Burt Reynolds - # 191

Burt Reynolds, Star of ‘Deliverance,’ ‘Smokey and the Bandit,’ Dies at 82

He was number 191 on the list.

Burt Reynolds, one of Hollywood’s most popular leading men during the ’70s and early ’80s with such films as “Deliverance,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” “The Longest Yard” and “Semi-Tough,” has died. His rep confirmed that he died Thursday in a Jupiter, Fla. hospital. He was 82.

He later earned an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ode to skin flicks, “Boogie Nights.” He had not yet shot his planned role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

His niece Nancy Lee Hess said in a statement, “He has had health issues, however, this was totally unexpected. He was tough. Anyone who breaks their tail bone on a river and finishes the movie is tough. And that’s who he was. My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino, and the amazing cast that was assembled.”

Reynolds’ appeal lay in his post-modern macho posture undercut by a wry self-awareness, which he used to good effect in comedies as well as action films. For a period during the ’70s he was the nation’s top box office draw. But after one too many bad movies, his popularity waned. He returned to television, where he’d gotten his start, mostly in Westerns, and produced his own sitcom, “Evening Shade,” which brought him an Emmy.

 
In his colorful career Reynolds secured more than his share of both good and bad press. He could be affable with the media but at times downright hostile. Despite his many high-profile roles, the ones he is said to have turned down were even bigger: He was offered the roles of James Bond, Han Solo, the Richard Gere role in “Pretty Woman” and the Jack Nicholson role in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

In the early 1970s, Reynolds was a veteran of TV and film who spurred the curiosity of Hollywood producers through his amusing appearances on latenight talkshows, as well as the hyped publicity stunt of appearing as the first celebrity male-nude centerfold in a 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan.

He was thus cast in his first A-title role, in John Boorman’s “Deliverance,” one of the most popular and well received films of 1972 (several major actors, including Marlon Brando, had turned the role down before it was offered to Reynolds). The same year Woody Allen cast him in a small comedic role in his film “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.”

He solidified his position as a rising film star with 1974 prison football drama “The Longest Yard.” In 1977 he starred with Sally Field and Jackie Gleason in the comedy programmer “Smokey and the Bandit,” which proved to be his most successful undertaking ever and was followed by the inevitable sequels. That same year he was again on the gridiron in the hit comedy “Semi-Tough.”

Reynolds made his directing debut with 1976 action film “Gator” and 1978’s black comedy “The End.”


Such was his popularity in box office polls during this period that he managed to weather high-profile disasters like the musical “At Long Last Love,” “Lucky Lady” and “Nickelodeon.”

Other films during the 1970s included “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings,” “Fuzz,” “Shamus,” “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,” “White Lightning,” “Hustle” and “Silent Movie.”

He brought the decade to a successful close with the action film “Hooper” and the urbane comedy “Starting Over” and began the ’80s with a popular sequel to “Smokey.” Over the next few years, there were hits like “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Best Friends” and “City Heat,” as well as audience-friendly fare like “Rough Cut,” “Sharky’s Machine” (which he also directed) and “Cannonball Run.” Blake Edwards cast him in the lead of the American remake of “The Man Who Loved Women” in 1983.

But the poorly received films like “Stroker Ace,” “Cannonball Run II,” “Rent-a-Cop” and “Heat” took his career in a downward direction. Along the way he turned down such potentially career-making roles as the ex-astronaut in “Terms of Endearment,” for which Jack Nicholson won an Oscar.

Reynolds retreated to his adopted home of Florida and opened the Jupiter Theater, a popular spot with local audiences where he directed several productions and appeared in a couple as well. He endorsed the Florida Citrus Commission and Quaker State Oil, then returned to television in a dozen TV movies playing B.L. Stryker. After marrying television actress Loni Anderson, Reynolds decided to produce and star in the sitcom “Evening Shade,” which ran on CBS from 1990-94. Along the way he picked up an Emmy as best actor in a comedy series.

Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was born in Waycross, Ga., and attended Florida State University for two years on a football scholarship. But his promising career as a running back was cut short by a knee injury suffered in a car accident. Reynolds turned his attention to acting, moving to New York, where he struggled for several years until he landed a role in a revival of “Mr. Roberts” starring Charlton Heston in 1956. He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived “Look We’ve Come Through” and began accumulating guest shots on television in programs such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Zane Grey Theater,” “Route 66,” “Perry Mason” and “The Twilight Zone.”

