Trivia

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 Une étoile est née (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 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.

He sold his first script to the half-hour anthology series Goodyear Television Playhouse (1951), which wasn't aired until 1959 (Point of Impact (1959)). Soon after he was writing and directing full-time for film and TV, beginning with Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), on which he also produced 61 episodes.

Had two children, Michael & Eve, and five grandchildren, Colin, Emmet, Gracie, Hannah, & Ben.

His most famous line of scripted dialog, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate", delivered by the prison warden, played by Strother Martin, to the inmate, played by Paul Newman, in Luke la main froide (1967), has been ranked by The American Film Institute as the 11th-best movie quote of all time.

Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Writers Branch) for 17 years.

Served in the US Army during World War II.

Recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award in 2003. The Award was presented to him by Brian Helgeland.

Son of Harold Pierson, an entrepreneur, & Louise Randall Pierson, an author.

Was a correspondent for Time and Life magazines.

Made his feature directorial debut with Le miroir aux espions (1970).