Donn Pearce
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Donn Pearce | |
---|---|
Born | Donald Mills Pearce September 28, 1928 Croydon, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | July 25, 2017 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. | (aged 88)
Occupation | Writer Journalist |
Period | 1965–2011 |
Genre | Fiction, Non-fiction |
Notable works | Cool Hand Luke, Pier Head Jump, Dying in the Sun, Nobody Comes Back |
Donn Pearce (September 28, 1928 – July 25, 2017) was an American author and journalist best known for the novel and screenplay Cool Hand Luke.
Early life
Born Donald Mills Pearce in a suburb of
The Merchant Marine took him to Venice when he was 18, to Spain, Denmark, France, Portugal, and Bombay. Postwar Europe had a thriving black market, and Pearce became involved in
He became a
Career
In 1965, Scribner's published his first novel, Cool Hand Luke, and with screenwriter Frank Pierson he went on to co-write the Academy Award–nominated screenplay for the 1967 film. The film starred Paul Newman, and Pearce made a cameo appearance as a convict named Sailor.
In 1966, Pearce appeared as himself on the March 21 episode of To Tell the Truth, receiving two of four possible votes.[1]
His other books include Pier Head Jump (1972) and Dying in the Sun (1974). During the 1970s and early 1980s, he was a freelance journalist, contributing to magazines such as Playboy and Esquire. In 2005, he published a fourth book, Nobody Comes Back, a novel about the Battle of the Bulge, which received an excellent review from Malcolm Jones in the 21 February 2005 edition of Newsweek. In 2011, a dramatization of Cool Hand Luke played on London's West Side, and the novel was reissued in the UK.
Personal life
In his later life, Pearce lived and wrote in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
External links
References
- ^ "To Tell the Truth". CBS. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- Cusatis, John. "Donn Pearce," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 350, Twenty-First Century American Novelists (Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman/Gale, 2009), 266–273.