Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture.
Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in
television series such as Gunsmoke (1962–1965), Hawk (1966) and Dan August
(1970–1971). Although Reynolds had leading roles in such films as Navajo Joe
(1966) and 100 Rifles (1969), his breakthrough role was as Lewis Medlock in
Deliverance (1972). Reynolds played the leading role – often a lovable rogue –
in a number of subsequent box office hits, such as White Lightning (1973), The
Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (which started a six-year box
office reign), Semi-Tough (1977), The End (1978), Hooper (1978), Starting Over
(1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Sharky's
Machine (1981), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and Cannonball Run
II (1984), several of which he directed himself. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe
Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Reynolds was voted the world's number one box-office star
for five consecutive years (1978–1982) in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars
Poll, a record he shares with Bing Crosby. After a number of box-office
failures, Reynolds returned to television, starring in the sitcom Evening Shade
(1990–1994), which won him a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. His performance as high-minded pornographer Jack
Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) brought him renewed
critical attention, earning him another Golden Globe (for Best Supporting Actor
– Motion Picture), with nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Early life
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was born on February 11, 1936, to
Harriet Fernette "Fern" (née
Miller) and Burton Milo Reynolds (1906–2002). His family descended from Dutch,
English, Scots-Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Reynolds also claimed Cherokee and
Italian roots.
During his career, Reynolds often claimed to have been born
in Waycross, Georgia, although in 2015, he stated that he was actually born in
Lansing, Michigan. In his autobiography, he stated that Lansing is where his
family lived when his father was drafted into the United States Army.
Reynolds, his mother, and his sister joined his father at
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where they subsequently lived for two years. When
his father was sent to Europe, the family moved to Lake City, Michigan, where
his mother had been raised. In 1946, the family moved to Riviera Beach,
Florida, where in sixth grade Reynolds began a lifelong close friendship with
Dick Howser. Reynolds' father eventually became Chief of Police of Riviera
Beach, which is adjacent to the north end of West Palm Beach, Florida.
During 10th grade at Palm Beach High School, Reynolds was
named First Team All-State and All Southern as a fullback, and received multiple
scholarship offers.
College
After graduating from Palm Beach High School, he attended
Florida State University on a football scholarship and played halfback, starting
in 1954. While at Florida State, he roomed with future college-football coach,
broadcaster, and analyst Lee Corso, and also became a brother of the Phi Delta
Theta fraternity.
Reynolds had an outstanding freshman year in football.
However, he injured his knee in the first game of his sophomore season, and,
later that year, lost his spleen and injured his other knee in a bad car
accident. He did not return to the university for almost two years. To keep up
with his studies, he enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College (PBJC) in neighboring
Lake Park in early 1956. When Reynolds returned to Florida State in 1957, he
rejoined the football team, although his leg injured in the car accident slowed
him down. He was blamed, fairly or not, for the team's loss to North Carolina
State on October 12, 1957. Immediately following the game he told his teammates
that he was done with football.
Early acting
During his term at PBJC in early 1956, Reynolds was in an
English class taught by Watson B. Duncan III. Duncan pushed him into trying out
for a play he was producing, Outward Bound. He cast him in the lead role based
on having heard him read Shakespeare in class, leading to his winning the 1956
Florida State Drama Award for his performance. "I read two words and they gave me a lead", he later
said.
In his autobiography, he referred to Duncan as his mentor
and the most influential person in his life.
Career
Theater
The Florida State Drama Award included a scholarship to the
Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater, in Hyde Park, New York. Reynolds
saw the opportunity as an agreeable alternative to more physically demanding
summer jobs, but did not yet see acting as a possible career. While working
there, Reynolds met Joanne Woodward, who helped him find an agent.
"I don't think I
ever actually saw him perform", said Woodward later. "I knew him as this cute, shy,
attractive boy. He had the kind of lovely personality that made you want to do
something for him."
He was cast in Tea and Sympathy at the Neighborhood
Playhouse in New York City. After his Broadway debut in Look, We've Come
Through, he received favorable reviews for his performance and went on tour
with the cast, driving the bus as well as appearing on stage.
