Tom Jankiewicz

Thomas Anthony Jankiewicz (September 8, 1963 – January 23, 2013) was an American screenwriter. Jankiewicz was best known for penning the 1997 film, Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, and Dan Aykroyd.Grosse Pointe Blank tells the story of an assassin, played by John Cusack, who returns to his hometown for his 10-year high school reunion.

Jankiewicz's mother, Marilyn, was a nurse, while his father, Anthony, was an engineer with Chrysler. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and lived in Sterling Heights, Michigan, with his parents and four siblings. Jankiewicz graduated from Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights, Michigan, in 1981. He then moved to Southern California after high school when his father took a new job with General Dynamics in Pomona, California. Tom Jankiewicz also worked as an advertising copywriter.

Jankiewicz wrote the initial script for Grosse Pointe Blank in 1991 after receiving an invitation to his 10th high school reunion. He picked the film's title, "Grosse Pointe Blank", while substitute teaching for an English class at Upland High School by writing the title on the classroom's whiteboard to see how it would look on a movie theater. Jankiewicz decided to use Grosse Pointe, an upscale Michigan suburb, rather than his working-class hometown of Sterling Heights due to the contrast between the two towns.

Jankiewicz simultaneously worked as a substitute teacher and a cashier at a Big Lots (located at the corner Foothill and Mountain streets in Upland, California) before his script was picked up for production.

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