Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor most famous during the 1970s and '80s. He became well known in the television series Gunsmoke (1962–1965), Hawk (1966) and Dan August (1970–1971). He had leading roles in the films Navajo Joe (1966), and 100 Rifles (1969), and his breakthrough role as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972).

Reynolds played leading roles in financially successful films such as White Lightning (1973), The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (which started a seven-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), Smokey and the Bandit III (1983), and Cannonball Run II (1984), several of which he directed. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Reynolds was voted the world's number-one movie actor from 1978 to 1982 in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a five-year record he shares with Bing Crosby (until equaled by Clint Eastwood in 1993, Tom Cruise in 2000, and Tom Hanks in 2004), until Tom Cruise eclipsed them all in 2001 with a sixth (having a total of 7 as of 2026)

After a number of box-office failures, Reynolds returned to television. He starred in the situation comedy Evening Shade (1990–1994), which won 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 acclaim, earning the Golden Globe Award 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 Burton Milo Reynolds Sr. and Harriet Fernette "Fern" (née Miller). His family descended from Dutch, English, Scots-Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Reynolds also claimed some Cherokee and Italian ancestry.

During his career, Reynolds often said he was 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 relocated to Lake City, Michigan, where his mother had been raised. In 1946, the family relocated to Riviera Beach, Florida, where in sixth grade, Reynolds began a lifelong close friendship with Dick Howser. Reynolds's father eventually became chief of police of Riviera Beach, which is adjacent to the north end of West Palm Beach, Florida. His nickname in Riviera Beach was "Buddy".

At Palm Beach High School, Reynolds lettered in football and track and was named a first-team All-State fullback in 1953 and an honorable-mention selection to the 34th annual All-Southern team. He was initially offered a college football scholarship by University of Miami head coach Andy Gustafson, but ultimately chose to play for head coach Tom Nugent at Florida State University.

College

While at Florida State, Reynolds roomed with future college football coach, broadcaster, and analyst Lee Corso, and also became a brother in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

He earned his first start of the 1954 football season at right halfback in FSU's inaugural victory of the season against the University of Louisville. Reynolds tallied a one-yard touchdown in the game. Despite suffering a separated shoulder in the middle of the season, Reynolds finished his freshman season with 16 carries for 134 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 76 yards, returned five punts, and had an interception while playing defense.

In 1955, Reynolds was slated to start in the backfield for the Seminoles (8–4 in 1954), but suffered a torn cartilage in his right knee during preseason workouts. After testing the injured knee in a "B" game versus Georgia Tech, Reynolds realized he could not make cuts like he once did and left school. "I knew then I was finished as a football player," he told The Palm Beach Post. A week later, Reynolds underwent knee surgery at St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach. His surgeon predicted he could resume his playing career the following year.

However, two months later, Reynolds, then 19, was critically injured in an automobile accident on Florida State Road A1A, suffering internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, after colliding with a stalled truck. The driver of the truck fled the scene, according to the newspaper report. Reynolds said he lost a prized wristwatch from the 1955 Sun Bowl game in the crash and left his vehicle totaled.

Reynolds did not return to the Florida State campus 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 as a backup halfback, but was hampered by lingering injuries from the car accident. In an away game against Boston College, Reynolds averaged four yards on three carries and caught two passes. He was blamed, fairly or unfairly, for the team's loss to North Carolina State University on October 12, 1957. Immediately after the game, he told his teammates that he was done with football. The couple did not wed. In 1959, Hayden, a speech major in college, wed FSU grad and Navy veteran Edwin Watson Richardson Jr., a car dealer in Tallahassee.

Early acting

During his spring term at PBJC in 1956, Reynolds enrolled in an English class taught by Watson B. Duncan III. Duncan encouraged Reynolds to try out for a school play he was directing called Outward Bound. He cast Reynolds in a main role based on having heard him read Shakespeare in class. Reynolds's performance earned him a best actor award at the 1956 PBJC Drama Awards. "I read two words and they gave me a lead," In his autobiography, he referred to Duncan as his mentor and the most influential person of his life.

Career

Theater

The drama award Reynolds won in junior college included a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater in Hyde Park, New York. Reynolds considered the opportunity as an agreeable alternative to more physically demanding summer jobs, but did not yet consider acting a potential 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. "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." After the tour, Reynolds returned to New York City 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, improv." After the play closed, director John Forsythe arranged a movie audition with Joshua Logan for Reynolds. The movie was Sayonara (1957). Reynolds was told that he could not be in the movie 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 that Reynolds did a screen test after studio talent agent Lew Wasserman saw the effect that Reynolds had on secretaries in his office, but the test was unsuccessful.)

