Rest in Peace Charles B. Pierce

Charles B. Pierce, best known to movie fans for directing such films as The Legend of Boggy Creek, The Evictors, and The Town That Dreaded Sundown, passed away on March 5 at the age of 71. Sadly, some of his better films have yet to be released on DVD. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a Late Night Classics feature on a few of his films. Look for that to happen real soon.

“A former Texarkana, Arkansas advertising salesman, Pierce began making low budget films in the early 1970s. His first film, The Legend of Boggy Creek, became a modest hit and grossed approximately $20 million. Pierce continued to make regional films, including a sequel to Boggy Creek entitled Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues in 1985.

In addition to directing, Pierce has starred in several of his own films, including The Town That Dreaded Sundown and Boggy Creek II. He also served as a writer on the 1983 Clint Eastwood film, Sudden Impact.

Pierce fell from the movie industry’s public eye shortly after 1985′s Boggy Creek II, slipping into relative obscurity until his 1997 interview with Fangoria magazine. Ten years later, in an interview with the Austin Chronicle, film directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks revealed they were in talks with Pierce to bring him aboard as a co-producer of The Wild Man of the Navidad, their homage to 70′s drive-in creature features. He reportedly turned them down because he instead wanted to direct the project, which was later released by IFC Films in 2009.”

Source: The Leaf Chronicle.com