Andrew Robinson

 "If I had a buck for every guy, and it's always a guy, by the way, who has come up to me and quoted that line in its entirety to me ('I know what you're thinking... Well, do ya, PUNK?'), I gotta tell you, I'd be a rich man now."

Andrew Robinson's portrayal of the chilling Scorpio Killer in "Dirty Harry" (1971) led to him receiving serious death threats via telephone after the film's release.

Robinson was cast at the behest of Clint Eastwood who had seen him in a Broadway production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot." Eastwood then convinced director Don Siegel that Robinson had the right unnerving characteristics to make an effective Scorpio.

Robinson created a backstory for Scorpio which involved him being drafted into the Vietnam War, and seeing unspeakable horrors. When he returned home to the United States, he found himself a figure of hate, and his war experiences, combined with the people's treatment of soldiers, caused him to go insane.

In real life, Robinson is a pacifist who despises guns. In the early days of principal photography, Robinson would flinch violently every time he fired. Director Don Siegel was forced to shut down production for a time and sent Robinson to a school to learn to fire a gun convincingly. However, he still blinks noticeably when he shoots. Robinson was also squeamish about filming the scene where he verbally and physically abuses several schoolchildren, and the scene where he racially insults the man he pays to beat him up.

Scorpio wears a belt with a peace symbol buckle throughout the film. According to Siegel, "It reminds us that no matter how vicious a person is, when he looks in the mirror he is still blind to what he truly is."