Film director
(1981-1983) President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw)
(1993-1995) President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw)
President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (August 2001 - August 2005).
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.
Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Writers Branch) [-2006 & 2007-].
Famously authored a first-person account, published in both New York and New West magazines before the films release, 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.
Served with US Army.
Was correspondent for Time and Life magazines.
Pierson made his feature directorial debut with The Looking Glass War in 1970.
Pierson was the recipient of the Austin Film Festivals Distinguished Screenwriter Award.
A Harvard graduate with a degree in cultural anthropology, he was also a revered but demanding mentor, especially in his role as one of the founding writers at Robert Redford s Sundance Screenwriters Lab in the 1980s.
Piersons mother, Louise Randall Pierson , wrote a best-selling book based on his familys life, "Roughly Speaking", which was made into a movie in 1945 ( Roughly Speaking ). The story includes the tales of three sons who enlist to fight in World War II, one of who was modeled after Pierson, who served in the Pacific.
His most famous line of scripted dialog, "What weve got here is a failure to communicate", delivered by prison warden Strother Martin to inmate Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke , has been ranked by The American Film Institute as the 11th-best movie quote of all time.
He sold his first script to the half-hour anthology series "Goodyear Television Playhouse" , which wasnt aired until 1959 ( "Goodyear Theatre" {Point of Impact } ). Soon after he was writing and directing full-time for film and TV, beginning with "Have Gun - Will Travel" , on which he also produced 61 episodes.