Reynolds landed several series starring roles, mostly in Westerns, starting with “Riverboat” in 1959. He appeared for three seasons as a Native American on the long-running “Gunsmoke” in the mid-’60s, then moved over to the cop/detective genre as the lead in “Hawk” (1966) and “Dan August” (1970-71). He was simultaneously making movies, starting with “Armored Command” and “Angel Baby” in 1961. But his ’60s output, which included “Navajo Joe,” “100 Rifles” and “Sam Whiskey,” did little to further his feature film aspirations.

Reynolds’ assured performance in the controversial and violent “Deliverance” started him on a decade or more of enormous success.

But after riding the wave of popularity, a messy, high-profile divorce from and custody battle with Anderson in the early 1990s and a tell-almost-all autobiography, “My Life,” in 1994 cast him in a negative light, not helped by his understandable, but often irritable attitude toward the press, which was always keenly interested in his love life.

Comeback attempts in movies including “Switching Channels,” “Cop and a Half,” “The Man From Left Field” (which he also directed) and “Striptease” were failures. By the mid-’90s the former $1 million-plus player’s services could be had for as little as $100,000 (which he received for “Striptease”).

Toward the end of the decade he received critical kudos for his performance as a self-deluded porno director in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” which brought him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor. Though he was highly favored to win, Reynolds undercut himself by firing his agent for casting him in the part and shunning publicity for the popular role.

After losing the Oscar he continued to work regularly in indifferent projects like “The Crew,” “Mystery, Alaska” and “Universal Soldier III.” He was second billed in Renny Harlin’s racecar actioner “Driven,” starring Sylvester Stallone; played the coach in the comedic 2005 remake of “The Longest Yard” that starred Adam Sandler; and played Boss Hogg in the feature adaptation of “The Dukes of Hazzard,” also in 2005, but other film work was mostly in lower-profile material.


The actor also kept busy on television, with guest appearances in “The X-Files,” “Ed,” “My Name Is Earl” and “Burn Notice” and voicework on “Robot Chicken,” “Duck Dodgers,” “American Dad,” "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and “Archer.”

Most recently, he made an impression earlier in 2018 in Adam Rifkin’s “The Last Movie Star,” essentially playing himself as a star confronting mortality.

In September 2015 Reynolds was honored by the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures with the organization’s Richard “Diamond” Farnsworth Award. He was part owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL

Reynolds was married and divorced twice, first in the 1960s to “Laugh-In” comedienne Judy Carne and then to Anderson.

He is survived by adopted son Quinton from his second marriage.

 

 

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1961      Angel Baby          Hoke Adams       Film debut

1961      Armored Command        Skee     

1965      Operation C.I.A.                Mark Andrews

1966      Navajo Joe          Navajo Joe         

1969      100 Rifles             Yaqui Joe Herrera            

1969      Sam Whiskey     Sam Whiskey    

1969      Impasse               Pat Morrison     

1969      Shark!   Caine    

1970      Skullduggery      Douglas Temple               

1972      Fuzz       Detective Steve Carella

1972      Deliverance        Lewis Medlock  

1972      Everything You Always Wanted to Know

About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)     Sperm Switchboard Chief             

1973      Shamus                Shamus McCoy

1973      The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing              Jay Grobart        

1973      White Lightning                Gator McKlusky                

1974      The Longest Yard              Paul "Wrecking" Crewe

1975      At Long Last Love             Michael Oliver Pritchard III          

1975      W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings W.W. Bright       

1975      Lucky Lady          Walker Ellis        

1975      Hustle   Lieutenant Phil Gaines   Also executive producer

1976      Silent Movie       Himself                 Cameo

1976      Gator     Gator McKlusky                 Also director

1976      Nickelodeon       Buck Greenway               

1977      Smokey and the Bandit Bo "Bandit" Darville       

1977      Semi-Tough        Billy Clyde Puckett          

1978      The End                Wendell Sonny Lawson Also director

1978      Hooper                 Sonny Hooper    Also producer

1979      Starting Over      Phil Potter          

1980      Rough Cut           Jack Rhodes       

1980      Smokey and the Bandit II              Bo "Bandit" Darville       

1981      The Cannonball Run        J.J. McClure       

1981      Paternity              Buddy Evans      

1981      Sharky's Machine             Sgt. Thomas Sharky         Also director

1982      Six Pack                Man walking in front of Brewster and Lila              Uncredited cameo

1982      The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas        Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd       

