- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrank Romer Pierson
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Frank Pierson was born on May 12, 1925 in Chappaqua, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Presumed Innocent (1990) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). He was married to Helene Szamet, Dori Pierson and Polly Stokes. He died on July 22, 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- SpousesHelene Szamet(June 24, 1990 - July 22, 2012) (his death)Dori Pierson(December 7, 1978 - ?) (divorced)Polly Stokes(September 1948 - ?) (divorced, 2 children)
- Parents
- After starting out in advertising, he saved enough money to quit for several months while he wrote and tried to sell his scripts. Just as he was beginning to re-interview with ad agencies to resume his career, one of his stories sold. He has been a professional screenwriter since.
- Famously authored a first-person account, published in both New York and New West magazines before the release of A Star Is Born (1976), of the endless trials and tribulations of directing Barbra Streisand. He portrayed her as egocentric, manipulative and a total control freak. Needless to say, they never worked together again.
- President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw) twice: 1981-1983 and 1993-1995.
- President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from August 2001 to August 2005.
- Pierson's mother, Louise Randall Pierson, wrote a best-selling book based on his family's life, "Roughly Speaking", which was made into the film Roughly Speaking (1945). The story includes the tales of three sons who enlist to fight in World War II, one of whom was modeled after Frank Pierson, who served in the Pacific.
- A film set, as Orson Welles was first to say, is the most wonderful electric train a boy could ever be given. What he failed to add was that, most of the time, it doesn't work.
- One of the few things I've discovered about writing is to form a habit that becomes an addiction, so that if you don't put something down on paper every day you get really mean and awful with withdrawal symptoms, and your wife and your dog and your kids are going to kick your ass until you get back to it, because they can't bear you in that state of mind.
- [on the famous "What we have is a failure to communicate" line from Cool Hand Luke (1967)] The phrase just sort of appeared on the page. I looked at it and thought, "Now that's interesting". Then I thought, "These words are going to be spoken by an actor who is playing a real redneck character who probably never went beyond high school", and it has a faintly academic feel to it, that line. I thought, "People are going to question it".
- [on writing Cat Ballou (1965)] That was the beginning of all of our careers . . . I was the 11th writer on that, but they'd all been trying to do it straight, like a Gene Autry singing movie. Walter Newman, who was the writer on it before me, had the inspiration to do it as a comedy, but he was fed up with the whole damn thing, so he sketched it as a comedy. Then he quit, and that was my opportunity to come in and pick up where Walter left off. He just gave me such a gift because he showed how to do it as a comedy, and all I had to do was follow in his footsteps. It was extraordinary.
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