David Rayfiel (September 9, 1923 – June 22, 2011)^[1] was an American screenwriter and frequent collaborator of director Sydney Pollack.

Rayfiel was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was educated at Brooklyn College and Yale School of Drama, where he received a Master's in playwrighting. His father was congressman Leo F. Rayfiel.

In 1950 he married television screenwriter Lila Garrett. He and Garrett had daughter Eliza before divorcing in 1953. He married actress Maureen Stapleton in 1963, divorcing in 1966.^[2] He married his third wife, Lynne Schwarzenbek, in 1987.

In 1958 he had a house built at Day, New York, which has come to be known as the David Rayfiel House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.^[3]

Rayfiel was so protective of his privacy that he avoided gatherings of more than four people and spent so much time in isolation that he once filed his taxes in person because he was "starved for human contact."^[4]

Rayfiel got his start in television in the mid-1950s, writing episodes for series such as Assignment Foreign Legion and Norby.^[5] His association with Pollack began when Rayfiel's play P.S. 193 was staged in 1962. They soon teamed on episodes of Kraft Suspense Theater and Chrysler Theater. Rayfiel did uncredited rewrites ("script doctoring") on Pollack's feature films starting in 1965 with The Slender Thread, and their collaboration continued over the ensuing decades. Even when Pollack did not enlist Rayfiel's talents on the page, he still expected the self-proclaimed "utility man" to be in his corner. During the production of Tootsie, for example, Pollack consulted Rayfiel frequently by phone, despite the fact that Rayfiel had not been involved in any capacity during the writing phase.^[4]

Critics and connoisseurs have marveled at the consistency of Rayfiel's touch. He's been called a "caster of mood spells" and "one of the greatest writers of adult romantic-emotional dialogue in film history."^[6] Rayfiel openly admitted that he lacked the commercial instincts to originate screenplays of his own, but took pride in his contributions to the work of others.^[4] Nonetheless, he did receive sole credit on one feature screenplay: Lipstick, a 1976 rape-revenge thriller that was received with unbridled hostility from critics.^[7]

Among those who swore by Rayfiel's abilities were actors Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, and director Sidney Lumet, who trumpeted, "If you've got trouble with your picture, get David."^[4] Remarkably humble, Rayfiel pointed out that the most effective script doctoring actually happens on set: "Some of the best lines in any picture are written during lunch breaks, on the back of napkins or match covers.''^[4] According to Redford, Rayfiel's dialogue tweaks provided "a ruefulness, a sadness and sometimes an anger, that I connect with."^[4]

Rayfiel's weekly re-write fee rose from $20,000 in the mid-1980s to $100,000 in the late 1990s.^[8]

Rayfiel died of heart failure, on June 22, 2011, in Manhattan, New York.^[1]

In 1976, Rayfiel received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay for Three Days of the Condor with Lorenzo Semple Jr. He received a César Award in 1981 for Death Watch.

• The Slender Thread (uncredited) (1965)
• This Property is Condemned (1966)
• Castle Keep (1969)
• Valdez Is Coming (1971)
• Lipstick (1976)
• Three Days of the Condor (1975)
• Death Watch (La mort en direct) (1980)
• Absence of Malice (uncredited) (1981)
• Round Midnight (1986)
• The Morning After (uncredited) (1986)
• Havana (1990)
• The Firm (1993)
• Intersection (1994)
• Sabrina (1995)
• Random Hearts (uncredited) (1999)
• The Interpreter (uncredited) (2005)