After the tour, Reynolds returned to New York and enrolled
in acting classes, along with Frank Gifford, Carol Lawrence, Red Buttons and
Jan Murray.
"I was a working
actor for two years before I finally took my first real acting class (with Wynn
Handman at the Neighborhood Playhouse)", he said. "It was a lot of technique, truth, moment-to-moment, how to
listen, and improv."
After a botched improvisation in acting class, Reynolds
briefly considered returning to Florida, but soon gained a part in a revival of
Mister Roberts, in which Charlton Heston played the starring role.
After the play closed, the director, John Forsythe, arranged
a film audition with Joshua Logan for Reynolds. The film was Sayonara (1957).
Reynolds was told he could not be in the film because he looked too much like
Marlon Brando. Logan advised Reynolds to go to Hollywood, although Reynolds did
not feel confident enough to do so. (Another source says Reynolds did a screen
test after studio talent agent Lew Wasserman saw the effect Reynolds had on
secretaries in his office but the test was unsuccessful.)
He worked in a variety of jobs, such as waiting tables,
washing dishes, driving a delivery truck and as a bouncer at the Roseland
Ballroom. Reynolds wrote that, while working as a dockworker, he was offered
$150 to jump through a glass window on a live television show.
Early television and
Riverboat
Reynolds began acting on television in the late 1950s, guest
starring on shows like Flight, M Squad, Schlitz Playhouse, The Lawless Years
and Pony Express. He signed a seven-year contract with Universal.[ "I don't care whether he can act or
not", said Wasserman. "Anyone
who has this effect on women deserves a break."
Reynolds' first big break came when he was cast alongside
Darren McGavin in the lead of the TV series Riverboat (1959–61), playing Ben
Frazer. According to a contemporary report, Reynolds was considered "a double for Marlon Brando".
The show went for two seasons but Reynolds quit after only 20 episodes,
claiming he did not get along with McGavin or the executive producer, and that
he had "a stupid part."
Reynolds then said that he "couldn't get a job. I didn't have a very good reputation. You
just don't walk out on a network television series."
Reynolds returned to guest starring on television shows. As
he put it, "I played heavies in
every series in town", appearing in episodes of Playhouse 90, Johnny
Ringo, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Lock Up, The Blue Angels, Michael Shayne,
Zane Grey Theater, The Aquanauts and The Brothers Brannagan. "They were depressing years", he
later said.
Reynolds made his film debut in the low budget Angel Baby
(1961), billed fourth. He followed it with a role in a war film, Armored
Command (1961). "It was the one
picture that Howard Keel didn't sing on", reminisced Reynolds later. "That was a terrible mistake."
In 1961, he returned to Broadway to appear in Look, We've
Come Through, under the direction of José Quintero, but it lasted only five
performances.
Reynolds continued to guest star on shows such as Naked
City, Ripcord, Everglades, Route 66, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone ("The Bard", an hour-long
send-up of Reynolds' look-alike Marlon Brando). He later said, "I learned more about my craft in these
guest shots than I did standing around and looking virile on Riverboat."
Gunsmoke
In 1962, Dennis Weaver wanted to leave the cast of Gunsmoke,
one of the top rated shows in the country. The producers developed a new
character, "halfbreed" blacksmith
Quint Asper: Reynolds was cast, beating over 300 other contenders. Reynolds
announced he would stay on the show "until
it ends. I think it's a terrible mistake for an actor to leave a series in the
middle of it." Reynolds left Gunsmoke in 1965. He later said that
being in that show was "the happiest
period of my life. I hated to leave that show but I felt I had served my
apprenticeship and there wasn't room for two leading men."
He was cast in his first lead role in a film, the low-budget
action film, Operation C.I.A. (1965). He guest starred on Flipper, The F.B.I.
and 12 O'Clock High.
Hawk and leading
roles in films
Reynolds was given the title role in a TV series, Hawk
(1966–67), playing Native American detective John Hawk. It ran for 17 episodes
before being cancelled.
He played another Native American in the Spaghetti Western
Navajo Joe (1966) shot in Spain. "It
wasn't my favorite picture” ...he said later... "I had two expressions—mad and madder."
