Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. (born February
11, 1936) is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include
Lewis Medlock in
Deliverance,
Paul "Wrecking" Crewe in
The Longest Yard, Coach
Nate Scarborough in the 2005 remake of
The Longest Yard, Bo
'Bandit' Darville in
Smokey
and the Bandit, J.J. McClure in
The Cannonball Run, the voice of
Charlie Barkin in
All Dogs Go
to Heaven and Jack Horner in
Boogie Nights. He is one of America's
most recognizable film and television personalities with more than
90 feature film and 300 television episode credits.
Early life
Reynolds's
parents were Burton Reynolds, who was of Cherokee and English
descent, and
his wife, Fern. Reynolds states in his
autobiography that his family was living in
Lansing when his father was
drafted
into the
United States Army.
Reynolds, his mother and his sister joined his father at
Fort Leonard Wood,
where they lived for two years.
Reynolds has stated that his first memories
are of playing in the Ozark
woods at
Fort Leonard Wood. When Reynolds's father was sent to Europe,
the family returned to Lansing, Michigan
. After a short while, the Reynolds family
moved to northern Michigan, across the road from his maternal
grandparents' farm.
Reynolds started attending school in Merritt,
Michigan
, where he
felt he did not belong among the Native American, farm and
backwoods children who made up most of the student
body.
Reynolds's father was discharged from the Army in late 1945.
In early
1946, while his parents were on a second honeymoon in Florida
, his father
was offered a job as general
contractor for a new housing development in Riviera Beach,
Florida
. Reynolds moved to Riviera Beach with his
parents, while his sister stayed in Michigan to finish the school
year. The Reynolds family at first lived in a
mobile home, but subsequently bought the first
house that was completed in the new subdivision.
Reynolds thought he was in paradise when he and former
ex-girlfriend Odessa Scott would drive down Hollywood Blvd on his
motorcycle with his shirt off and hair blowing in the wind.
He had
access to the Everglades
to the west, the shore of the Lake Worth Lagoon to the east, and further
east, across the Blue Heron Boulevard bridge to Singer Island, the
Atlantic
Ocean
. He was fascinated by the
Conch fishermen and their families who made
up most of the population of Riviera Beach.
After two years his father's contractor job ended, and Reynolds's
parents bought a lunch counter and sundry store next to the bridge
to Singer Island. As the business was close to a large dock and
some fish and shrimp packing houses, business was good. Soon after,
Reynolds's father was recruited as a police officer for Riviera
Beach. When the police chief died a few years later, Reynolds's
father became the chief.
As his
home was at the north edge of Riviera Beach, Reynolds attended
school in Lake
Park
, just to the north of Riviera Beach. While
he was in seventh grade, the
Palm Beach County School
Board decided that there were too few seventh grade students in
the school to justify a teacher's salary, and Reynolds was
transferred to Central Junior High School (now
Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts) in
West Palm
Beach
. Reynolds felt lost at the big school, and
started hanging out with
greasers and skipping school. He also
began showing off with dangerous stunts, such as diving off the top
of a raised
drawbridge, and jumping from
an
airboat onto the back of a running
deer.
When Reynolds was twelve he became friends with Jimmy Hooks. After
learning that Jimmy was being physically abused in his home,
Reynolds took Jimmy home with him and told his parents he wanted
Jimmy to be his brother. The family took Jimmy in, eventually
officially adopting him years later when Jimmy was in his
twenties.
When Reynolds was fourteen he tried out for the
football team at Central Junior High. He
had never played organized sports, but worked hard at practice,
earned his
letterman's sweater, and was
named to the county
all-star team.
The next year, when Reynolds entered high school, he made the
varsity team, but did not have much
opportunity to play. In his
junior year
he had more opportunity to play. Seeing his ability, and foreseeing
that he was likely to receive
scholarship offers, one of Reynolds's
coaches persuaded him to take the courses necessary to enter a
college. In his
senior year Reynolds
was named First Team All State and All
Southern as a
fullback, and received multiple
scholarship offers. His most notable performance came against
Swartz Creek High School where he rushed for 310 yards and four
touchdowns while playing with a strained calf muscle.
College
After
graduating from Palm Beach High
School in West Palm Beach, Florida, Reynolds attended Florida State
University
on a college
football scholarship, becoming an all-star halfback. While at Florida State,
Reynolds joined the
Phi Delta Theta
Fraternity, the football team's fraternity of choice. He was
anticipating a very good season his second year, with expectations
of being named to All American teams, and an eventual career in
professional football. In the first game of the season Reynolds
tore the cartilage in his knee. He made the injury worse by trying
to play again later in the game, and then again in a couple of
games late in the season. On Christmas break that year, Reynolds
ran his father's car up under a flatbed trailer that was sitting
across a dark street. The car was wedged under the trailer, and it
took rescuers seven and a half hours to remove Reynolds from the
wreckage. He had multiple injuries, including his knee, shoulder,
some broken ribs, and a ruptured
spleen, the
last of which was removed in emergency surgery.
