Sometimes, life deals you an unlucky hand.
In his youth, author Donn Pearce lived the life of a petty criminal. He served jail time, military and civilian, and later, he wrote a critically-acclaimed novel based on some of his experiences. Today, a big percentage of America is familiar with the story he told.
But Pearce was overshadowed and largely forgotten because the Hollywood movie based on his book was so successful.
Pearce is the author of “Cool Hand Luke,” a 1965 novel based on time he served on a Florida chain gang. The 1967 film version starring Paul Newman was a huge critical and commercial success. As the movie soared, Pearce faded into obscurity.
Ironically, Pearce hated the movie adaptation of his novel. “They screwed it up 99 different ways,” he said.
Perhaps to make that point, he punched out one of the actors on the last day of filming. But let me begin at the beginning…
Donald M. Pearce was born in Pennsylvania in 1928. In 1943, when he was 15, he dropped out of school and tried to join the Merchant Marine. He was rejected for being underage.
In 1944, at 16, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Army. Army discipline did not agree with him, and he promptly went AWOL.
Thinking better of it, he turned himself in and was sentenced to 30 days in the
stockade. The sentence was cut short when his orders came to ship out to Europe. However, before he departed, his mother informed the Army that her son was underage. He was discharged for false enlistment.
No matter. By then, Pearce was 17 and old enough to join the Merchant Marine legitimately. He was off to see the world.
In post-war France, where the black market was booming, Pearce became involved in the counterfeiting business. When he made the mistake of selling counterfeit American currency to a policeman in Marseilles, he was sentenced to prison.
While on a work detail one day, he made a run for it. He eluded his pursuers, and on foot, crossed into Italy. There, the 19-year-old Pearce secured counterfeit identity papers to replace those confiscated by the French, boarded a ship to Canada, and returned to the United States.
Drifting south to Florida, he apprenticed himself to a professional safe-cracker and learned the trade. In all, he cracked 27 safes, but as he later recalled, got little from it because checks were replacing cash in popularity.
One day in Tampa, anxious to make a big score, Pearce saw throngs of moviegoers lining up to see “Hamlet.” He imagined the theater safe overflowing with cash.
His partner turned down the job, so Pearce cracked the theater safe alone. Afterward, he bragged about the heist to a waitress, trying to impress her. Her husband was a policeman.
So, in 1949, at age 20, Pearce was convicted of robbery and sentenced to five years at hard labor. He served one year at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, then was transferred to Road Camp No. 48 in the wilds of Lake County, north of Orlando.
Road Camp 48, Pearce said, was “a chamber of horrors.” Iron shackles were welded around the ankles of the inmates and weren’t removed until their release.
The guards were brutal and merciless. The inmates worked on the chain gangs every day, from dawn until dusk, tarring roads and clearing brush along the highways. At night, they fell exhausted into their bunks and were rousted out the next morning for another day of labor.
Inmates who broke one of the strict camp rules received special punishment: a night in the cramped wooden outbuilding known as “the box.” Pearce was sentenced to the box twice — once for talking without permission and once for allowing the mess hall door to slam.
For the most part, however, Pearce managed to stay out of trouble. After two years, he was set free, and he returned to the Merchant Marine. On the long voyages, much to the amusement of his shipmates, he began to write about his adventures.
In 1960, while recuperating from a motorcycle accident, Pearce began writing “Cool Hand Luke.” He worked on the manuscript for five years, tweaking and rewriting it endlessly.
According to Pearce, “Cool Hand Luke” is equal parts his own story, stories he heard while in prison, and fiction.
When he submitted the novel for publication, he was met with a series of rejections. Finally, Scribner accepted it.
Although the novel got good reviews, sales were disappointing. But soon, a film production company owned by actor Jack Lemmon bought the film rights and hired Pearce to write the screenplay.
Alas, Pearce’s writing wasn’t Hollywood enough. He was replaced by an industry insider, Oscar-winning screenwriter Frank Pierson. Pearce was kept on as a technical advisor, and he had a bit part in the film as “Sailor,” one of the road camp prisoners.
As filming proceeded, it became clear that the actors and crew were disdainful of Pearce. Because of his criminal past and his status as an ex-con, he was avoided or ignored.
Not the sort of man to take such treatment quietly, Pearce gave as well as he got.
The tension culminated on the last day of filming when Pearce slugged one of the actors. (Who it was, I couldn’t determine.) When the movie premiered, Pearce was not invited.
Defeated and disillusioned, Pearce left Hollywood and moved to Fort Lauderdale.
Later, when the screenplay of “Cool Hand Luke” was nominated for an Oscar, Pearce flew to Hollywood for the awards ceremony — only to lose to “In the Heat of the Night.”
In Florida, Pearce and his wife raised three sons. He continued to write as a freelancer for various magazines and newspapers. He also published a second novel, which was not well-received by the critics. His wife, a nurse, supported the family.
In 1974, he released a third book, about the plight of the elderly in Florida. When it flopped, Pearce gave up writing. For the next 30 years, he worked in Fort Lauderdale as a private investigator, bail bondsman, and process server.
During those years of nagging financial insecurity, Pearce fought cancer and arthritis and had assorted surgeries. His wife has faced a long struggle with rheumatoid arthritis.
Eventually, Pearce returned to writing. In 2004, he published “Nobody Comes Back,” which follows a young soldier during the Battle of the Bulge. The critics gave it high praise, calling it his best work since “Cool Hand Luke.” Initial sales were promising.
But the spike was brief. As with his other books, sales and interest faded.
Today, Donn Pearce is in his 80s, still living simply in Fort Lauderdale, still persevering. Since the day he quit school at age 15, his life has been a long struggle to succeed.
Pearce always had the talent and the desire. But he never got the lucky break that could have made everything fall into place.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was condemned by the gods for a life of crime and trickery. His punishment: to roll a boulder up a steep hill, only to have it slip from his grasp at the top and roll back down again. His fate was to repeat the process for all eternity.
Donn Pearce is a man who surely understands repeated struggle and futility. He has spent his life putting his shoulder to the boulder. He is more familiar than most with the uphill view.
In 1965, Pearce sold the movie rights to “Cool Hand Luke” for $80,000. In the end, from a movie that made millions based on a story he wrote, he walked away with about $95,000.
If only the novel had been given more time in the public eye.
If only he had not sold the movie rights so quickly.
If only the movie had not been made so soon.
If only.
Pearce and Paul Newman during the filming of “Cool Hand Luke.”
Donn Pearce
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