1982      Best Friends        Richard Babson

1983      Stroker Ace         Stroker Ace        

1983      Smokey and the Bandit Part 3     The Real Bandit                 Cameo

1983      The Man Who Loved Women      David Fowler     

1984      Cannonball Run II             J.J. McClure       

1984      City Heat              Mike Murphy    

1985      Stick       Ernest "Stick" Stickley     Also director

1986      Uphill All the Way            Gambler               Uncredited cameo

1986      Heat      Nick "Mex" Escalante     

1987      Malone                 Richard Malone               

1988      Rent-a-Cop         Tony Church      

1988      Switching Channels         John L. Sullivan IV            

1989      Physical Evidence             Joe Paris              

1989      Breaking In          Ernie Mullins     

1989      All Dogs Go to Heaven   Charlie B. Barkin               Voice

1990      Modern Love     Colonel Frank Parker      

1992      The Player           Himself                 Cameo

1993      Cop and a Half   Nick McKenna  

1995      The Maddening                Roy Scudder      

1996      Citizen Ruth        Blaine Gibbons

1996      Striptease            Congressman David Dilbeck        

1996      Mad Dog Time   "Wacky" Jacky Jackson  

1996      Raven    Jerome "Raven" Katz      Direct-to-video

1997      Meet Wally Sparks           Lenny Spencer  

1997      Bean      General Newton              

1997      Boogie Nights    Jack Horner        

1997      Big City Blues     Connor Also co-producer

1999      The Hunter's Moon         Clayton Samuels               Direct-to-video

1999      Pups      Daniel Bender   

1999      Mystery, Alaska                Judge Walter Burns        

2000      Waterproof        Eli Zeal

2000      The Crew             Joey "Bats" Pistella         

2000      The Last Producer            Sonny Wexler    Also director

2001      Driven   Carl Henry          

2001      Tempted              Charlie LeBlanc

2001      Hotel     Flamenco Manager         

2001      The Hollywood Sign         Kage Mulligan   

2002      Time of the Wolf              Archie McGregor             

2003      The Librarians    Irish       Uncredited[citation needed]

2004      Without a Paddle             Del Knox             

2005      The Longest Yard              Coach Nate Scarborough              

2005      The Dukes of Hazzard     Boss Hogg          

2005      The Legend of Frosty the Snowman          Narrator               Voice, Direct-to-DVD

2006      Cloud 9                 Billy Cole              Direct-to-DVD

2006      End Game           General Montgomery   

2006      Forget About It Sam LeFleur       

2006      Grilled   Goldbluth           

2006      Broken Bridges Jake Delton        

2007      In the Name of the King                 King Konreid      

2007      Randy and the Mob         Elmore Culpepper            Uncredited[2]

2008      Deal       Tommy Vinson

2008      Delgo    Delgo's Father   Voice

2008      A Bunch of Amateurs      Jefferson Steele               

2011      Not Another Not Another Movie               C.J. Waters         

2014      A Magic Christmas     Buster   Voice, Direct-to-DVD

2015      Pocket Listing     Ron Glass            

2015      Hamlet & Hutch          Papa Hutch         Direct-to-DVD

2016      Hollow Creek                Seagrass Lambert             Direct-to-DVD

2016      Elbow Grease            Grandpa Barnes               

2016      Shangri La Suite           Narrator              

2017      The Last Movie Star         Vic Edwards       

2017      Apple of My Eye               Carlie    

2017      Hamlet & Hutch                Papa Hutch        

2017      Miami Love Affair             Robert

2017      Henri     George Duncan

2017      Shadow Fighter                 Paddy Grier       

2020      Defining Moments           Chester                Posthumous release

TBA        An Innocent Kiss               Grandpa Barnes                Posthumous release, Final film role

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1958      Flight     Captain Sam Allen / Captain Jack Hilyard                2 episodes

