Frank Pierson Filmography

Soldier's Girl

Crew: Director

Actors: Troy Garity, Lee Pace, Andre Braugher, Shawn Hatosy, Philip Eddolls

Synopsis: A group of soldiers in the deep South take vengeance against one of their own when word circulates that he's become involved with a transgendered nightclub performer in this drama based on a true story. Barry Winchell (Troy Garity) was a young man with an educational disability who volunteered for Read More

Conspiracy

Crew: Director

Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci, David Threlfall, Colin Firth

Synopsis: In January of 1942, 15 of Adolf Hitler's right-hand men gathered together for a special meeting in Wannsee, in which over the course of two hours they debated the pros and cons of Hitler's latest directive and the best way to implement it. By the time they left, they had laid the practical Read More

Dirty Pictures

Crew: Director

Actors: James Woods, Craig T. Nelson, Diana Scarwid, Leon Pownall

Synopsis: Much attention was given to the Robert Mapplethorpe photographs that became the center of controversy when they were exhibited at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center in 1990, but less was known about Dennis Barrie, the museum director responsible for the exhibit. Barrie's obscenity trial and Read More

Never Again, Forever

Crew: Executive Producer

Truman

Crew: Director

Actors: Diana Scarwid

Synopsis: This award winning made-for-cable movie tells the story of American President Harry S.Truman and his role in the second World War. Gary Sinese stars in the title role of this biographical account, which is based on Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough's book. The film chronicles Truman's rise Read More

Copycat

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara, Will Patton

Synopsis: A serial killer stalks the streets of San Francisco; unlike his many predecessors does not choose a distinctive, identifying pattern. No, this killer prides himself on his unoriginality: he is a copycat, recreating the violent murders of some of the country's most notorious serial killers, his Read More

Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee

Crew: Director

Citizen Cohn

Crew: Director

Actors: James Woods, Joe Don Baker, Lee Grant, Joseph Bologna, Ed Flanders

Synopsis: Frank Pierson's made-for-cable adaptation of Nicholas VonHoffman's biography, Citizen Cohn stars James Woods as the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks while Cohn lies in a New York hospital dying of AIDS. In the 1940s and early '50s, Cohn became one of Read More

Talent for the Game

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Edward James Olmos, Lorraine Bracco, Jamey Sheridan, Terry Kinney, Jeff Corbett

Synopsis: Sammy Bodean is the newest, most promising recruit according to the advertisement of the California Angels--and has to prove it come game time. Following the team's sale to young business whiz Gil Lawrence (Terry Kinney), ex-player Virgil Sweet (Edward James Olmos) has to prove himself as the Read More

Presumed Innocent

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Winfield

Synopsis: Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a bland, oppressed man who burns with a quiet, corrosive intensity that can flare uncontrollably. A Philadelphia prosecutor, Sabich's fire seems to have one outlet: his job. He loves prosecuting people. Otherwise, his life is dead-ended. He has a loveless marriage Read More

Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture

Crew: Director

Actors: Arliss Howard, Roy Scheider

Synopsis: Based on Doug Magee's novel Slow Coming Dark, the made-for-cable Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture is about a photojournalist (Roy Scheider) who is hired by a man (Arliss Howard) convicted of killing a policeman to photograph his execution. As the execution grows nearer, the photographer uncovers Read More

In Country

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bruce Willis, Emily Lloyd, Joan Allen, Kevin Anderson, John Terry

Synopsis: Norman Jewison directed this subdued character study of the effect of the Vietnam War on a small-town Kentucky family -- based on the novel by Bobbi Ann Mason. The film centers upon 17-year-old Samantha (Emily Lloyd) who lives in Hopewell, Kentucky with her Uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis), a quiet Read More

The Milagro Beanfield War

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Rubén Blades, Richard Bradford, Sonia Braga, Julie Carmen, James Gammon, John Heard, Chick Vennera

Synopsis: It's advisable to know from the beginning of The Milagro Beanfield War that "milagro" is the Spanish word for "miracle". The scene is a rundown Hispanic community in New Mexico, bordering a posh housing development. In full control of the local water rights, the powers-that-be are secure in the Read More

Haywire

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Haywire was adapted for television by Ivan Davis and Frank Pierson from the best-selling autobiography of Brooke Hayward. Played herein by Deborah Raffin, Brooke is the daughter of legendary Broadway producer Leland Hayward (Jason Robards) and the brilliant stage and film actress Margaret Sullavan Read More

King of the Gypsies

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sterling Hayden, Shelley Winters, Susan Sarandon, Eric Roberts

Synopsis: Not surprisingly, this fascinating dissection of Gypsy life in America was vilified by several ethnic special-interest groups, who'd previously delivered their mimeoed missives to novelist Peter Maas, on whose book the film was based. Sterling Hayden is the "king" of a New York-based gypsy tribe Read More

A Star Is Born

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Mazursky, Gary Busey, Oliver Clark

Synopsis: The third remake of the 1932 drama What Price Hollywood?, this adaptation of A Star Is Born moved the story into the mid-1970's and changed the milieu from the movie business to pop music. John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) is a rock star whose career has peaked; he is numbed by booze and Read More

Dog Day Afternoon

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Sully Boyar, Chris Sarandon

Synopsis: Based on a true 1972 story, Sidney Lumet's 1975 drama chronicles a unique bank robbery on a hot summer afternoon in New York City. Shortly before closing time, scheming loser Sonny (Al Pacino) and his slow-witted buddy, Sal (John Cazale), burst into a Brooklyn bank for what should be a Read More

