[1] Briley was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan,[1][2][3] and served in the United States Army Air Forces, 1943–46, reaching the rank of captain.
[1] In 1960, he earned a PhD in Elizabethan drama from the University of Birmingham, left the air force and became a staff writer with MGM-British in Borehamwood.
[8] Several scripts for Attenborough's Gandhi project had been rejected, and Robert Bolt was scheduled to rewrite his own earlier draft when he suffered a stroke.
[7] Briley envisaged more emphasis on the relationship between Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, but Kingsley's towering performance came to dominate the finished film.
[9] In 1985, Briley began developing a musical about Martin Luther King Jr.,[10][11] writing the book and lyrics[10] and acting as co-producer, originally for American Playhouse.
[9] Although Woods feared Briley lacked an awareness of the complexities of political debate among black South Africans, those shown a preview of the film felt it was realistic.
[15] Unproduced scripts on which Briley worked include: adaptations of Henderson the Rain King,[2][16] Mister God, This Is Anna,[2] White Fang,[2] Man's Fate,[17] and his own novel How Sleep the Brave;[2] biopics of Franz Kafka,[16] Genghis Khan – to have been directed by Shin Sang-ok,[16] Robert Hunter (Warriors of the Rainbow) – to have been directed by Renny Harlin,[18][19] Tina Modotti (A Fragile Life),[2][20] Beryl Markham (West with the Night), and Pope John Paul II;[21] The Cross and the Crescent,[1] about Francis of Assisi and the Crusades;[22] and a miniseries about the Italian Renaissance.