Fritz Manes, who produced more than a dozen films in the 1970s and 1980s for his longtime friend Clint Eastwood, including “Any Which Way You Can,” “Tightrope” and “Heartbreak Ridge,” before the two had a falling out, died Sept. 27 at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 79.

The cause was lung and brain cancer, his wife, Audrey, said.

Manes met Eastwood when both were attending Piedmont Junior High School in Piedmont, Calif. The two became boon companions. When reunited at Oakland Technical High School, they spent their leisure time sneaking into bars, chasing after girls and working on cars.

After serving in the Marines during the Korean War and studying acting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Manes held a variety of jobs in radio and television.

In 1973, he was hired as an assistant to the producer Robert Daley at Malpaso, Eastwood’s production company. He received his first credit, as an assistant to the producer, on the 1976 film “The Enforcer.”

Manes worked on a long list of Eastwood films as associate producer, producer or executive producer. He also appeared in small roles — the bartender at the Zanzabar in “Every Which Way but Loose,” a guard in “Escape From Alcatraz” — and did stunt work in “City Heat” and “Sudden Impact.”

The relationship with Eastwood cooled markedly during the filming of the 1986 film “Heartbreak Ridge,” about a Marine sergeant. Since he was a Korean War veteran who had been awarded the Purple Heart, Manes was expected to smooth out any difficulties with the Marine Corps, whose cooperation had been obtained for the project.

The film’s salty dialogue and less than accurate depiction of events surrounding the invasion of Grenada raised hackles among the military brass, and the Marine Corps disavowed the film, as did the Department of Defense. Manes was unceremoniously eased out of Malpaso.

In Patrick McGilligan’s warts-and-all biography “Clint: The Life and Legend,” Manes described to the author an often tortured relationship in which Eastwood dangled the possibility of substantial acting roles to keep Manes jumping through hoops as a producer, and doled out credit erratically.

“With this guy, if you got any credit for anything it was a miracle,” Manes said. “He used to choke on the word ‘producer.’”

Eastwood, in a 1997 interview with The Independent of London, said, “I promoted him into a position, and he didn’t perform.”