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It was not uncommon for Frank Pierson to spend at least part of his summers in Provo Canyon — as a creative advisor to the Sundance Institute's filmmakers and screenwriters labs, fairly regularly from 1985 to 2005.
Pierson, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Dog Day Afternoon," has died at the age of 87.
Pierson also received Oscar nominations for the screenplays of "Cool Hand Luke" and "Cat Ballou." He also wrote the screenplays for the post-Vietnam drama "In Country" (1989) and the Scott Turow legal thriller "Presumed Innocent" (1990).
He directed the 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born," where he famously clashed with star Barbra Streisand, and the TV movies "Citizen Cohn," "Truman," "Dirty Pictures" and "Soldier's Girl" (which screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival).
He also served a stint, from 2001 to 2005, at president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Right to the end he worked, writing an episode each of "The Good Wife" and "Mad Men," and serving as a consulting producer on both shows.