He guest starred on Gentle Ben and made a pilot for a TV
series, Lassiter, where he would have played a magazine journalist. It was not
picked up.
Reynolds then made a series of films in quick succession.
Shark! (1969), shot in Mexico, was directed by Sam Fuller, who removed his name
from it, after which its release was held up for a number of years. Reynolds
described Fade In as "the best thing
I've ever done", but it was not released for a number of years, and
the director, Jud Taylor, took his name off. Impasse (1969) was a war movie
shot in the Philippines. He played the title role in Sam Whiskey (1969), a
comic Western written by William W. Norton, which Reynolds later said was "way ahead of its time. I was playing
light comedy and nobody cared."
Reynolds supported Jim Brown and Raquel Welch in another
Western, 100 Rifles (1969), later saying, "I
spent the entire time refereeing fights between Jim Brown and Raquel
Welch."
In a 1969 interview, he expressed interest in playing roles
like the John Garfield part in The Postman Always Rings Twice, but no one gave
him those opportunities. "Instead,
the producer hands me a script and says 'I know it's not there now kid, but I
know we can make it work.'"
Reynolds had been offered a lead role in MASH (1970), but
turned it down after "they told me
the other two leads would be Barbra Streisand's husband and that tall, skinny
guy who was in The Dirty Dozen." Tom Skerritt played the role and
Reynolds, instead, went into Skullduggery (1970), shot in Jamaica. Reynolds
joked that after making "those
wonderful, forgettable pictures... I suddenly realized I was as hot as Leo
Gorcey."
Reynolds then starred in two TV films: Hunters Are for
Killing (1970) and Run, Simon, Run (1970). In Hunters Are for Killing, his
character was originally a Native American, but Reynolds requested this element
be changed, feeling he had played that role too many times already, and it was
not needed for the character anyway.
Dan August and talk
shows
Reynolds played the title character in the police drama Dan
August (1970–71), produced by Quinn Martin. The series was given a full-season
order of 26 episodes based on the reputation of Martin and Reynolds but
struggled in the ratings against Hawaii Five-0 and was not renewed.
Albert R. Broccoli asked Reynolds to take over the role of
James Bond from Sean Connery, but he turned that role down, saying, "An American can't play James Bond. It
just can't be done."
Following the cancellation of the series, Reynolds did his
first stage play in six years, a production of The Tender Trap at Arlington
Park Theatre. He was offered other TV pilots but was reluctant to play a
detective again.
Around this time, he had become well known as a charismatic
talk-show guest, starting with an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show. He made
jokes at his own expense, calling himself America's most "well-known unknown" who only made the kind of movies
"they show in airplanes or prisons or anywhere else the people can't get
out." He proved enormously popular and was frequently asked back by
Griffin and Johnny Carson; he even guest hosted the Tonight Show. He was so
popular as a guest that he was offered his own talk show but he wanted to
continue as an actor.
He later said his talk show appearances were "the best thing that ever happened to
me. They changed everything drastically overnight. I spent ten years looking
virile, saying, 'Put up your hands.' After the Carson, Griffin, Frost, Dinah's
show, suddenly I have a personality."
"I realized that
people liked me, that I was enough", said Reynolds. "So if I could transfer that
character—the irreverent, self-deprecating side of me, my favorite side of
me—onto the screen, I could have a big career.”
Deliverance and the
centerfold
Reynolds had his breakthrough role in Deliverance, directed
by John Boorman, who cast him on the basis of a talk show appearance. "It's the first time I haven't had a
script with Paul Newman's and Robert Redford's fingerprints all over it,"
Reynolds joked. "The producers actually came to me first."
"I've waited 15
years to do a really good movie," he said in 1972. "I made so many bad pictures. I was
never able to turn anyone down. The greatest curse in Hollywood is to be a well-known
unknown."
Reynolds also gained notoriety around this time when he
began a well-publicized relationship with Dinah Shore, who was 20 years his
senior, and after he posed naked in the April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan. Reynolds
said he posed for Cosmopolitan for "a
kick. I have a strange sense of humor" and because he knew he had
Deliverance coming out. He later expressed regret for posing for Cosmopolitan.