With his college football career ended, Reynolds considered
becoming a police officer, but his father suggested that he finish
college and become a
parole
officer. In order to keep up with his studies he began taking
classes at
Palm Beach
Junior College (PBJC) in neighboring LakeWorth, Florida. In his
first term at PBJC Reynolds was in a class taught by
Watson B. Duncan III. Duncan pushed Reynolds into
trying out for a play he was producing,
Outward Bound. He cast Reynolds in
the lead, based on his impressions from listening to Reynolds read
Shakespeare in class. Reynolds won the 1956 Florida State Drama
Award for his performance in
Outward Bound. Reynolds calls
Duncan his
mentor and the most-influential
person in his life.
Career
The
Florida State Drama Award included a scholarship to the Hyde Park
Playhouse, a summer stock
theater, in Hyde Park, New York
. Reynolds saw the opportunity as an
agreeable alternative to more physically demanding summer jobs, but
did not yet see acting as a career.
While working at Hyde Park, Reynolds met
Joanne Woodward, who helped Reynolds
find an agent, and be cast in Tea
and Sympathy at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City
. Reynolds received favorable reviews for his
performance in
Tea and Sympathy. Reynolds then went on
tour with
Tea and Sympathy, driving the bus as well as
appearing on stage.
After the tour Reynolds returned to New York and enrolled in acting
classes. His classmates included
Frank
Gifford,
Carol Lawrence,
Red Buttons and
Jan
Murray. After a botched improvisation in acting class, Reynolds
briefly considered returning to Florida, but he soon got a part in
a revival of
Mister
Roberts, with
Charlton
Heston as the star. After the play closed, the director,
John Forsythe, arranged a movie
audition with
Josh Logan for Reynolds.
The movie was
Sayonara, and
Reynolds was told he couldn't be in the movie because he looked too
much like
Marlon Brando.
Logan advised
Reynolds to go to Hollywood
, but Reynolds did not feel confident enough to do
so.
Reynolds worked odd jobs while waiting for acting opportunities.
He waited
tables, washed dishes, drove a delivery truck and worked as a
bouncer at the Roseland
Ballroom
. It was while working as a
dockworker that Reynolds was offered $150 to jump
through a glass window on a live television show.
He made his Broadway debut in
Look, We've Come Through.
Reynolds first starred on television with
Darren McGavin in the 1959-1961
NBC series,
Riverboat. In 1960-1961, he
appeared in two episodes of the
syndicated series
The Blue Angels, about
elite fliers of the
United States
Navy. That same season, he guest starred in the
syndicated crime drama,
The Brothers Brannagan in the
episode "Bordertown". Reynolds went on to appear in a number of
other shows, including a role as
blacksmith/ defacto depute, and half-
Native American Quint
Asper on
CBS's
Gunsmoke from 1962–1965. On
June 11,
1959, he
appeared as Tony Sapio with
Ruta Lee as
Gloria Fallon in the episode entitled "The Payoff" of NBC's 1920s
crime drama,
The Lawless Years. In 1962 Reynolds
secured a guest appearance on
Perry
Mason in "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank".
His film debut was in 1961, in the movie
Angel Baby. At the urging of
friend
Clint Eastwood, Reynolds used
his TV fame to secure leading roles in overseas low budget films,
commonly called "
Spaghetti
Westerns". (Eastwood advised Reynolds from experience, as he
had done the same). Reynolds first Spaghetti Western,
Navajo Joe, came out in 1966. These low
budget starring roles established Reynolds as a bankable leading
man in movies, and earned him starring roles in American big-budget
motion pictures. During this period, he starred in two short-lived
cop shows:
Hawk and
Dan
August. He disparaged these shows, telling
Johnny Carson that Dan August had "two forms
of expression: mad and supermad." His breakout performance in
Deliverance in 1972 made him a
star. The same year, Reynolds gained notoriety when he posed naked
in the April (Vol. 172, No. 4) issue of
Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Reynolds claims he was offered the role of
James Bond by producer
Albert R. Broccoli, after
Sean Connery left the franchise. Reynolds
turned the role down, saying "An American can't play James Bond. It
just can't be done." In 1973, he released the album
Ask Me What
I Am. He would also sing with
Dolly
Parton in
The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas.
Reynolds appeared on
ABC's
The American Sportsman hosted by
outdoors
journalist Grits Gresham, who took celebrities on
hunting,
fishing, and
shooting trips around the world.
