.[6]
Membership
He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Producers Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America, East, from which he received the Evelyn F. Burkey Award for lifetime achievement. Fontana served as vice president of the Writers Guild of America, East from 2005 to 2007. He is president emeritus of the WGAE Foundation, commonly known as the Writers Guild Initiative, and serves on the boards of the Acting Company, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, DEAL, the New York City Police Museum, and Stockings With Care, among others.
Detective Joe Fontana, Dennis Farina's character on Law & Order, was named for Tom Fontana, who became close friends with Law & Order creator Dick Wolf while working as writers in the same building, at the same time, on the series St. Elsewhere (Fontana) and Hill Street Blues (Wolf).[7]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Writer | Producer | |||
1985 | The Fourth Wise Man | Yes | Yes | |
1993 | New Year | Yes | Yes | |
1996 | The Prosecutors | Yes | Yes | |
1997 | Firehouse | Yes | Yes | |
2000 | Homicide: The Movie | Yes | Yes | |
2004 | Judas | Yes | Yes | |
2004 | Strip Search | Yes | Yes |
Television
Year[8] | Title | Network | Credited as | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Creator | Writer | Producer | ||||
1982-1988 | St. Elsewhere | NBC | No | Yes | Yes | |
1988-1999 | Tattingers | NBC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-created with Bruce Paltrow and John Masius |
1992 | Home Fires | NBC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-created alongside Bruce Paltrow and John Tinker |
1993-1999 | Homicide: Life on the Street | NBC | No | Yes | Yes | Showrunner |
1997-2003 | Oz | HBO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Creator/Showrunner |
2000 | The Beat | UPN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Creator/Showrunner |
2004 | The Jury | Fox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-created alongside Barry Levinson and James Yoshimura/Showrunner |
2009 | The Philanthropist | NBC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-created alongside Charlie Corbin and Jim Juvonen /Showrunner |
2012-2013 | Copper | BBC America | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-created with Will Rokos/Showrunner |
2011-2014 | Borgia | Canal+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Creator/Showrunner |
2019-2022 | City on a Hill | Showtime | No | No | Yes | Showrunner |
2024 | Monsieur Spade[9] | AMC & Canal+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-creator/Co-showrunner with Scott Frank |
References
- ^ a b c Petski, Denise (August 6, 2016). "Sagan Lewis Dies: Actress & Wife Of Emmy-Winner Tom Fontana Was 63". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ Doyle, Paula (April 5, 2004). "'What if Judas almost got it?'". The Tidings. Archived from the original on May 2, 2005. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
- ^ "Episode 80: The Twelve Days of Crime Story – Day 8: Tom Fontana, Homicide and Oz". December 30, 2019.
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/tom.fontana.1238?fref=ts [user-generated source]
- ^ "Twelve Astonishing Facts about "Oz," HBO's Original Crime Drama". Paley Matters. October 13, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
- ^ "Email".
- ^ "Dick Wolf Interview". Archive of American Television. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. April 21, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
- ^ Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.
