Born February 11, 1936 in Lansing, Michigan, Burt Reynolds claimed that he was really born in Waycross, Georgia, that Lansing was where his parents lived when his father was drafted into the U.S. Army. The family moved around quite a bit after that. After the end of World War II, they moved to Rivera, Florida where his father eventually became Chief of Police.
A top football player in high school and college, Reynolds turned to acting in 1956. He went on to appear in numerous television productions in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He made his screen debut in 1961’s Angel Baby in which he was fifth billed behind George Hamilton, Mercedes McCambridge, Joan Blondell, and Henry Jones, but ahead of Salome Jens who had the title role.
More TV roles followed, and from 1962-1965, he had a featured role in the long running series, Gunsmoke. He was married to actress Judy Carne from 1963-1965. After his run in Gunsmoke, he alternated between TV and movies such as 1969’s 100 Rifles with Jim Brown and Raquel Welch. He had a highly publicized relationship with Dinah Shore, twenty years his senior, from 1971-1975.
In addition to his relationship with the legendary singer and TV hostess, Reynolds was everywhere in 1972 including appearing almost completely naked in the centerfold of Cosmopolitan Magazine and starring in John Boorman’s Deliverance with Jon Voight. During the next few years, he alternated box-office hits like 1974’s The Longest Yard with Eddie Albert out-and-out flops like 1975’s Lucky Lady with Gene Hackman and Liza Minnelli.
In a relationship with Sally Field from 1976-1980, the two starred together in the highly successful 1977 car chase comedy, Smokey and the Bandit, also starring Jackie Gleason. It was the first in a series of top box office hits that included 1978’s Semi-Tough in which he starred along with Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson, The End which was stolen by Dom DeLuise, 1979’s Starting Over which brought Oscar nominations to both Jill Clayburgh and Candide Bergen, 1980’s Smokey and the Bandit II, 1981’s Cannonball Run with Roger Moore and Farrah Fawcett, and 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas wopoosite Dolly Parton.
James L. Brooks, who had directed him in Starting Over, wrote the part of the retired astronaut in Terms of Endearment for him but he turned it down to make Stroker Ace for Smokey and the Bandit director Hal Needham, a film that turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Meanwhile, Jack Nicolson who took over the part of the retired astronaut, won his second Oscar for the role.
In flop after flop from 1984’s City Heat, a dull gangster film opposite Clint Eastwood, to 1989’s Switching Channel , a tone-deaf remake of The Front Page, Reynolds married actress Loni Anderson in 1988 to whom he would be married until 1994. In 1990, he returned to TV with the hit comedy series, Evening Shade which also ended in 1994.
In 1997, Reynolds had the best reviewed role of his career at the high-minded pornographer in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights for which he received numerous awards. Nominated for an Oscar for the first and only time, he lost to Robin Williams as Matt Damon’s psychiatrist in Good Will Hunting.
Reynolds acted though 2001 in one flop after another. He died in 2018 at 82.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
DELIVERANCE (1972), directed by John Boorman
Nominated for 3 Oscars – Best Picture, Director, and Film Editing, this was the film that made Reynolds a major star as one of four Atlanta businessmen who take a harrowing canoeing trip in the Georgia back country from which not all will return. Renolds’ trip partners were Golden Globe nominee Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox. The film is famous for its non-stop action, Beatty’s rape scene and the Golden Globe nominated song, “Dueling Banjos”. The supporting cast includes Bill McKinney as the mountain man, James Dickey as a suspicious sheriff and Charley Boorman, the director’s son, as Voight’s son.
THE END (1978), directed by Burt Reynolds
Reynolds both starred in and directed this black comedy about a terminally ill man who has failed at several attempts to commit suicide. Dom DeLuise as Renolds’ fellow psychiatric hospital patient got the lion’s share of the laughs in this one, setting him up to partner with the star in four other films. Sally Field, Renolds’ then girlfriend in real life, played his girlfriend here with Joanne Woodward as his ex-wife, Kristy McNichol as his daughter, and screen legends Pat O’Brien and Myrna Loy in their first film since Consolation Marriage 47 years earlier as his parents. Robby Benson co-starred as a young priest.
STARTING OVER (1979), directed by Alan J. Pakula
Nominated for four Golden Globe awards including Renolds for Best Actor in what was probably his best screen performance as a man going through a midlife crisis. It was also nominated for Best Actress (Jill Clayburgh as his schoolteacher girlfriend), Supporting Actress (Candice Bergen as his annoying ex-wife), and Song (“Better Than Ever” sung excruciatingly by Bergen). By the time the film got to the Oscars, only Clayburgh and Bergen were nominated. Ironically, it was Reynolds’ former girlfriend Sally Field who won the Best Actress Oscar that year for her portrayal of the union organizer in Norma Rae.
THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS (1982), directed by Colin Higgins
Based on the closing of the notorious Texas Chicken Ranch, the film is based on the 1978 Broadway musical that starred Henderson Forsyth and Carlin Glynn as the town sheriff and the house’s madam, respectively. With Reynolds and Dolly Parton in the film version, changes were made to accommodate Parton including allowing her to sing some of her own songs in addition to the musical’s original ones. More ridiculously, at her insistence, a romance between the sheriff and the madam was invented for the film. Charles Durning received an Oscar nomination as the singing and dancing Texas governor.
BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Nominated for 2 Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Reynolds as a pornographic filmmaker), and Best Supporting Actress (Julianne Moore as one of his stars), The film starred Mark Wahlberg in a role turned down by Leonardo DiCaprio who was signed to film Titanic at the same time. Reynolds turned down the role seven times before being convinced by his agent to take the role. After seeing a rough cut of the film, he fired his agent and badmouthed the film, which may have been the reason he lost the award he was widely expected to win. Also prominent in the cast were William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, Nina Hartley, and Joanna Gleason.
BURT REYNOLDS AND OSCAR
Boogie Nights (1997) – nominated – Best Supporting Actor