1959      M Squad              Peter Marashi    Episode: "The Teacher"

1959      The Lawless Years            Tony Sappio        Episode: "The Payoff"

1959      Pony Express      Adam    Episode: "The Good Samaritan"

1959–1960          Riverboat             Ben Frazer           20 episodes

1959–1960          Playhouse 90     Ace / The Actor 2 episodes

1960      Johnny Ringo     Tad Stuart           Episode: "The Stranger"

1960      Alfred Hitchcock Presents             Bill Davis              Episode: "Escape to Sonoita"

1960      Lock-Up                Latchard Duncan              Episode: "The Case of Alexis George"

1960–1961          The Blue Angels                Chuck / Corman                2 episodes

1960–1961          The Aquanauts Leo / Jimmy        2 episodes

1961      Ripcord                 The Assassin       Episode: "Crime Jump"

1961      Michael Shayne                Jerry Turner        Episode: "The Boat Caper"

1961      Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre                Branch Taylor    Episode: "Man from Everywhere"

1961      The Brothers Brannagan                Abelard                Episode: "Bordertown"

1961      Naked City          Young Man         Episode: "Requiem for a Sunday Afternoon"

1961–1962          The Everglades Trask / Lew Johnson        2 episodes

1962      Route 66              Tommy                 Episode: "Love Is a Skinny Kid"

1962      Perry Mason       Chuck Blair          Episode: "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank"

1962–1965          Gunsmoke          Quint Asper        50 episodes

1963      The Twilight Zone             Rocky Rhodes    Episode: "The Bard"

1965      Branded               Red Hand             Episode: "Now Join the Human Race"

1965      Flipper Al Bardeman      2 episodes

1965-1968          The F.B.I.             John Duquesne / Michael Murtaugh        2 episodes

1966      Hawk     Detective Lt. John Hawk                17 episodes

1967      Gentle Ben          Pilot       Episode: "Voice from the Wilderness"

1968      Premiere             Pete Lassiter       Episode: "Lassiter"

1968      Fade In Rob        Television film

1970      Love, American Style      Stanley Dunbar Episode: "Love and the Banned Book"

1970      Hunters Are for Killing    L.G. Floran           Television film

1970      Run, Simon, Run               Simon   Television film

1970–1971          Dan August         Dan August         26 episodes

1972      Carol Burnett and Friends             Himself                 Episode: Season 5, Episode 20

1986      The Golden Girls               Himself                 Episode: "Ladies of the Evening"

1987–1991          Out of This World             Troy Garland      Voice, 95 episodes

1989–1990          B.L. Stryker         B.L. Stryker         12 episodes; also co-executive producer and director

1990–1994          Evening Shade   Wood Newton 98 episodes; also co-executive producer and director

1993      Beverly Hills, 90210         Himself                 Episode: "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"

1993      The Larry Sanders Show                Himself                 Episode: "The Grand Opening"

1993      The Man from Left Field                Jack Robinson    Television film; also director

1995      Hope and Gloria                Himself                 Episode: "Sisyphus, Prometheus and Me"

1995      Cybill     Himself                 Episode: "The Cheese Stands Alone"

1996      The Cherokee Kid             Otter Bob the Mountain Man      Television film

1997      King of the Hill   M.F. Thatherton               Voice, Episode: "The Company Man"

1997      Duckman             Judge Keaton     Voice, Episode: "Das Sub"

1998      Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms       CIA Deputy Director Mentor        Television film

1998      Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business               CIA Deputy Director Mentor        Television film

1998      Hard Time           Detective Logan McQueen           Television film; also director

2001      Emeril   Himself                 Episode: "The Sidekick"

2002      The X-Files          Mr. Burt               Episode: "Improbable"

2002      Miss Lettie and Me          Samuel Madison               Television film

2003      Hard Ground      John "Chill" McKay           Television film

2003–2004          Ed           Russ Burton        2 episodes

2005      The King of Queens         Coach Walcott   Episode: "Hi, School"

2005      Robot Chicken   J.J. McClure / Himself     Voice, Episode: "Gold Dust Gasoline"

2005      Duck Dodgers    Royal Serpenti   Voice, Episode: "Master & Disaster/All in the Crime Family"

2006      Freddie                 Carl Crane Pool Episode: "Mother of All Grandfathers"

2006–2007; 2009             My Name Is Earl                Chubby                 3 episodes

2010      Burn Notice        Paul Anderson   Episode: "Past & Future Tense"

2011      American Dad!    Senator Buckingham       Voice, Episode: "School Lies"

2011      Reel Love             Wade Whitman                 Television film

2012      Archer   Himself                 Voice, Episode: "The Man from Jupiter"