- ^ "AMC/AMC+ GIVE FIRST-LOOK AT CLIVE OWEN IN MONSIEUR SPADE, LIMITED SERIES DEBUTS EARLY 2024". September 8, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
External links
- Official Website
- New York Magazine Tom Fontana profile and The Jury preview
- Board of Advisors, The Buffalo Film Festival, Buffalo, NY, United States
- Tom Fontana interview at Archive of American Television
- Tom Fontana’s ‘Borgia’ at the Hollywood Reporter
- Deauville 2011: Tom Fontana Discusses 'Borgia's' Move to Netflix, Plans for Cable (Q&A) at the Hollywood Reporter
- Tom Fontana at IMDb
- v
- t
- e
- Reginald Rose for Twelve Angry Men (1955)
- Rod Serling for The Twilight Zone (1960)
- Rod Serling for The Twilight Zone (1961)
- Reginald Rose for The Defenders (1962)
- Robert Thom & Reginald Rose for "The Madman" (1963)
- Ernest Kinoy for "Blacklist" / Rod Serling for "It's Mental Work" (1964)
- David Karp for "The 700 Year Old Gang" (1965)
- Millard Lampell for "Eagle in a Cage" (1966)
- Bruce Geller for "Mission: Impossible" (1967)
- Loring Mandel for "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" (1968)
- JP Miller for "The People Next Door" (1969)
- Richard Levinson & William Link for "My Sweet Charlie" (1970)
- Joel Oliansky for "To Taste of Death But Once" (1971)
- Richard Levinson & William Link for "Death Lends a Hand" (1972)
- John McGreevey for "The Scholar" (1973)
- Joanna Lee for "The Thanksgiving Story" (1974)
- Howard Fast for "Benjamin Franklin: The Ambassador" (1975)
- Sherman Yellen for "John Adams: Lawyer" (1976)
- William Blinn & Ernest Kinoy for "Show #2" (1977)
- Gerald Green for "Holocaust" (1978)
- Michele Gallery for "Dying" (1979)
- Seth Freeman for "Cop" (1980)
- Michael Kozoll & Steven Bochco for "Hill Street Station" (1981)
- Steven Bochco & Michael Kozoll & Jeff Lewis & Michael Wagner & Anthony Yerkovich for "Freedom's Last Stand" (1982)
- David Milch for "Trial by Fury" (1983)
- John Ford Noonan, John Masius & Tom Fontana for "The Women" (1984)
- Patricia Green for "Who Said It's Fair, Part 2" (1985)
- Tom Fontana, John Masius & Joe Tinker for "Time Heals, Parts I & II" (1986)
- Steven Bochco & Terry Louise Fisher for "The Venus Butterfly" (1987)
- Paul Haggis & Marshall Herskovitz for "Business as Usual" (1988)
- Joseph Dougherty for "First Day/Last Day" (1989)
- David E. Kelley for "Blood, Sweat, and Fears" (1990)
- David E. Kelley for "On the Toad Again" (1991)
- Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider for "Seoul Mates" (1992)
- Tom Fontana for "Three Men and Adena" (1993)
- Ann Biderman for "Steroid Roy" (1994)
- Lance A. Gentile for "Love's Labor Lost" (1995)
- Darin Morgan for "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (1996)
- David Milch, Stephen Gaghan and Michael R. Perry for "Where's Swaldo?" (1997)
- David Milch, Nicholas Wootton and Bill Clark for "Lost Israel: Part II" (1998)
- James Manos Jr. and David Chase for "College" (1999)
- Rick Cleveland & Aaron Sorkin for "In Excelsis Deo" (2000)
- Mitchell Burgess & Robin Green for "Employee of the Month" (2001)
- Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for "12:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m." (2002)
- Mitchell Burgess & David Chase & Robin Green for "Whitecaps" (2003)
- Terence Winter for "Long Term Parking" (2004)
- David Shore for "Three Stories" (2005)
- Terence Winter for "Members Only" (2006)
- David Chase for "Made in America" (2007)
- Matthew Weiner for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (2008)
- Kater Gordon & Matthew Weiner for "Meditations in an Emergency" (2009)
- Erin Levy & Matthew Weiner for "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (2010)
- Jason Katims for "Always" (2011)
- Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff for "Pilot" (Homeland) (2012)
- Henry Bromell for "Q&A" (2013)
- Moira Walley-Beckett for "Ozymandias" (2014)
- David Benioff & D. B. Weiss for "Mother's Mercy" (2015)
- David Benioff & D. B. Weiss for "Battle of the Bastards" (2016)
- Bruce Miller for "Offred" (2017)
- Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for "START" (2018)
- Jesse Armstrong for "Nobody Is Ever Missing" (2019)
- Jesse Armstrong for "This Is Not for Tears" (2020)
- Peter Morgan for "War" (2021)
- Jesse Armstrong for "All the Bells Say" (2022)
- Jesse Armstrong for "Connor's Wedding" (2023)