David Rayfiel | Screenwriter, 87

David Rayfiel, 87, a screenwriter and script doctor who made his mark, often uncredited, on films by director Sydney Pollack that frequently featured Robert Redford, including

Three Days of the Condor,

The Way We Were,

and

Out of Africa,

died Wednesday in New York City of congestive heart failure.

The collaboration between Pollack and Mr. Rayfiel began in the early 1960s, endured for more than 40 years, and encompassed at least 15 films. When Out of Africa (1985) won an Academy Award for best picture, Pollack thanked Mr. Rayfiel for "keeping us honest." The film was one of several that came out of an alliance that included Redford, who appeared in Pollack's Havana (1990), The Electric Horseman (1979), and Jeremiah Johnson (1972), all of which Mr. Rayfiel wrote or rewrote.

Barbra Streisand, who sought Mr. Rayfiel's input for her 1983 film Yentl, said in 1986 that he could show friction in a relationship by having a couple talk "about pits in their orange juice when they're really saying the marriage is over. That's what David is so good at."

Director Ingmar Bergman turned to him for help on the 1977 film The Serpent's Egg, as did director Sidney Lumet for the 1986 mystery The Morning After, which featured Jane Fonda as an alcoholic actress.

Born on Sept. 9, 1923, in New York, he was the second of three sons of Leo F. and Flora Rayfiel. His father was a Democratic congressman and a judge. After growing up in Brooklyn, he attended Brooklyn College but left to serve in the Army in Europe during World War II.

He earned a bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College in 1947 and studied playwriting at Yale University, where he earned a master's degree in 1950. The same year, he married actress Lila Paris. They had a daughter, Eliza, and divorced in 1953.

During the 1950s, he mainly worked in television, writing for the late-night show America After Dark and for the game show Who Do You Trust? His play P.S. 193 was produced Off-Broadway in 1962 and led him to write for several television dramas, including one directed by Pollack.

The easygoing Mr. Rayfiel "needed nothing" and was an avid reader who always had three books going, said his third wife, Lynne Schwarzenbek-Rayfiel.

- Los Angeles Times