David Rayfiel, movie script doctor, 87

David Rayfiel, a screenwriter and master 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," has died. He was 87.

Rayfiel died Wednesday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan of congestive heart failure, said his daughter, Eliza Roberts.

The rich collaboration between Pollack and Rayfiel began in the early 1960s, endured for more than 40 years and encompassed at least 15 films.

"My dad was never the same after Sydney died" at 73 in 2008, "but he did continue working," his daughter said.

When "Out of Africa" (1985) won an Academy Award for best picture, Pollack thanked Rayfiel for "keeping us honest." Kurt Luedtke, upon accepting the Oscar for his screenplay, also acknowledged Rayfiel.

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 Rayfiel wrote or rewrote.

Redford considered Rayfiel "the unsung hero of almost every picture Sydney Pollack and I have made together," Redford told The New York Times in 1986.

Most screenwriters "write on the surface," Pollack said in the 1986 article. "If they want you to know something about a character, . . . they'll simply have the character say it or have another character say it about him. David doesn't do that. He writes elliptically, so it comes out organically, the way you would know something about someone in real life."

Barbra Streisand, who sought Rayfiel's input for her 1983 film "Yentl," said in 1986 in The New York Times 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."

Fluent in French, Rayfiel had worked with French director Bertrand Tavernier on the futuristic drama "Death Watch" (1980) and "Round Midnight," a well-reviewed 1986 film about a self-destructive American jazzman living in Paris.