Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds (born February 11, 1936, Lansing, Michigan, U.S.—died September 6, 2018, Jupiter, Florida) was an American television and film actor who projected a relaxed masculinity that, combined with his wry self-deprecating humour, made him a top box-office draw from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Reynolds moved from a series of generally dramatic roles to parts that showcased his comic talents in a career that brought him more fan popularity than critical accolades.
Reynolds spent his early childhood in Missouri and Michigan during his father’s military service, but from the mid-1940s his family lived in Riviera Beach, Florida. Reynolds played football in high school and attended Florida State University on a football scholarship. However, an injury in a car accident in 1955 kept him from returning to the university for nearly two years, during which time he took classes at Palm Beach Junior College. His studies there included an acting class, and he won a drama award that included a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse in Hyde Park, New York. After appearing in a few plays in New York and taking more acting classes, Reynolds moved to Hollywood to try to break into the movies.
Reynolds’s career began in earnest in 1958 with guest appearances on TV shows, including Flight, Schlitz Playhouse, and Pony Express, and he was cast in the series Riverboat, starring with Darren McGavin, in 20 episodes from 1959 to 1960. He briefly appeared on Broadway in 1961 in Look, We’ve Come Through but otherwise continued in guest roles on such shows as Naked City, Route 66, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone. His first break came when he was cast as the half-Comanche blacksmith Quint Asper on the popular long-running series Gunsmoke in 1962–65.
Reynolds did make some film appearances early in his career, beginning with Angel Baby and Armored Command (both 1961), but after Gunsmoke he was cast in leading parts in such movies as Operation C.I.A. (1965) and Navajo Joe (1966). Also, in 1966, he starred in the short-lived TV series Hawk. Other movies included 100 Rifles and Shark (both 1969). In the early 1970s, however, Reynolds began appearing on various talk shows, and his charm and wit made him a sought-after guest and raised his profile, as did his much-publicized romance with singer and host Dinah Shore. In addition, he was cast in the title role in the police drama series Dan August (1970–71).
In 1972 Reynolds starred with Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox in the hit movie Deliverance, his breakthrough role. However, a spread in the magazine Cosmopolitan that same year arguably brought him even greater fame. Helen Gurley Brown, the magazine’s publisher, was seeking a man willing to pose nude to demonstrate that women were as interested in looking at men as men were in looking at the women in Playboy magazine, and Reynolds agreed to pose. The resultant photo was a lasting sensation.
Reynolds appeared in numerous mostly popular movies over the next decade, including Shamus, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, and White Lightning (all 1973), the football movies The Longest Yard (1974) and Semi-Tough (1977), and the comedy W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975). Reynolds’s portrayal of a Southern truck driver in the comic romp Smokey and the Bandit (1977) made the movie such a hit that two sequels (1980 and 1983) followed. Other films included The Cannonball Run and Sharky’s Machine, which he also directed (both 1981), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and Stroker Ace (1983).
Reynolds continued to work steadily, but by the mid-1980s his movies were no longer big hits. He was known for doing his own stunts, and he suffered a shattered jaw while filming a fight scene in City Heat (1984). He later returned to television with the title role in the detective series B.L. Stryker (1989–90). His performance as a retired football player who coaches a small-town high-school football team in Evening Shade (1990–94) earned him a 1991 Emmy Award for best actor and another nomination the following year. He continued appearing on TV and in films, including a role as a congressman in Striptease (1996). Reynolds was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his portrayal of a director of pornographic movies in Boogie Nights (1997).
Reynolds continued appearing regularly in movies and TV shows through 2017. He was cast in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) but died before his scenes were shot. His final role, characteristic of his later movies, was a small part, in the boxing movie Shadow Fighter (2017).