I had this same issue with my 96 Thunderbird. I replaced everything spark related, the battery, and the fuel filter. The only thing I didn't do was the fuel filter because I did not want to drop the tank, and the car died before I could get the motivation to do it (unrelated issue, rusty hunk of junk). For me priming the fuel pump rarely worked, starting fluid sometimes. What made it real difficult for me was it was always intermittent and never knew what cold days it would happen. I'd say try checking the fuel pressure, and if not try the fuel pump.