Tony's mother, Barbara, was a book-keeper from Cardiff, Wales, while his father, John, was a tool-and-dye-maker from Edinburgh, Scotland, and served as a tail gunner in the RAF during World War II, being the sole survivor when his damaged Halifax crashed in York after a mission over the Ruhr.
Tony wrote his first one-act play at the age of six, which was essentially a play about Santa Claus and his seven elves, including Grumpy, Dopey, and Sneezy. At the age of 10, he met Bruce Pirrie and together they wrote and performed in school plays, often parodying their school teachers.
Inspired by Boris Karloff, Jack P. Pierce, and Famous Monsters Magazine, Tony made his first Super 8mm film at the age of 12 using a borrowed camera from his uncle and $3 of his own money. The film, titled "Death to the Vampires," featured Tony as Dracula and Bruce Pirrie as Van Helsing.
Less than a year later, Tony's 12-minute short film "The Vengeance of Frankenstein" won the Series 70 Contest for Best Film by an Elementary School Student and was screened on TV Ontario and CHCH Hamilton numerous times. The film featured Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Frankenstein Monster.
In 1970, at the age of 14, Tony made a 56-minute unauthorized version of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" with a cast of two dozen boys. This was a significant departure from his earlier silent Super 8mm films, as it featured synchronous sound, which Tony and his cousin, Gareth Powell, invented and laboriously transferred to the film's magnetic strip shot-by-shot.
Tony went on to make 25 more Super 8mm films before attending Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1974 to study film. During his time at Ryerson, he made a further 25 16mm films, two of which, "These Foolish Things" (1977) and "Sentimental Fool" (1978),won international awards for student filmmaking.
After graduating in 1978, Tony gained work in the post-production field and soon became a feature film dialogue editor. He directed an award-winning short film, "Productivity and Performance" (1984),and a feature film, "The Pink Chiquitas" (1986),although the latter was severely re-cut before its release, with all dialogue scenes featuring Eartha Kitt inexplicably deleted.
In 1990, Tony, along with Bruce Pirrie and Dana Anderson, wrote a comedic adventure feature film script about a by-the-book Mountie, his half-wolf dog, and mismatched partner, titled "The Resurrection of Frank Slide," which was optioned by Canada's largest production company. However, the company went on to produce a network television pilot and series that was strikingly similar to Tony's script, leading to a 10-year lawsuit over breach of contract, copyright, and fiduciary duty.
Prior to the end of the lawsuit, Tony relocated to London, England, where he worked in post-production on a number of feature films. He retired from editing in 2012 and now spends time between his homes in Richmond-Upon-Thames and Toronto Beach.