Deliverance was a huge commercial and critical success, which,
along with talk-show appearances, helped establish Reynolds as a major movie
star. "The night of the Academy
Awards, I counted a half-dozen Burt Reynolds jokes", he later said. "I had become a household name, the
most talked-about star at the award show."
He was then in Fuzz (1972), reuniting him with Welch, and
also made a cameo in the Woody Allen film, Everything You Always Wanted to Know
About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972). He also returned to the stage,
appearing in The Rainmaker at the Arlington.
Reynolds had the title role in Shamus (1973), playing a
modern-day private eye. The film drew lackluster reviews, but nonetheless
became a solid box-office success. Reynolds described it as "not a bad film, kind of cute."
He was in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), co-starring
Sarah Miles. The film was a minor hit, perhaps best remembered for the scandal
of Miles' lover, an aspiring screenwriter, committing suicide during the
filming.
Reynolds was meant to reunite with Boorman in Zardoz, but
fell ill and was replaced by Sean Connery.
White Lightning
Another turning point in Reynolds' career came when he made
the light-hearted car-chase film written by Norton, White Lightning (1973).
Reynolds later called it "the
beginning of a whole series of films made in the South, about the South and for
the South... you could make back the cost of the negative just in Memphis
alone. Anything outside of that was just gravy." Car-chase films would
be Reynolds' most profitable genre. At the end of 1973, Reynolds was voted into
the list of the ten most-popular box-office stars in the US at number four. He
would stay on that list until 1984.
He made a sports comedy with Robert Aldrich, The Longest
Yard (1974) which was popular. Aldrich later said "I think that on occasion, he's a much better actor than he's
given credit for. Not always: sometimes he acts like a caricature of himself."
Reynolds then appeared in two big-budget fiascos: At Long
Last Love (1975), a musical for Peter Bogdanovich, and Lucky Lady (1975) with
Gene Hackman and Liza Minnelli.
More popular was another light-hearted car-chase film, W.W.
and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and a tough cop drama with Aldrich, Hustle
(1975). He did a cameo for Mel Brooks in Silent Movie (1976).
Director
Reynolds made his directorial debut in 1976 with Gator, the
sequel to White Lightning, written by Norton. "I waited 20 years to do it [directing] and I enjoyed it more than
anything I've ever done in this business," he said after filming. "And I happen to think it's what I do
best."
He was reunited with Bogdanovich for the screwball comedy,
Nickelodeon (1976), which was a commercial disappointment. Aldrich later
commented, "Bogdanovich can get him
to do the telephone book! Anybody else has to persuade him to do something.
He's fascinated by Bogdanovich. I can't understand it." He turned down
the part of Clark Gable in Gable and Lombard.
Smokey and the Bandit
and career peak
Reynolds had the biggest hit of his career with a car-chase
film, Smokey and the Bandit (1977), directed by Hal Needham and co-starring
Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, and Sally Field.
He followed it with a comedy about football players,
Semi-Tough (1977), co-starring Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson and
produced by David Merrick. He then directed his second film, The End (1978), a
black comedy, playing a role originally written for Woody Allen.
More popular was a car comedy he made with Needham and
Field, Hooper (1978), where he played a stuntman.
"My ability as an
actor gets a little better every time", he said around this time. "I'm very prolific in the amount of
films I make—two-and-a-half or three a year—and when I look at any picture I do
now compared to Deliverance, it's miles above what I was doing then. But when
you're doing films that are somewhat similar to each other, as I've been doing,
people take it for granted."
He turned down the role played by Alan Alda in California
Suite (1978) because he felt the part was too small.
He also said, "I'd
rather direct than act. I'd rather do that than anything. It's the second-best
sensation I've ever had." He added that David Merrick had offered to
produce two films Reynolds would direct without having to act in them.
Reynolds tried a change of pace with Starting Over (1979), a
romantic comedy, again co-starring Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; it was
co-written and produced by James L. Brooks. He played a jewel thief in Rough
Cut (1980) produced by Merrick, who fired and then rehired director Don Siegel
during filming.
Reynolds had two huge hits with more car films directed by
Needham, Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and The Cannonball Run (1981). He
starred in David Steinberg's film Paternity (1981) and directed himself in a
tough action film, Sharky's Machine (1981).
