Los Angeles ? Dean Riesner, the screenwriter behind several of Clint Eastwood’s early films, including “Dirty Harry” and “The Enforcer,” has died. He was 83.

Riesner died Aug. 18 of natural causes at his Encino home.

“He was able to bring an economy of language and make scenes come alive,” said director and longtime friend Sean Cunningham. “He left room for the actors and the director to function, but he always drove the story forward.”

Riesner’s first film starring Eastwood was the 1968 detective feature “Coogan’s Bluff.” He also wrote “Play Misty for Me” (1971), the “Dirty Harry” (1971) screenplay and “The Enforcer” (1976), a sequel to the Dirty Harry saga about a San Francisco police officer.

In the 1970s, Riesner adapted Irwin Shaw’s popular novel “Rich Man, Poor Man” for television, and Arthur Hailey’s “The Moneychangers.”

Riesner, born in New York, was the son of silent film director Charles Riesner. He appeared in the Charlie Chaplin film “The Pilgrim” (1923), under the name Dinky Riesner.