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 notable 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-wr...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Play It Again: A Look Back at 'Play Misty for Me'
2001
as Self
Clint Eastwood tells us how he yearned to be a director from the time he was on "Rawhide" to finally obtaining the approval of his mentor, Don Siegel....

Fatal Beauty
1987
Screenplay
Detective Rita Rizzoli is accustomed to donning costumes and going undercover to nail crooks. But she'll be required to use all of her get-ups and mor...

Sudden Impact
1983
Writer
When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, t...

The Sting II
1983
Writer
Hooker and Gondorf pull a con on Macalinski, an especially nasty mob boss with the help of Veronica, a new grifter. They convince this new victim that...

Das Boot
1981
Screenplay
A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while ...

The Enforcer
1976
Screenplay
Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vie...

The Keegans
1976
Writer
A professional football player is accused of murdering the man who attacked his sister. His brother, an investigate reporter, sets out to prove his br...

Charley Varrick
1973
Screenplay
Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large ...

Dirty Harry
1971
Screenplay
When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement...

Play Misty for Me
1971
Screenplay
A brief fling between a male disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening, and perhaps even deadly turn when another woman enters the pi...

The Intruders
1970
Teleplay
The James and Younger outlaw gangs ride into town, and it is up to the local marshal, who has lost both his nerve and his gun skills, to stop them.

Lost Flight
1970
Writer
The captain of a downed airliner must help his crew and passengers survive on a deserted jungle island in the midst of a power struggle - an adult ver...

Coogan's Bluff
1968
Screenplay
Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff goes to New York to pick up a prisoner. While escorting the prisoner to the airport, he escapes and Coogan heads int...

Stranger on the Run
1967
Teleplay
A drifter finds himself wrongly accused of murder by a power-crazed sheriff. The sheriff gives him a horse, some supplies, and a one-hour head start i...

The Man from Galveston
1963
Writer
Circuit-riding Texas lawyer Timothy Higgins defends a former girlfriend against a murder charge stemming from an extortionist's threat to reveal her s...

The Chaplin Revue
1959
as Various (archive footage)
Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin pro...

Paris Holiday
1958
Writer
Comedian Bob Hunter is aided by his French counterpart Fernydel and two beautiful blondes when he is targeted for death by a powerful European counter...

The Helen Morgan Story
1957
Writer
Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.

The Big Slide
1956
Writer
A down-and-out vaudeville comedian, Buddy McCoy, becomes a successful silent movie star, but experiences tragedy in his personal life. May Marley is a...
So You Want to Know Your Relatives
1954
Story
Do-gooder Joe McDoakes is the guest on the "Know Your Relatives" TV show where, to his chagrin, many of his black sheep relations reveal the skeletons...

Skipalong Rosenbloom
1951
Screenplay
Skipalong Rosenbloom is the star of a heavily commercialized TV kiddie show, presided over by a smarmy announcer. He is at odds with western bad guy B...

Gunfire
1950
as Outlaw Mack
Tubercular Frank James has become a born again and retired from his career as an outlaw with his family but a look-a-like outlaw causes suspicion to f...

I Shot Billy the Kid
1950
Dialogue Coach
Although the Lincoln County War has come to a conclusion, Billy the Kid turns his back on a gubernatorial pardon and continues his lawless career.

Operation Haylift
1950
Writer
A pilot devises a plan to airlift hay to thousands of ranch cattle stranded and dying due to severe winter weather.

The Traveling Saleswoman
1950
as Tom
The daughter of a soap manufacturer heads to the wild and woolly west to sell her daddy's product.

Assigned to Danger
1948
as Dr. Michael Kelly (uncredited)
A gang of bank robbers is pursued by an insurance investigator.

The Cobra Strikes
1948
as Detective Brody
A newspaper reporter investigates the near-fatal shooting of a medical scientist.

Bill and Coo
1948
Screenplay, Director
The feathered residents of Chirpendale are terrorized by an evil black crow by the name of "The Black Menace". But to the citizen's rescue comes a bra...

Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die
1942
Story
Uneven version of Wyatt Earp vs. the Clanton Gang with a little romance thrown in haphazardly.

A Fugitive from Justice
1940
Additional Writing
Leslie is being chased by the gangsters, the police and the insurance investigators. He is on the run. Falsely accused of a murder, he embarks upon a ...

The Fighting 69th
1940
Screenplay
Although loudmouthed braggart Jerry Plunkett alienates his comrades and officers, Father Duffy, the regimental chaplain, has faith that he'll prove hi...

Everybody Dance
1936
as Tommy Spurgeon
When her sister dies, a nightclub singer is left with her children. In order to raise the children properly, she leaves her singing career and takes h...

It's in the Air
1935
as Brave (uncredited)
Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, bu...

Square Shoulders
1929
as Cadet (uncredited)
Tad's dream is to attend a military academy so he can grow up to be a great soldier and a war hero, like his father. What he doesn't know is that his ...

Hollywood
1923
as Dean Riesner
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtim...

The Pilgrim
1923
as Little Boy
The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.

Grief
1921
Begins with a child-cast parody of "The Kid." The Adams portion finds the guy chased about town because they are looking for some crook in a gray derb...

Peck's Bad Boy
1921
This portrayal of small town life before the War is based on a small boys determination to get to see the circus, over all obstacles. Escaped lions, l...