Reynolds wanted to try a musical again, and agreed to do The
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). It was a box-office hit, as was Best
Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn. In 1982, Reynolds was voted the most popular
star in the US for the fifth year in a row.
Around this time he reflected:
The only thing I
really enjoy is this business, and I think my audience knows that. I've never
been able to figure out exactly who that audience is. I know there have been a
few pictures even my mother didn't go see, but there's always been an audience
for them. I guess it is because they always know that I give it 100 percent,
and good or bad, there's going to be quite a lot of me in that picture. That's
what they're looking for. I don't have any pretensions about wanting to be
Hamlet. I would just like to be the best Burt Reynolds around.
Career decline
James L. Brooks offered Reynolds the role of astronaut
Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (1983) but he turned it down to do
Stroker Ace (1983), another car-chase comedy directed by Needham. The
Endearment role went to Jack Nicholson, who went on to win an Academy Award.
Reynolds said in 1987 that "I felt I
owed Hal more than I owed Jim" but Stroker Ace flopped.
In 1983, an unnamed producer had said that while Reynolds'
salaries would not decline because of Stroker Ace's failure, "if two or three more such pictures
don't work, people will just stop putting him in that kind of movie and that's
the kind of film for which he gets paid the most". Reynolds felt this
was a turning point in his career from which he never recovered. "That's where I lost them", he
said of his fans.
The Man Who Loved Women (1983), directed by Blake Edwards,
also flopped. In an interview around this time, he said:
Getting to the top has
turned out to be a hell of a lot more fun than staying there. I've got Tom
Selleck crawling up my back. I'm in my late 40s. I realize I have four or five
more years where I can play certain kinds of parts and get away with it. That's
why I'm leaning more and more toward directing and producing. I don't want to
be stumbling around town doing Gabby Hayes parts a few years from now. I'd like
to pick and choose and maybe go work for a perfume factory like Mr. Cary Grant,
and look wonderful with everybody saying, 'Gee, I wish he hadn't retired'.
Cannonball Run II (1984), directed by Needham, and brought
in some money but only half of the original. City Heat (1984), which teamed
Reynolds and Eastwood, was mildly popular but was considered a major critical
and box-office disappointment. Reynolds was badly injured during filming when
he was hit in the jaw with a real chair instead of a breakaway prop, causing
him excruciating chronic pain as well as a sharp weight loss which resulted in
rumors circulating for years that he had AIDS.
Reynolds returned to directing with Stick (1985), from an
Elmore Leonard novel, but it was both a critical and commercial failure. So too
were three other action films he made: Heat (1986), based on a William Goldman
novel, Malone (1987), and Rent-a-Cop (1987) with Liza Minnelli. He later said
that he did Heat and Malone "because
there were so many rumors about me [about AIDS]. I had to get out and be
seen".
In 1987, Reynolds teamed up with Bert Convy to co-produce
the game show Win, Lose or Draw for their production company, Burt and Bert
Productions. The show was based on “sketch
pad charades”, a game he often played with his friends in his living room
in Jupiter. Vicki Lawrence hosted the daytime version on NBC while Convy hosted
the syndicated version until 1989 when he left to host 3rd Degree, also created
by Reynolds and Convy.
Reynolds attempted a screwball comedy, Switching Channels
(1989), but it also was a box-office disappointment. Even more poorly received
was Physical Evidence (1989), directed by Michael Crichton. Reynolds received
excellent reviews for the caper comedy Breaking In (1989), but the commercial
reception was poor.
"When I was doing
very well," he said at the time, "I
wasn't conscious I was doing very well, but I became very conscious when I
wasn't doing very well. The atmosphere changed."
Return to TV: BL
Stryker and Evening Shade
Reynolds returned to TV series with B.L. Stryker (1989–90).
It ran two seasons, during which time Reynolds played a supporting part in
Modern Love (1990).
Reynolds then starred in a sitcom, Evening Shade (1990–94)
as former Pittsburgh Steelers player Woodward "Wood" Newton. The program was a considerable success,
with 98 episodes over four seasons. This role earned him an Emmy Award.
Reynolds credited this role for his membership in Steeler Nation.
