Arthur C. Pierce
{{Short description|American film director and screenwriter (1923–1987)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
Arthur C. Pierce (September 8, 1923 – November 17, 1987) was an American screenwriter and director specialising in low budget science fiction films.
Biography
Pierce, a native of Dallas,[http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-itcamefromdallas_1021gd.ART0.State.Edition1.334b078.html "Share local movie memories with 'It Came From Dallas'"] by Howery Pack. The Dallas Morning News, October 21, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2010. enlisted in the US Navy during the Second World War serving as a combat photographer in the Pacific under Edward Steichen. Following the war, Pierce unsuccessfully attempted to produce a film about US Navy submarines entitled The Silent Service starring Robert Montgomery.{{cite web|url=http://home.comcast.net/~flickhead/Arthur-Pierce.html |title=Arthur C. Pierce |access-date=November 26, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705215807/http://home.comcast.net/~flickhead/Arthur-Pierce.html |archive-date=July 5, 2008 }}
He studied drama and worked as an actor and stage manager in various stage productions. Beginning in 1948, Pierce worked for Raphael G. Wolff Studios, an industrial film production company, for three years. Pierce acted as a cameraman contributing to over 100 industrial films made throughout North America. In 1952 he joined the Howard Anderson Company that produced special effects for various motion pictures where he acquired a strong knowledge of optical effects.
Pierce entered the world of screenwriting through his friend Mark Hanna, a screenwriter and actor. His first work was 1959's The Cosmic Man starring John Carradine that had many of the same ideas as The Day the Earth Stood Still. Pierce then wrote the screenplay for Beyond the Time Barrier for Robert Clarke and Edgar G. Ulmer. This was a low-budget film designed to exploit The Time Machine. Pierce also appeared as one of the mutants.{{cite web |url=http://www.ertx.com/movie/film/Beyond-the-Time-Barrier/ |title=Watch online Beyond the Time Barrier trailer | Movies, TV Shows and Entertainment |website=www.ertx.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330054959/http://www.ertx.com/movie/film/Beyond-the-Time-Barrier/ |archive-date=30 March 2009 |url-status=dead}}
Renowned and typecast for low budget science fiction, Pierce worked his way up to producing and directing The Human Duplicators and Mutiny in Outer Space both without credit.{{Citation needed |date=March 2021}} Pierce's first directorial credits were Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1965) and the non-science fiction The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966). Pierce also wrote several spy-fi films including The Human Duplicators (1965), Dimension 5 (1966), and The Destructors (1966).
In the 1970s Pierce wrote for the American television series Fantasy Island and The Next Step Beyond.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
Arthur C. Pierce at IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0682287/
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Category:American male screenwriters
Category:Mass media people from Dallas
Category:Film directors from Texas
Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II
Category:Screenwriters from Texas
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:World War II photographers
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