While finding himself to be a struggling actor, Reynolds worked in a variety of jobs: waiting tables, washing dishes, driving a delivery truck, and even worked as a bouncer at the Roseland Ballroom. He 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

upright|thumb|Reynolds (right) with [[Darren McGavin in Riverboat]]

upright|thumb|Reynolds (left) with [[John Williams (actor)|John Williams as William Shakespeare in The Twilight Zone featuring Reynolds parodying look-alike Marlon Brando]]

Reynolds began acting for television during the late 1950s, with guest roles on Flight, M Squad, Schlitz Playhouse, The Lawless Years, and Pony Express. He went on to sign a seven-year contract with Universal Studios. "I don't care whether he can act or not," said Wasserman. "Anyone who has this effect on women deserves a break." Subsequently, Reynolds 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."

In 1961, he returned to Broadway to appear in Look, We've Come Through, directed by José Quintero, but it lasted only five performances.

Reynolds continued to guest-star on episodes of Naked City, Ripcord, Everglades, Route 66, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone ("The Bard", an hour-long send-up of Reynolds's 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

thumb|right|upright|Reynolds as Quint Asper in [[Gunsmoke, 1962]]

In 1962, Dennis Weaver wanted to quit the cast of Gunsmoke, one of the top-rated shows in the country. The producers developed a new character, "half-breed" blacksmith Quint Asper. Reynolds was cast, chosen over 300 other actors. He announced that 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."

He played another Native American in the spaghetti Western film Navajo Joe (1966), which was filmed in Spain. He said, "It wasn't my favorite picture." He later said, "I had two expressions—mad and madder."

He also guest-starred in Gentle Ben, and made a pilot for a TV series, Lassiter, in which he would have played a magazine journalist. It did not develop into a series.

Reynolds made a series of movies in quick succession: Shark! (1969), filmed 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, of which director Jud Taylor took his name. Impasse (1969) was a war movie filmed in the Philippines. Reynolds plays 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."

In a 1969 interview, Reynolds expressed interest in playing roles like the John Garfield part in The Postman Always Rings Twice, but no one gave him the opportunity. "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.'"

Dan August and talk shows

thumb|upright|right|Reynolds in 1970.

Reynolds played the title character in the police television drama Dan August (1970–71), produced by Quinn Martin. Reynolds had previously guest-starred in two episodes of Martin's production The F.B.I. The series was given a full-season order of 26 episodes, based on the reputation of Martin and Reynolds, but it struggled in the ratings against Hawaii Five-0 and was not renewed.

Albert R. Broccoli asked Reynolds to play James Bond after Sean Connery, but Reynolds declined the role, saying, "An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done."

After the cancelation of the series, Reynolds appeared in 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 made the kind of movies "they show in airplanes or prisons or anywhere else the people can't get out". He proved to be popular and was frequently asked back by Griffin and Johnny Carson; he also guest hosted The Tonight Show.

He later said that his talk-show appearances were "the best thing that ever happened to me. They changed everything drastically overnight. I spent 10 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."

The Godfather and Marlon Brando feud

Reynolds was considered for the role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, but Francis Ford Coppola chose to cast James Caan in the part. Talk arose that Reynolds's participation was vetoed by Marlon Brando, who lacked respect for him. Brando denied that he played a role in thwarting the casting of Reynolds, saying in a January 1979 Playboy interview, Coppola would not have cast Reynolds in the part. Reynolds himself later claimed that he declined the role of Sonny. (The Godfather producer Albert S. Ruddy later produced The Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run II, two Reynolds movie successes during the 1980s.)

The Brando-Reynolds feud became Hollywood legend. Reynolds said that he could not understand Brando's enmity toward him. In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Reynolds said, "He was a strange man. He didn't like me at all." He did not consciously imitate Brando, nor act like him, nor try to look like him; he even grew a mustache so that people would stop saying that he looked like Brando.

When he was finally introduced to Brando, Reynolds said that he told him that he was the finest actor in the world. Brando replied, "I wish I could say the same for you."

Around this time, Reynolds also gained notoriety for his well-publicized relationship with Dinah Shore, who was 20 years his senior, as well as posing nude in the April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan. Reynolds said that he posed for Cosmopolitan for "a kick. I have a strange sense of humor," and because he knew that Deliverance was about to be released. Deliverance was a commercial and critical success, which along with talk-show appearances, helped establish Reynolds as a major movie actor. "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."

Reynolds had the title role of Shamus (1973), playing a private detective. The movie drew lackluster reviews, nonetheless, it became a box-office success. Reynolds described it as "not a bad film, kind of cute".

White Lightning and Southern movies

Another turning point in Reynolds's career came in 1973 when he made the light-hearted car-chase film written by William W. Norton, White Lightning. 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." Reynolds told Business Insider in 2016, "I just didn't want to play that kind of role at the time. Now I regret it. I wish I would have done it."

