FRANK GILROY TO RECEIVE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, EAST LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENEW YORK CITY –  Frank Gilroy will receive the Writers Guild of America East’s (WGAE) Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing. The award is given in honor of a lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television. Gilroy will receive his award from his son, screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy at the 63rd  annual Writers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at New York City’s AXA Equitable Center.Frank Gilroy’s work spans television, film, theater and print. He wrote for almost every show in TV’s so-called Golden Age, including Playhouse 90, Omnibus, and Studio One.His screenplays include The Fastest Gun Alive, The Subject Was Roses, The Only Game in Town, and From Noon Till Three, which was based on his novel. An independent moviemaker, he wrote and directed Desperate Characters  (winner at Berlin Film Festival), Once In Paris (winner at Berlin Film Festival), (nominated for a Writers Guild Award for best original screenplay), and The Gig.His plays include Who’ll Save The Plowboy? (Obie winner for best play), The Subject Was Roses (winner of a Pulitzer Prize and also Tony and Drama Critics awards), and Contact With The Enemy ( Drama Desk nominee for best play). In print and non-fiction, his work includes Wake Up Screening, Writing For Love and/or Money, and Out Takes from A Life on Spec. Gilroy is a former President of the Dramatists Guild.“Frank Gilroy’s stunning body of work, with its sure and poignant grasp of the human condition, would alone make him a worthy recipient of the Ian McLellan Hunter Award. But in addition he has been a visionary and pioneer, forging a path for all the independent filmmakers and storytellers who have followed him," said Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East. Established in 1992 in memory of the late Ian McLellan Hunter, a WGAE member of long standing, the Hunter Award is presented to a Guild member in honor of his or her lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television. Hunter’s more than 20 screen credits include Eye Witness and A Woman of Distinction. Harassed by the blacklist in the 1950s, Hunter went on to write several successful television series under a pseudonym and then reemerged as a writer on many television projects. Appropriately, the first recipient of the Hunter Award was his longtime friend and writing partner, Ring Lardner, Jr., whose movie credits include Woman Of The Year, M*A*S*H, and The Cincinnati Kid.  Other Hunter Award recipients include: 2010 recipient Alan Zweibel, John Patrick Shanley, Andrew Bergman, Marshall Brickman, Horton Foote, Bill Persky, Walter Bernstein, Jules Feiffer, and Nora Ephron.  The 63rd annual Writers Guild Awards will take place on Saturday, February 5, 2011 in New York City at the AXA Equitable Center and simultaneously in Los Angeles at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel-Grand Ballroom. For more information or to purchase tickets to the New York City awards ceremony, call 212-767-7812 or visit the WGAE website.The Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO, is a labor union representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The WGAE conducts programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to, and on behalf of, writers. In addition, it represents writers’ interests on the legislative level.  For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org