"Make My Day"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The OED's first use for the Eastwoodian "make my day" is, not surprisingly, from Eastwood's 1983 film _Sudden Impact_.  But Internet Movie Database says the following: "Although Clint Eastwood made the phrase "Go ahead, make my day" famous, it was originally used a year earlier by actor Gary Swanson in the movie Vice Squad (1982). Swanson, who played a Hollywood vice cop, said the line, "Go ahead scumbag, make my day," to actor Wings Hauser, who played a pimp, during a bust."

Can anyone confirm whether IMDB is accurate about the usage in _Vice Squad_?  And does anyone know of any other pre-_Sudden Impact_ usages?

Fred Shapiro



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Fred R. Shapiro                                            Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and        YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                                           ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
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