Biography

At the age of five Dean Riesner was a child actor (aka "Dinky Dean") in films such as The Pilgrim (1923) with Charles Chaplin. Dean's father, writer/director Charles Reisner, worked with and was friends with Chaplin and Buster Keaton, giving young Dean a foot in the door to a film career.

Dean would have continued as a child actor had his mother not told his father, "Let the boy have his childhood". Years later, when Dean reached adulthood, his father asked him if he wanted to return to the film business, and if so in what capacity. Dean said he preferred writing. Thus began a career that coined such lines as "Do you feel lucky? Well, do you punk?" from Dirty Harry (1971) and the original, "They'll tie you naked to a chair and get medieval with you" from Charley Varrick (1973).

Dean later developed a reputation as a script doctor, doing uncredited work on such films as High Plains Drifter (1973), Blue Thunder (1983) and The Godfather Part III (1990). His reputation for hard work was more than deserved--even in this 80s, he wrote every day.
- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous

Wrote several films starring Clint Eastwood or directed by Don Siegel.

Wrote three of the five films of the "Dirty Harry" series: Dirty Harry (1971), The Enforcer (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983)--he's credited only for the first film. In addition to that, he wrote Coogan's Bluff (1968), Play Misty for Me (1971) and The Beguiled (1971), all starring Clint Eastwood.

A shy and reticent man, he made only two notable public appearances in later years: a panel discussion of Buster Keaton held in Beverly Hills, CA, in 1995 conducted by Kevin Brownlow and a lengthy one-on-one interview as part of a Charles Chaplin conference held in London, England, in 2000 conducted by Jeffrey Vance.

Son of Charles Reisner.

Wrote several autobiographical essays about his father and Charles Chaplin with film historian Jeffrey Vance between 1995-2000. Only one essay--concerning his work with Chaplin on The Pilgrim (1923)--has been published.