The Anderson Tapes

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Frank Macetta, Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Alan King, Ralph Meeker

Synopsis: This breathlessly paced high-tech thriller stars Sean Connery as Anderson, a career criminal who's just been released from his latest prison term. Seeking a quick financial turnover, Anderson uses mob funding to finance an ambitious robbery. With a gang of expert thieves, Anderson sets about to Read More

The Neon Ceiling

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Neon Ceiling top-bills Gig Young as a disenfranchised gentlemen who operates a remote desert gas station/diner. Enter Lee Grant, who has driven into the desert with daughter Denise Nickerson in hopes of escaping a bad marriage. Young resents their presence and is as rude as Read More

The Looking Glass War

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Urquhart, Christopher Jones, Pia Degermark, Ralph Richardson, Paul Rogers, Anthony Hopkins, Susan George

Synopsis: In this Cold War espionage-thriller, adapted from the novel of John Le Carre, two veteran British intelligence operatives, Leclerc (Ralph Richardson) and Haldane (Paul Rogers), recruit a young Polish defector (Christopher Jones) to check on some missiles in East Germany. Avery (Anthony Hopkins) is Read More

Cool Hand Luke

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio, Robert Drivas, Strother Martin

Synopsis: Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy received one for his work in this allegorical prison drama. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a stretch on a southern chain gang after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the Read More

The Happening

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Anthony Quinn, George Maharis, Michael Parks, Robert Walker, Jr., Martha Hyer

Synopsis: Four neophyte criminals get some unexpected help from their first victim in this caper comedy. A quartet of Miami Beach bohemians -- Sureshot (Michael Parks), Taurus (George Maharis), Herby (Robert Walker Jr.), and Sandy (Faye Dunaway) -- are looking for kicks and some fast money, and they hatch a Read More

Cat Ballou

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Nat "King" Cole, Stubby Kaye

Synopsis: This musical spoof of Westerns featured Lee Marvin in dual roles that won him a Best Actor Oscar. Jane Fonda stars as the title character, a prim schoolmarm returning to her hometown of Wolf City, Wyoming, after receiving an Eastern education. On the train ride, Cat meets up with a pair of Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Trap

Crew: Director

Synopsis: A ferocious storm rages outside a remote wayside inn. The building's occupants include innkeeper Jeri Marcus (Jeanette Nolan), US Marshal Jim Buell (Crahan Denton), Buell's prisoner Davey Walsh (played by Gomer Pyle USMC's future "Sergeant Carter", Frank Sutton). . .and Paladin (ichard Boone), who Read More

Naked City: A Case Study of Two Savages

Crew: Screenwriter

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Road

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: After a confrontation with a roughneck named Merton (Gene Lyons) in a seedy flophouse, Paladin (Richard Boone) rides off into the mountains--only to be waylaid and robbed by Merton's gang. Left without food, weaponry, a horse or a coat, Paladin must now make his way through a treacherous Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Campaign of Billy Banjo

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Billy Banjo (Jacques Aubuchon), an old friend of Paladin (Richard Boone), is currently running for the Wyoming State Senate. Billy's wife Elise (Rita Lynn) is so devoted to her husband that she is willing to do anything--anything!--to assure his victory. As a result, a nervous Billy hires Paladin Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Search

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired by a mortally woman named Mrs. Kilmer (Lillian Bronson), who wants to learn the whereabouts of her long-long son before she dies. The trail of clues leads Paladin to Harper City, a town held in the grip of the wealthy--and psychotic--Fred Harper (Charles Aidman). Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: Out at the Old Ballpark

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Paladin (Richard Boone) has been summoned to the town of Whiskey Slide, where a baseball game has been going on for days and days. Unfortunately, the makeshift ballpark has become a battleground due to long-standing feuds amongst the local players and their professional out-of-town rivals; in Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: Night the Town Died

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Released from prison after eight years, Aaron Bell (Barry Cahill) heads to the town where his brother was lynched during the Civil War. Fearing that Bell craves revenge, the nervous townsfolk hire Paladin (Richard Boone) for protection. As it turns out, however, Paladin must protect Bell from the Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Ledge

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Paladin (Richard Boone) is one of four travellers who witness a man falling down a ravine and being trapped on a ledge by a landslide. It is highly likely that the man died in the fall, but there is also the likelihood that he is still alive. Paladin is all for making the perilous downward climb Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: Fight at Abobe Wells

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired to protect the somewhat disreputable Commodore Guilder (Ken Lynch), who must venture into Indian country to promote his latest get-rich-quick scheme. Travelling by stagecoach, Paladin, Guilder and Guilder's wife Juliana (Miranda Jones) are attacked by a Commanche Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: Shot by Request

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: In Carson City, Paladin (Richard Boone) finds a kindred spirit in the form of an elderly, cultured gentleman named Ainslee (John Abbott). Like Paladin, Ainslee has been forced by circumstances to become a gunfighter, and now must face down every young punk in the west who is trying to make a name Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: Champagne Safari

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: An old friend of Paladin's named Gravely (Bill Mims) has organized a western "safari" for a group of wealthy British visitors. The highlight of the festivities is to be a mock Indian raid--but things take a deadly turn when one member of the party is found dead, shot by an arrow! Called in to Read More