During his tenure on Evening Shade, Reynolds was seen in other
projects, starting with a cameo in The Player (1992) (playing himself
complaining about people in Hollywood).
On August 23, 1993, the children's film Cop & 1/2
premiered, in which Reynolds played the lead. On August 25, the Randy Travis
television special Wind in the Wire first aired; Reynolds was among the guests.
On October 15, CBS first aired the television film The Man from Left Field,
co-starring Reba McEntire. Reynolds starred and directed.
Character actor
When Evening Shade ended, Reynolds played the lead in a
horror film, The Maddening (1995). However, he gradually moved into being more
of a character actor – he had key support roles in Citizen Ruth (1996), an
early work from Alexander Payne, and Striptease (1996) with Demi Moore. He had
to audition for the latter. The film's producer later said, "To be honest, we were not enthusiastic
at first. There was the hair and his reputation, but we were curious."
Reynolds got the role and earned some strong reviews.
Reynolds was a supporting actor in Frankenstein and Me
(1996), Mad Dog Time (1996), The Cherokee Kid (1996), Meet Wally Sparks (1997)
with Rodney Dangerfield, and Bean (1997) with Rowan Atkinson. He had the lead
in Raven (1996), a straight-to-video action film. Around this time he claimed
he was broke, having gone through $13 million.
In 1996, Reynolds' agent said "Regarding Burt, there's a split between the executives in town
who are under 40 and those who are over 40. The younger executives are more
open to Burt because they grew up loving Deliverance. But the older executives
remember how crazy he was, and they are less receptive." He also
hosted segments for the Encore Action premium cable network in the late 1990s
and 2000s.
Boogie Nights and
career revival
Reynolds appeared as an adult film director in the hit film
Boogie Nights (1997), which was considered a comeback role for him; he received
12 acting awards and three nominations for the role, including a nomination for
the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Reynolds' first and only
nomination for the award. Reynolds was offered a role in Boogie Nights
writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's subsequent film, Magnolia (1999), but he
declined, saying that he hated working on Boogie Nights and hated Anderson.
He had the lead in Big City Blues (1997) and supporting
roles in Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998) and Universal Soldier
III: Unfinished Business (1998).
Reynolds returned to directing with Hard Time (1998), an
action TV film starring himself. It led to two sequels, which he did not
direct, Hard Time: The Premonition (1999) and Hard Time: Hostage Hotel (1999)
(the latter directed by Hal Needham).
He starred in the straight-to-video The Hunter's Moon
(1999), Stringer (1999), and Waterproof (2000). He played supporting roles in
Pups (1999) and Mystery, Alaska (1999), and had the lead in The Crew (2000)
alongside Richard Dreyfuss.
Reynolds directed The Last Producer (2000), starring
himself, and was second-billed in Renny Harlin's Driven (2001), starring
Sylvester Stallone. He was also in Tempted (2001), Hotel (2001) (directed by
Mike Figgis), and The Hollywood Sign (2001).
He voiced Avery Carrington in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,
released in 2002.
Reynolds was top-billed in Snapshots (2002) with Julie
Christie, Time of the Wolf (2002), and Hard Ground (2003), and had supporting
roles in Johnson County War (2002) with Tom Berenger, and Miss Lettie and Me
(2003) with Mary Tyler Moore.
He was in a series of supporting roles that referred to
earlier performances: Without a Paddle (2004), a riff on his role in
Deliverance, The Longest Yard (2005), a remake of his 1974 hit with Adam
Sandler playing Reynolds' old role (while Reynolds played the Michael Conrad
part from the original); and The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) as Boss Hogg in a nod
to his performances in 1970s car-chase films.
Reynolds continued to play lead roles in films such as Cloud
9 (2006), Forget About It (2006), Deal (2008), and A Bunch of Amateurs (2008),
and supporting parts in End Game (2006), Grilled (2006), Broken Bridges (2006),
In the Name of the King (2007), Not Another Not Another Movie (2011), and Reel
Love (2011).
He had a guest role in an episode of Burn Notice, "Past & Future Tense"
(2010).
