Joyce Heims was an American screenwriter best known for her collaborations with actor-director Clint Eastwood. Born in Philadelphia, Heims moved out to the US west coast in early adulthood. She worked various jobs before starting a career writing for film and television during the 1960s. In addition to co-writing the story for Eastwood's role in Dirty Harry, Heims drafted the screenplay for Play Misty for Me, which served as Eastwood's own directorial debut in 1971. Heims continued to screenwrite throughout the decade before dying of breast cancer in 1978.
Life and career
Jo Heims was born in Philadelphia on January 15, 1930. She worked as a model, dancer, and fashion illustrator and moved out to California in the 1950s to become a writer in show business. Heims was first credited as a production secretary on the science fiction movieMissile to the Moon in 1958. She worked primarily as a secretary throughout the next decade while writing and selling screenplays on the side. Heims received writing credits in television and motion pictures in a wide range of genres for both independent and major film studios. These include the crime dramaThe Girl in Lovers Lane, the horror feature The Devil's Hand, the western Navajo Run, and the Elvis Presley musical Double Trouble. While working at Universal Pictures, Heims crossed paths with and befriended Clint Eastwood, then an up-and-coming actor. By the late 1960s, Eastwood had achieved international fame as a western-action star and began directing his own films. Heims drafted a 60-page screenplay for Play Misty for Me, a psychological thriller that would soon become Eastwood's directorial debut. The plot follows a radio disc jockey who becomes a stalking victim of an obsessed, female fan. Heims based the latter character on a woman she knew after it was suggested to her by an acquaintance. Although he initially optioned the script, Eastwood encouraged Heims to sell it to Universal when she received a larger offer. The company ended up shelving the project, so when Eastwood later signed a three-picture contract with Universal, he regained the screenplay and had it revised by Dean Riesner. Play Misty for Me was released in 1971, the year Eastwood also took the title role in the crime thriller Dirty Harry. Heims contributed to the story of the latter film, though she received no screen credit. Heims married William Duffy in August 1972. That same year, Universal distributed the thriller You'll Like My Mother, a script that Heims adapted from a novel by Naomi A. Hintze. The following year she collaborated with Eastwood once again by penning his third effort as director, Breezy, also distributed by Universal. The drama depicts a romance between a jaded, middle-aged divorcee and a much younger, free-spirited woman. Heims additionally served as an associate producer for the movie, allowing her to coordinate some of its creative elements. She developed the male lead with Eastwood in mind to play the part. However, the two agreed he was too young for the role, so it went to the older William Holden instead. Jo Ann Harris was a strong contender for the female lead, but Heims felt the actress was wrong for the part of the waif character and rather favored Sondra Locke. After alerting her to the casting call, Heims set up the very first meeting between Locke and the director, though Kay Lenz ultimately earned the part over both actresses. By 1974, Heims had composed a script for a horror-suspense film titled "Mrs. Manning's Weekend". It was purchased by director-producer Peter S. Traynor, then rewritten and released as Death Game three years later. She then completed the women in prison teleplay Nightmare in Badham County, a made-for-television movie produced for ABC. Not long after, Heims fell ill with a breast cancer diagnosis. Her final work was another TV feature, the NBC murder mystery Secrets of Three Hungry Wives. Heims wrote the teleplay as long as she could before handing it off to executive producerAlan Surgal to finish. Heims died on April 22, 1978 in Los Angeles at the age of 48. Eastwood reportedly attended her funeral.