Directorial work

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 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. More popular was a comedy that he made with Needham and Field, Hooper (1978), in which he played an aging stunt man.

"My ability as an actor gets a little better every time," he said. "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."

For California Suite (1978), Reynolds declined a leading role, which went to Alan Alda.

Career decline

James L. Brooks wrote the role of astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (1983) with Reynolds in mind. However, Reynolds refused the role, and instead starred in another car-chase comedy Stroker Ace (1983), directed by Needham. The Endearment part went to Jack Nicholson, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Reynolds said in 1987, "I felt I owed Hal more than I owed Jim," but Stroker Ace failed. Reynolds admitted that refusing that role was a mistake. "I regret that one most of all because it was a real acting part.... I wish I would have done it, and thinking back now, it was really a stupid decision, but I made a lot of stupid decisions in that period. It must have been my stupid period."

In 1983, an unnamed producer said that while Reynolds's salaries would not decrease because of Stroker Aces 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 that it was a turning point in his career from which he never recovered. "That's where I lost them," he said of his fans.

thumb|Clint Eastwood, [[Sondra Locke, Burt Reynolds, and Loni Anderson at the premiere of City Heat (1984)]]

For director Blake Edwards, Reynolds starred in The Man Who Loved Women (1983), a remake in English of François Truffaut's 1977 film L'Homme qui aimait les femmes, but it also failed. In an interview at about 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'. The moderately successful animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), in which Reynolds voiced Charlie B. Barkin, was one of his few successes at the time.

"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: B.L. Stryker and Evening Shade

Reynolds returned to television with the detective series with B.L. Stryker (1989–90). It ran two seasons, during which time Reynolds played a supporting part in Modern Love (1990).

Reynolds starred in the situation comedy television series, Evening Shade (1990–94) as former Pittsburgh Steelers player Woodward "Wood" Newton. The series was a considerable success, with 98 episodes over four seasons. This role earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Reynolds credited this role for his membership in Steeler Nation. During his tenure on Evening Shade, Reynolds participated in other projects, starting with a cameo in The Player (1992) (playing himself complaining about people in Hollywood).

Reynolds starred in the crime film Cop and a Half (1993). On August 25, the Randy Travis television special Wind in the Wire first aired; Reynolds was among the guests. On October 15, CBS first broadcast the television movie The Man from Left Field, co-featuring Reba McEntire. Reynolds starred and directed.

Character actor

After Evening Shade ended in 1994, Reynolds played the lead in a horror movie, The Maddening (1995). He gradually became more of a character actor, though; he had a major supporting role in Citizen Ruth (1996), an early work from Alexander Payne, and Striptease (1996) with Demi Moore. Reynolds had to audition for Striptease. The movie's producer later said, "To be honest, we were not enthusiastic at first. There was the hair and his reputation, but we were curious... At the first audition, on the first day, Burt had to take off his toupee in front of six or seven people. It was tough for him, but he did it. It was a very, very humbling thing to do, but by the end of the audition, it was really clear that Burt was the guy." Reynolds accepted a salary of $350,000;<!-- Empty reference " Reynolds got the role and earned some strong reviews for his performance, and the film was successful at the box office although it was panned by critics.

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 movie. About this time, he claimed he was depleted financially, having spent $13 million. Boogie Nights co-star William H. Macy stated in an interview that Reynolds was clueless about the film and had become out of touch with the film industry due to his age.

Reynolds was offered a role in Anderson's third film, Magnolia (1999), but he declined it. In 2012, he clarified he did not hate Boogie Nights itself and called it "extraordinary", saying his opinion of the film has nothing to do with his relationship with Anderson. In his second autobiography, But Enough About Me (2015), Reynolds attempted to come to terms with his difficult nature. In a 2015 GQ interview, he said that his problem with Anderson was a matter of their differing personalities:

Despite his Oscar nomination for Boogie Nights and a new appreciation of his acting talent by movie critics, Reynolds failed to return to the A list; while work was plentiful, prestige projects were lacking.

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 movie featuring himself. It resulted in 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 featured 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), featuring himself, and was second-billed in Renny Harlin's Driven (2001), featuring 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 with Julie Christie, an $11 million Anglo-Dutch-American picture that failed to find a wide release. He also featured in 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 his earlier performances: Without a Paddle (2004), a riff on his role in Deliverance, The Longest Yard (2005), a remake of his 1974 success with Adam Sandler playing Reynolds's old role (while Reynolds played the Michael Conrad part from the original); and The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) as Boss Hogg as a reference to his performances in 1970s car-chase movies.

Reynolds continued to play lead roles in movies 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 and 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 10 episodes. He was in Apple of My Eye (2016) and took the lead in The Last Movie Star (2017).