Reynolds voiced himself as the Mayor of Steelport in Saints
Row: The Third, released in 2011. Players can recruit Reynolds as a "homie", depending on their
in-game choices.
Reynolds also voiced himself in the animated series Archer,
in the episode "The Man from
Jupiter" (2012). The character of Sterling Archer was largely inspired
by Burt Reynolds.
He was top billed in Category 5 (2014) and Elbow Grease
(2016) and could be seen in key roles in Pocket Listing (2016), and Hollow
Creek (2015). He returned to a regular role on TV in Hitting the Breaks (2016)
but it only ran for ten episodes. He was in Apple of My Eye (2016) and took the
lead in The Last Movie Star (2017).
Posthumous releases
Reynolds appeared posthumously in the 2019 film An Innocent
Kiss as well as in the 2020 film Defining Moments, which includes his final
performance.
In May 2018, Reynolds had joined the cast for Quentin
Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as George Spahn (an eighty year
old blind man who rented out his ranch to Charles Manson), but he died before
shooting his scenes and was later replaced by Bruce Dern.
Author
Reynolds co-authored the 1997 children's book, Barkley
Unleashed: A Pirate's Tail, a "whimsical
tale [that] illustrates the importance of perseverance, the wonders of
friendship and the power of imagination".
Music
In 1973, Reynolds released the country/easy listening album
Ask Me What I Am. He also sang in two movie musicals: At Long Last Love (1975)
and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982).
Bankruptcy
Despite his lucrative career, in 1996 he filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy, due in part to an extravagant lifestyle, a divorce from Loni
Anderson and failed investments in some Florida restaurant chains. Reynolds
emerged from bankruptcy two years later.
Personal life
Reynolds in college "was
so good-looking, I used him as bait," college roommate Lee Corso
recalled. "He'd walk across campus
and bring back two girls, one beautiful and one ugly; I got the ugly girl. His
ugly girlfriends were better than anyone I could get on my own." Reynolds
was married to English actress Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965. He and American
singer-actress Dinah Shore (20 years his senior) were in a relationship from
early 1971 until 1975. In the mid-1970s, Reynolds briefly dated singer Tammy
Wynette. He had a relationship from 1976 to 1980 (then off-and-on until 1982)
with American actress Sally Field, during which time they appeared together in
four films. In 2016, he regarded Field as the love of his life. Reynolds was
married to American actress Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1994. They adopted a
son, Quinton. He and Anderson separated after he fell in love with a cocktail
waitress, Pam Seals, with whom he later traded lawsuits, which were settled out
of court.
In the late 1970s, Reynolds opened Burt's Place, a nightclub
restaurant in the Omni International complex in the Hotel District of Downtown
Atlanta. He was a lifelong fan of American football, a result of his collegiate
career, and was a minority owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL from 1982
to 1986. The team's name was inspired by the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy and
Skoal Bandit, a primary sponsor for the team as a result of also sponsoring Reynolds'
motor racing team.
Reynolds co-owned a NASCAR Winston Cup Series team, Mach 1
Racing, with Hal Needham, which ran the No. 33 Skoal Bandit car with driver
Harry Gant. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Florida State University
in 1981 and later endorsed the construction of a new performing arts facility in
Sarasota, Florida.
He also owned the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter,
Florida, with a focus on training young performers looking to enter show
business. The theater opened in 1979 and was later renamed the Burt Reynolds
Jupiter Theater. Reynolds operated it until 1989 and leased it until 1996. It
went through a series of ownership changes until becoming the Maltz Jupiter
Theatre in 2004.
In 1984, he opened a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, named
Burt & Jacks, which he co-owned with Jack Jackson.
While filming City Heat in 1984, Reynolds was struck in the
face with a metal chair on the first day of filming, which resulted in
temporomandibular joint dysfunction. He was restricted to a liquid diet and
lost thirty pounds from not eating. The painkillers he was prescribed led to
addiction, which lasted several years. He underwent back surgery in 2009 and a
quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery in February 2010.
