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Dean Riesner

Dean Riesner

Known For Writing
Birthday Nov 03, 1918
Died Aug 18, 2002 (83)
Birthplace New Rochelle, New York, USA
Popularity 0.2 (history)
Updated Aug 04, 2024
Entry Date Apr 13, 2024
Links TMDb IMDb
Biography

Dean Riesner (November 3, 1918, New Rochelle, New York – August 18, 2002, Encino, California) was an American film and television writer. Riesner's father, Charles Reisner, was a German American silent film director, and Dean began acting in films at the age of five as "Dinky Dean". His most notabl ... e role was in Charlie Chaplin's 1923 film The Pilgrim. His career at this young age ended because his mother wanted her son to have a real childhood. As an adult, his first job in films was as a co-writer of the 1939 Ronald Reagan movie Code of the Secret Service. Riesner won an Oscar for directing Bill and Coo (1948), a feature film with a cast of real birds, costumed as humans, acting on the world's smallest film set. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Riesner worked primarily in television, including writing for Rawhide and the "Tourist Attraction" episode of The Outer Limits, although he occasionally contributed to feature films like The Helen Morgan Story. In 1968 he landed a job working on the Clint Eastwood action film Coogan's Bluff, and this in turn would lead to him writing several other Eastwood features throughout the 1970s. Riesner helped pen the screenplays for two Eastwood films in 1971, Play Misty for Me and the original Dirty Harry. In 1973 he provided an uncredited rewrite for High Plains Drifter, and in 1976 he was one of the writers to draft The Enforcer, the third Dirty Harry thriller. That same year he provided the teleplay for NBC's highly rated miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, starring Nick Nolte. In 1979 he wrote an early draft screenplay for The Godfather Part III, but his script was discarded when Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo finally agreed to collaborate on a third entry in the series. Riesner continued to write into the 1980s, though most of his work from that period went uncredited. Those films include Das Boot, The Sting II, and Starman. Riesner died in 2002 of natural causes. He had been married to actress Maila Nurmi, better known as the horror hostess Vampira.

Known For

Filmography

The Chaplin Revue

The Chaplin Revue

1959

as Various (archive footage)

Gunfire

Gunfire

1950

as Outlaw Mack

The Cobra Strikes

The Cobra Strikes

1948

as Detective Brody

Assigned to Danger

Assigned to Danger

1948

as Dr. Michael Kelly (uncredited)

Everybody Dance

Everybody Dance

1936

as Tommy Spurgeon

It's in the Air

It's in the Air

1935

as Brave (uncredited)

The Pilgrim

The Pilgrim

1923

as Little Boy

Hollywood

Hollywood

1923

as Dean Riesner

Fatal Beauty

Fatal Beauty

1987

Screenplay

The Sting II

The Sting II

1983

Writer

Sudden Impact

Sudden Impact

1983

Writer

The Enforcer

The Enforcer

1976

Screenplay

The Keegans

The Keegans

1976

Writer

Charley Varrick

Charley Varrick

1973

Screenplay

Dirty Harry

Dirty Harry

1971

Screenplay

Play Misty for Me

Play Misty for Me

1971

Screenplay

The Intruders

The Intruders

1970

Teleplay

Lost Flight

Lost Flight

1970

Writer

Coogan's Bluff

Coogan's Bluff

1968

Screenplay

Stranger on the Run

Stranger on the Run

1967

Teleplay

Paris Holiday

Paris Holiday

1958

Writer

Skipalong Rosenbloom

Skipalong Rosenbloom

1951

Screenplay

Operation Haylift

Operation Haylift

1950

Writer

I Shot Billy the Kid

I Shot Billy the Kid

1950

Dialogue Coach

Bill and Coo

Bill and Coo

1948

Screenplay

The Fighting 69th

The Fighting 69th

1940

Screenplay

A Fugitive from Justice

A Fugitive from Justice

1940

Additional Writing

Bill and Coo

Bill and Coo

1948

Director

No data available

Organization Category Movie
Television Credits

No data available

Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow

Episodes: 3

First Aired: Sep 30, 1987

Popularity Metrics

Popularity History


Year Month Avg Max Min
2024 6 4 6 2
2024 7 12 27 2
2024 8 10 34 4
2024 9 5 13 1
2024 10 2 6 1
2024 11 2 5 1
2024 12 4 6 1
2025 1 5 15 1
2025 2 4 7 1
2025 3 4 6 1
2025 5 1 2 1
2025 6 1 1 1
2025 7 0 0 0
2025 8 0 4 0
2025 9 0 0 0
2025 10 0 0 0

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