We are sad to report that iconic star Burt Reynolds has passed away at age 82. Reynolds was an award-winning actor with numerous nominations under his belt, including his Oscar-nominated best-supporting actor role in Boogie Nights. Reynolds manager confirmed with The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died at the Jupiter Medical Center in Florida.
Reynolds was the star of a number of successful films, including Deliverance, The Longest Yard, and Smokey and the Bandit. During a five-year stretch that began in the late 1970’s, Reynolds was the No. 1 box-office attraction where he was the top-grossing star. The late actor even had four movies playing in the theater at the same time in 1978.
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Reynolds was known for starring in a mixture of action films and romantic comedies, including Starting Over, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Best Friends, and The Man Who Loved Women. Reynolds shared the screen with his fair share of legendary actresses, including Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Dolly Parton, Goldie Hawn, and Julie Andrews.
There were a handful of iconic roles that Reynolds turned down during his Hollywood career, including Star Wars’ Han Solo, cop John McClane in Die Hard, R.P McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and the character of Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment, which Reynolds had previously commented was one of his worst mistakes.
Reynolds preferred doing his own stunts in the action movies he starred in, and even ended up in the hospital after he crashed his canoe into a bunch of rocks filming for Deliverance after he said the scene looked fake when they tried to use a dummy. In 2015, Reynolds wrote a memoir titled But Enough About Me and shared that he felt that Deliverance was the best movie he’d ever been in: “It proved I could act, not only to the public but me.”
Smokey and the Bandit was one of Reynolds most successful films, earning $126 million and also introducing him to Sally Field where the two became a couple for a while. Reynolds had also been in relationships with Dinah Shore, Inger Stevens, Chris Evert, Judy Carne, Loni Anderson, and mentioned dating Hawn and Farrah Fawcett in his memoir.
Reynolds also made a name for himself on the small screen, starring in a handful of television series that included B.L. Stryker, Gunsmoke, Hawk, and the CBS sitcom Evening Shade, which earned him an Emmy Award in 1991 for best actor.
In April 1972, the actor posed nude on a bearskin rug for Cosmopolitan and almost a decade later even ended up on the cover of Playboy. The Cosmo issue sold about 1.5 million copies, and Reynolds later felt it was one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made, wondering if it had affected how Deliverance was received.
Reynolds had plenty of ups and downs during his career, but in the final paragraph of his memoir, the actor said: “I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging. Well, so far, so good. I know I’m old, but I feel young. And there’s one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did.”
Reynolds is survived by his son, Quinton.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