On August 16, 2011, Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation filed
foreclosure papers, claiming Reynolds owed US$1.2 million on his home in Hobe Sound,
Florida. Until its sale during bankruptcy, he owned the Burt Reynolds Ranch,
where scenes for Smokey and the Bandit were filmed and which once had a petting
zoo. In April 2014, the 153-acre (62 ha) rural property was rezoned for
residential use and the Palm Beach County school system was empowered to sell it,
which it did to the residential developer K. Hovnanian Homes.
Death and tributes
Reynolds died of a heart attack at the Jupiter Medical
Center in Jupiter, Florida, on September 6, 2018, at the age of 82. His ex-wife
Loni Anderson and their son Quinton held a private memorial service for
Reynolds at a funeral home in North Palm Beach, Florida, on September 20. Those
in attendance included Sally Field, FSU coach Bobby Bowden, friend Lee Corso, and
quarterback Doug Flutie. Reynolds' body was cremated and his ashes were given
to his niece, Nancy Lee Brown Hess. He was subsequently interred at Hollywood
Forever Cemetery on February 11, 2021. In September 2021, a bronze bust of
Reynolds was placed at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
On the day of Reynolds' death, Antenna TV, which airs The
Tonight Show nightly, aired an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson from February 11, 1982, featuring an interview and a This Is Your
Life-style skit with Reynolds. The local media in Atlanta and elsewhere in the
state noted on their television news programs that evening that he was the
first to make major films in Georgia, all of which were successful, which
helped make the state one of the top filming locations in the country. His
niece, Nancy Lee Hess, produced a 2020 biography and documentary about Reynolds
titled I Am Burt Reynolds.
Legacy and appraisal
During the height of his career, Reynolds was considered a
male sex symbol and icon of American masculinity. Stephen Dalton wrote in The
Hollywood Reporter that Reynolds "always
seemed to embody an uncomplicated, undiluted, effortlessly likable strain of
American masculinity that was driven much more by sunny mischief than angsty
machismo." Reynolds's roles were often defined by his larger-than-life
physicality and masculinity, contrasted with juvenile but self-aware humor.
Though he was not considered a serious dramatic actor during his heyday, his
later career was defined by performances that often reflected on his own
reputation, creating what Dalton called "sophisticated,
soulful performances."
Filmography
Discography
Ask Me What I Am (1973)
Singles
US Country US CAN Country
1980 "Let's Do Something Cheap and
Superficial" Smokey and the Bandit 2:
Original Soundtrack Richard
Levinson
1982 "Sneakin' Around" (with Dolly
Parton) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (soundtrack) Dolly Parton
Awards and
nominations
Awards and nominations
for acting
1971 Golden Globe
Awards Best Actor – Television Series
Drama Dan August Nominated
1975 Best Actor –
Motion Picture Musical or Comedy The
Longest Yard Nominated
1980 Starting
Over Nominated
1991 Primetime
Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead
Actor in a Comedy Series Evening
Shade Won
Golden Globe Awards Best
Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated
1992 Golden Globe
Awards Best Actor – Television Series
Musical or Comedy Won
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated
1993 Golden Globe
Awards Best Actor – Television Series
Musical or Comedy Nominated
1997 Boston
Society of Film Critics Best
Supporting Actor Boogie Nights 2nd place
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actor Won
New York Film Critics Circle Best
Supporting Actor Won
Online Film Critics Society Best
Supporting Actor Won
1998 Academy
Awards Best Supporting Actor Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best
Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Won
British Academy Film Awards Best
Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actor Won
Florida Film Critics Circle Best
Cast Won
National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actor Won
Satellite Awards Best
Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Won
Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture Won
Screen Actors Guild Outstanding
Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated
Other honors
1978: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood
Blvd.
2000: Children at Heart Award
2003: Atlanta IMAGE Film and Video Award
Works
Reynolds, Burt. (1994) My Life. New York: Hyperion. ISBN
0-7868-6130-4
Reynolds, Burt (with Bruce Chadwick). (1994) Seminole
Seasons. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8783-3869-1
Reynolds, Burt (with Victoria Preminger and Antonia Zehler)
(1997) Barkley Unleashed: A Pirate's Tail. Dove Kids Book & Audio. ISBN
0-7871-1027-2 (children's book)
Reynolds, Burt. (2015) But Enough About Me: A Memoir. G.P.
Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-7354-4
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