Actor and Wilmington native Tim Quill returns to his hometown to attend the local premier of his latest feature film. (Photo by Joe Szczechowski)

By JOE SZCZECHOWSKI
Big Shout Magazine, December 1989

Tim Quill is a lucky guy. The 27-year-od former Wilmingtonian and star of the Hemdale Films movie Staying Together would be the first person to admit it.

In the five short yeas since he decided to pursue an acting career, Quill has appeared in four major motion pictures. In the three of the four, he’s a played a feature role.

Quill was in town last month to visit with family and friends and to attend the local premier of Staying Together at the Christiana Mall’s General Cinema. Quill signed autographs, posed for pictures and chatted with fans and friends. A crowd of more than 300 turned out to greet the most successful actor to hail from Wilmington since Joan Goodfellow starred in Buster and Billie 15 years ago.

Most professional actors will tell you they spent their high school and college years studying their craft. The local and dinner theater circuits are full of hopeful amateurs, working to perfect their acting through years of experience gained on stages smaller than most living rooms.

Quill, who physically resembles a young John Travolta, never acted in high school or college. The former St. Mark’s High School and University of Delaware student held only a passing interest in acting but was “afraid to get up on stage and be in front of people.”

“I was in and out of a bunch of different majors,” Quill says. “I wasn’t too sure what I was going to go for.”

Quill made his decision to try his hand at acting after speaking with an actor named Michael Mahon, who was dating Quill’s sister. Mahon lived in New York.

“He was working on a soap opera at the time,” Quill says. “Every time he came to Delaware to see my sister, he would talk to me about acting. He could tell by the questions I asked that I was interested. Mike finally talked me into moving to New York to give it a shot.”

Quill became Mahon’s roommate and enrolled in a two-year program at the William Esper School of Acting. He signed with an agent and worked at a succession of typical struggling-actor jobs — waiting on tables, tending bar, selling Christmas trees — while auditioning for acting work.

“At first, my agent wouldn’t send me to audition for any big projects,” Quill says. “I didn’t have a lot of experience, and he didn’t want the casting director to remember me that way.”

Quill landed a few commercials and minor soap opera parts. As the first year of his studies was drawing to a close, Quill learned that a major feature about the Vietnam War was being cast. The producers were looking for relatively-unknown young men to play the leads.

The film, Hamburger Hill, turned out to be Quill’s first movie role. Though it featured a large ensemble cast, Quill’s part was a substantial one. Hamburger Hill went on to become both a critical and commercial success.

Almost immediately after he completed Hamburger Hill, Quill landed a small role in the Jon Cryer comedy Hiding Out. Coincidentally, part of that film was set in Delaware, though none of it was actually filmed there.

Last summer, film goers saw Quill play a snobbish college student in the short lived Listen to Me.

It’s his role in Staying Together, however, playing Brian McDermott, the oldest of three brothers, that Quill calls his favorite.

“This movie is very close to home for me,” he says. “It’s a family story about three brothers — in real life, I have three older sisters and two younger brothers. Family means a lot to me. The importance of family is what this film is about.”

The movie, which was directed by actress-turned-director Lee Grant, concerns the reaction of the three McDermott brothers to their father’s decision to sell the family business.

Initially, disbelief and anger threaten to tear the family apart, but the trio eventually comes to realize that it’s at the most difficult times that they need each other most.

In addition to Quill’s presence, Staying Together boast another local connection. Producer Joseph Feury, who is Lee Grant’s husband and producer of all her films, grew up in the Little Italy section of Wilmington.

A predictable and somewhat implausible plot has garnered Staying Together mostly unfavorable reviews, but Quill’s work can’t be faulted. He turns in a believable, well-acted performance as the intense, rebellious Brian McDermott.

Unlike most actors who prefer the spontaneous atmosphere of the stage to the often tedious task of film making, Quill says he’d rather act in front of a camera than in a theater.

“I enjoy going to different locations, meeting a different group of people each time,” he says. “You work together for three months, make great friends, then move on to the next project.”

While he enjoys the time spent making films, Quill is not totally comfortable watching himself in the finished product on the silver screen.

“It’s horrifying,” he says. “I mean, it’s great watching one of my films with my family and friends — hopefully, they’ll be kind to me. At the opening of Staying Together in L.A. though, it was pretty terrifying.”

“There was a tribute planned for Lee Grant,” Quill explains. “So a lot of her friends were there — Michael Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Glenn Close. They all have Oscars in their back pockets, and they’re sitting there in the theater watching me on screen. That was pretty scary.”

For the immediate future, Quill plans to continue to pursue film and stage roles while living in New York. His agent has repeatedly suggested that he relocate to Los Angeles, but Quill prefers to stay close to his family and friends at home.”

“I come down to Wilmington quite a bit,” he says. “That’s another reason I love living in New York — it’s a two-hour train ride from my home. All my friends and family are here.”

If Tim Quill continues his successful career at the rate he’s achieved so far, it might not be long before he’s making some up and coming actor uncomfortable in a movie theater.

And a lot of folks in Wilmington will be able to say, “Gee, I knew Tim Quill back when.”

Editor’s update: Quill continued landing roles in major motion pictures until 2012 with his final role in the film Argo, starring and directed by Ben Affleck. Quill also made numerous appearances in various television series including Miami Vice, ER, and a recurring role as Lt. Mason Painter in JAG.

Quill died of cancer on September 25, 2017 at the age of 54. He is survived by his son, and predeceased by his wife Lisa Casanova Quill, who died seven years earlier at age 46 of breast cancer. They were both interred at Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington.