William Riley Burnett, often credited as W. R. Burnett, was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel, Little Caesar, whose film adaptation is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies.

Burnett worked with many of the greats in acting and directing, including Raoul Walsh, John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, and Michael Cimino, John Wayne (The Dark Command), Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Paul Muni, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. He received Oscar nominations for his scripts for Wake Island (1942) and The Great Escape. In addition to his film work he also wrote scripts for television and radio.

Author of books:

Little Caesar (1929, novel)
Saint Johnson (1930, novel)
The Giant Swing (1932, novel)
Dark Hazard (1933, novel)
King Cole: A Novel (1936, novel)
Six Days' Grace (1937, novel)
The Dark Command: A Kansas Iliad (1938)
High Sierra (1940, novel)
The Quick Brown Fox (1942, novel)
Nobody Lives Forever (1943, novel)
Tomorrow's Another Day (1945, novel)
The Asphalt Jungle (1949, novel)
Adobe Walls: A Novel of the Last Apache Rising (1953, novel)
Captain Lightfoot (1954, novel)
Bitter Ground (1958, novel)
Mi Amigo: A Novel of the Southwest (1959, novel)