Frank Pierson

Frank Pierson
Born	Frank Romer Pierson May 12, 1925 (1925-05-12) (age 86) Chappaqua, New York

Frank Romer Pierson^[1] (born May 12, 1925) is an American screenwriter and film director.

Contents 1 Life and career 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

Life and career

Pierson was born in Chappaqua, New York, the son of Louise (née Randall), a writer, and Harold C. Pierson, an entrepreneur.^[1] Pierson attended Harvard. He got his break in Hollywood when he penned a script for the television series Naked City in 1958. He went on to write or co-write several notable films, including Cat Ballou.

He helped write Cool Hand Luke and Dog Day Afternoon, which were both nominated for Academy Awards, the latter of which won Pierson his only Oscar statuette. He directed and contributed to the screenplay of A Star Is Born, and the in-fighting between himself, Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson and producer (and at the time boyfriend of Streisand) Jon Peters on the film led him to write the notorious and controversial article "My Battles with Barbra and Jon" in New West magazine.

Pierson has directed several notable films produced for television, including Dirty Pictures, Citizen Cohn, Conspiracy, and Somebody Has To Shoot the Picture. His direction on Truman and Soldier's Girl both garnered Peabody Awards.

He was President of the Writers Guild of America, west from 1981—1983 and again from 1993—1995 and was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) from 2001-2005. In 2003, Pierson was the recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland presented him with the Award. He is also currently a member of the teaching staff of Sundance Institute and is Artistic Director of the American Film Institute.

Pierson's parents, family and their lives, were the subject of the 1945 film Roughly Speaking, starring Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson as his parents.

See also

• Roughly Speaking
• Cool Hand Luke

References

External links

• Frank Pierson at the Internet Movie Database
• Frank Pierson to Receive Edmund H. North Award WGA News, February 1999.

Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by Robert Rehme	President of Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences 2001-2005	Succeeded by Sid Ganis

Films directed by Frank Pierson 1960s The Looking Glass War (1969) 1970s A Star Is Born (1976) King of the Gypsies (1978) 1990s Somebody has to Shoot the Picture (1990) Citizen Cohn (1992) Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee (1994) Truman (1995) 2000s Dirty Pictures (2000) Conspiracy (2001) Soldier's Girl (2003)

Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) (1961–1980) William Inge (1961) Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi and Alfredo Giannetti (1962) James Webb (1963) Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff (1964) Frederic Raphael (1965) Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven (1966) William Rose (1967) Mel Brooks (1968) William Goldman (1969) Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North (1970) Paddy Chayefsky (1971) Jeremy Larner (1972) David S. Ward (1973) Robert Towne (1974) Frank Pierson (1975) Paddy Chayefsky (1976) Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman (1977) Robert C. Jones, Waldo Salt and Nancy Dowd (1978) Steve Tesich (1979) Bo Goldman (1980) Complete list (1940–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020)

Persondata
Name	Pierson, Frank R.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1925-05-12
Place of birth	Chappaqua, New York
Date of death
Place of death