In May 2018, Reynolds joined the cast of Quentin Tarantino's movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as George Spahn (an 80-year-old blind man who rented out his ranch to Charles Manson), but he died before filming his scenes and was replaced by Bruce Dern.

Posthumous releases

Reynolds appeared posthumously in the 2020 movie Defining Moments, which includes his final performance.

Other ventures

Reynolds was credited as the author of a 1972 mass-market paperback book Hot Line: The Letters I Get...And Write! that featured seminude "beefcake" photos of the actor, playing up his image as a male sex symbol. He also published two autobiographies: My Life in 1994 and But Enough About Me in 2015.

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".

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).

Personal life

thumb|Reynolds and [[Loni Anderson at the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 1991.]]

In college, Reynolds "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."

Marriages and long-term relationships

Reynolds was married to English actress Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965. He lived with actress Miko Mayama from 1968 to 1971. American singer-actress Dinah Shore and he 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 said that he regarded Field as the love of his life.

Reynolds was married to American actress Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1994. They had an adopted son, Quinton. Anderson and he separated after he became infatuated with a cocktail waitress, Pam Seals, with whom he later traded lawsuits, which were settled out of court. 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's 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.

Restaurants and dinner theater

During the late 1970s, Reynolds opened Burt's Place, a nightclub restaurant in the Omni International Complex in Atlanta in the Hotel District of downtown Atlanta. The establishment closed after a year. ("Burt's Place" also was the name of a building that was part of the guesthouse complex at Reynolds's Tequesta, Florida, estate in Palm Beach County, Florida.) 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 had 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. The restaurant was defunct at the time of his death.

Partnering with Killen Music Group owner Buddy Killen, Reynolds invested in Po' Folks, a chain of country-cooking, family-style restaurants located in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Reynolds emerged from bankruptcy two years later.

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 residential developer K. Hovnanian Homes.

Health problems

Reynolds suffered from hypoglycemia, which he discussed publicly on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. During his numerous appearances on The Tonight Show, Reynolds also told Johnny Carson that he suffered from anxiety.

The Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures awarded the Richard "Diamond" Farnsworth Award to Reynolds in 2015.

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's 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 of that year, a bronze bust of Reynolds was placed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

On the day of Reynolds's death, Antenna TV, which broadcasts The Tonight Show nightly, broadcast 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 movies in Georgia, all of which were successful, which helped make the state one of the top filming locations in the country. The Florida State football team honored Reynolds with helmet decals reading "BAN ONE", in the design and style of the license plate of the Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit, plus Reynolds's signature, worn for the rest of the 2018 season. 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.

Accolades

Reynolds was nominated twice for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1991 and 1992 for Evening Shade, winning in 1991 and losing to Craig T. Nelson in Coach the next year.

He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1998, losing out to Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting.

Reynolds won Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy for Evening Shade in 1992, and as Best Supporting Actor in Boogie Nights in 1998. He also was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Television Series-Drama for Dan August in 1971, as Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy for The Longest Yard in 1975 and as Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Musical/Comedy for Starting Over in 1980. He also received Best Actor in a TV series nominations for Evening Shade in 1991 and 1993.

Reynolds won four People's Choice Awards, as Favorite Motion Picture Actor and Favorite All-Around Male in 1983, as Favorite Motion Picture Actor (tied with Clint Eastwood) in 1984, and as Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Series in 1991.

In 2015, the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures awarded Reynolds the Richard "Diamond" Farnsworth Award, named after Richard Farnsworth, the career stunt man who made the transition into a successful acting career.

There is a Burt Reynolds Park in Jupiter, Florida, maintained by Palm Beach County.

Filmography

Bibliography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Title

! Year

! Category

! Info

! ISBN

| Hot Line: The Letters I Get...And Write!

| non-fiction

| New York: Signet

| My Life

| Autobiography

| New York: Hyperion.

| Seminole Seasons

| Sports

| Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company

| Barkley Unleashed: A Pirate's Tail

| Children's book

| Dove Kids Book & Audio

| But Enough About Me: A Memoir

| Autobiography

| G.P. Putnam's Sons

Discography

Ask Me What I Am (1973)

Singles

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2"| Year

! rowspan="2"| Title

! colspan="3"| Chart positions

! rowspan="2"| Album

! rowspan="2"| Songwriter

! style="width:45px;"| US Country

! style="width:45px;"| US

! style="width:45px;"| CAN Country

| 1980

| "Let's Do Something Cheap and Superficial"

| style="text-align:center;"| 51

| style="text-align:center;"| 88

| style="text-align:center;"| 33

| Smokey and the Bandit 2: Original Soundtrack

| Richard Levinson

| 1982

| "Sneakin' Around" (with Dolly Parton)

| style="text-align:center;"| -*

| The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (soundtrack)

| Dolly Parton