Dennis Shryack

Dennis Shryack (August 25, 1936 – September 14, 2016) was an American screenwriter. Born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, Shryack began his career as a singer in The Escorts quartet, which toured as an opening act for well-known artists such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Sophie Tucker. Following his time with The Escorts, Shryack was hired as a mailroom worker at Universal Pictures. Shryack's first produced screenplay was for the 1969 Western comedy film, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, which he co-wrote and co-produced with Ronald M. Cohen. His second film, the 1977 thriller The Car, starred James Brolin and Kathleen Lloyd. Shryack wrote for a variety of stars, such as Chuck Norris (two films) and Clint Eastwood (two films), most notably co-writing the screenplay for Pale Rider in 1985, directed by Clint Eastwood, which became one of the highest grossing Western film of the 1980s, taking in the $41 million (the equivalent of nearly $92 million in 2016). Shryack often collaborated on screenplays with other writers, including penning six f... ()