Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Frank Pierson

Writer-director

Born - 12 May 1925, Chappaqua, New York, USA
Died - 23 July 2012

Although Pierson's few films as director are largely disappointing, he was responsible for some first-class screenplays and also proved a driving force in show business politics. Bearded and bespectacled in his later days, Pierson began (and ended) his show business life as a screenwriter. After TV work from the late 1950s, the first of his screenplays to be filmed was that for Cat Ballou (1965). Later writing work includes Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Anderson Tapes (1971), Dog Day Afternoon (1975, which won him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay) and Presumed Innocent (1990). Towards the end of his life, he wrote scripts for such seminal TV series as The Good Wife and Mad Men. As director he made The Looking Glass War (1969), A Star is Born (1976) and King of the Gypsies (1978), but had more success with his TV movies, especially The Neon Ceiling (1971) and Citizen Cohn (1992). He served two terms as President of the Writers' Guild of Americas and was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 2001 to 2005. Sometimes credited as Frank R Pierson, he died from cancer.