[Deathwatch] Dean Riesner, screenwriter, 83

[Deathwatch Central]

'Dirty Harry' Scribe Riesner Dies
Wed Aug 28, 9:35 PM ET
By Doug Galloway 

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Hollywood screenwriter Dean Riesner, who shared
credits on two of the "Dirty Harry" movies and came up with the
immortal Clint Eastwood line "Go ahead, make my day," died Aug. 18 of
natural causes at his Encino home. He was 83. 

A one-time child actor, Riesner turned to screenwriting in the late
1930s with credits including the James Cagney starrer "The Fighting
69th," "Code of the Secret Service ( news - web sites)" and "A Fugitive
>From Justice." He switched to TV in the late 1950s and wrote episodes
of "Lawman," "Ben Casey," "The Outer Limits" and "Rawhide," where he
first worked with Eastwood. 

In 1968, Riesner began his feature film association with Eastwood when
he scripted the popular "Coogan's Bluff." In 1971, Riesner penned
Eastwood's feature directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me," and that
same year Eastwood brought Riesner in to rewrite what later became the
greenlight draft of "Dirty Harry." (Harry and R.M. Fink, who originated
the story, also received screenplay credit.) 

Riesner also shared screenwriting credits with the Finks and others for
the 1976 sequel "The Enforcer," the third film in the Dirty Harry
franchise. 

For the original "Dirty Harry," he penned the famous lines in which
Eastwood's hard-bitten Harry Callahan character warns a crook that his
.44 Magnum handgun would "blow your head clean off" and says to him,
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do
ya punk?" 

Screenwriting friends said it was Riesner who also wrote the famous
line in which Callahan dares a suspect to shoot his hostage, saying,
"Go ahead, make my day." But that line, which caught on with the public
and became a popular catch phrase, ultimately showed up in the 1983
film "Sudden Impact," for which Riesner received no credit. 

The New York native's father, Charles, was a silent film director who
helmed more than 40 features, including "Steamboat Bill Jr." Dean
Riesner's career began at age 5 when Charles Chaplin cast him in "The
Pilgrim" as Dinky Riesner. 

In 1947 Riesner wrote and directed a short film titled "Bill and Coo,"
a live-action story about two birds terrorized by an evil crow; the
picture won a special Academy Award in 1948. 

Riesner also penned the Nick Nolte/Peter Strauss hit miniseries "Rich
Man, Poor Man" in 1976 and then carved a successful niche for himself
as a script doctor, working uncredited on such features as "Das Boot,"
"Blue Thunder" and "Starman." 

A sampling of his feature credits includes "The Helen Morgan Story,"
"The Travelers," "Paris Holiday," "High Plains Drifter" (uncredited)
and "The Sting II" (uncredited). His final credit came in 1987 with the
Whoopi Goldberg/ Sam Elliott comedy "Fatal Beauty." 

Riesner, whose wife, Marie, died a few years ago, is survived by
several nieces and nephews.