On
March 15, 1978,
Reynolds earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
, and in the same year built a dinner theatre in Jupiter, Florida
. His celebrity was such that he drew not
only big-name stars to appear in productions but sell-out audiences
as well. He sold the venue in the early 1990s.
In the 1980s, after
Smokey and the Bandit, he became
typecast in similar, less
well-done and less successful movies. Comedian and actor
Robert Wuhl, in a standup act in the late 80s,
said that "Burt Reynolds makes so many bad movies, when someone
else makes a bad movie Burt gets a
royalty!" He had his
hand at producing a television show with friend
Bert Convy in 1987,
Win, Lose or Draw. He even appeared
as a celebrity gameplayer in a few episodes of the show.
During the first half of the 1990s, he was the star of the
CBS television series
Evening Shade, for which he won an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in
a Comedy Series (1991).
Despite much success, Reynolds's finances were bad, due in part to
an extravagant lifestyle, a messy divorce from
Loni Anderson (see below), and failed
investments in some Florida restaurant chains; consequently, in
1996, Reynolds filed for bankruptcy. The filing was under
Chapter 11, from which Reynolds emerged two years
later.
Reynolds started a comeback with the movie
Striptease in 1996, and the
critically acclaimed
Boogie
Nights, in 1997, put his career back on track. He was
nominated for an
Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for his performance in
Boogie Nights and won a
Golden Globe Award for the movie. He was
considered a front-runner for the Supporting Oscar, but ultimately
lost to
Robin Williams, who won it
for his role in
Good Will
Hunting.
In early 2000, he created and toured
Burt Reynolds's One-Man
Show. In 2002, he lent his voice to the character
Avery Carrington in the controversial video
game
Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City.
In 2005, he co-starred in a remake of
The Longest Yard, with
Adam Sandler playing the role of Paul
Crewe, the role Reynolds had played in the 1974 original. This time
around, Reynolds took on the role of Nate Scarborough. The irony in
Reynolds's participation in the remake was that his role in the
1974 original garnered him a
Golden
Globe nomination "Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy",
while his role in the remake saw him receive a
Razzie Award nomination for "Worst Supporting
Actor". He also appeared in a movie version of the popular 1980s TV
series
The Dukes of
Hazzard, as
Boss Hogg.
He starred in the
audio book version of
The Worst-Case Scenario
Survival Handbook. In May 2006, Reynolds began appearing
in
Miller Lite beer commercials. In 2007
at the
World Stuntman Awards
he was awarded the Taurus Lifetime Achievement Award. While
presenting him with the award
Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to him
as the greatest of the great.
Richard Clayton, who worked
as Reynolds's
agent and personal
manager for twenty-two years, died on
September 29,
2008.
Southern filmmaking
Although
Reynolds had already made eleven films, his performance as Lewis,
the macho Atlanta
businessman in John
Boorman's 1972 film adaptation of James
Dickey's novel Deliverance,
signaled the beginning of his box-office popularity.
Hailed as
one of the year's best films, Deliverance is the story of
four suburbanites' harrowing journey into Appalachian
Georgia
. Filmed on Georgia's
Chattooga River,
Deliverance also
marked the beginning of Reynolds's devotion to making films in and
about the South.
The following year Reynolds was persuaded to play the role of a
moonshiner in the film
White Lightning after the
filmmakers promised to shoot in the
South.
White
Lightning, which was filmed in Arkansas
, broke attendance records nationwide, and the
film's success encouraged Hollywood studios to make more southern films. In 1976
Reynolds both starred in and made his directorial debut with
Gator, the sequel to
White
Lightning. Deciding to shoot
Gator entirely in
Georgia, Reynolds announced that "I have this violent urge to get
behind the camera... I want to say some nice things about the
South."
In 1974
Reynolds starred in the memorable and well-received The Longest Yard, which
was filmed at the Georgia State
Prison in Reidsville
. In the film Reynolds portrays a former NFL
star quarterback who is sent to prison and then forced to put
together a football team composed of fellow inmates to compete in a
life-and-death
football game
against the sadistic warden's own semi-pro team made up of his
sadistic prison guards. Many inmates served as extras and helped to
construct the sets, including a football field that was given to
the prison after filming was complete.
Governor Jimmy Carter played a key role in the
orchestration of the project and, according to Reynolds, promised
that he "would personally come in and take me out if anything
happened." The film was
remade in 2005, with Reynolds
recast as Coach Nate Scarborough, was popular with audiences, but
not with critics. (There was also a British remake, reusing the
1974 film's British title
The Mean Machine, but Reynolds
was not involved in that project.)
During the next few years Reynolds continued his pattern of
choosing southern-themed films that were often shot, at least
partially, in the South. In the 1975 film
W. W. and the Dixie Dance
Kings, filmed in Nashville, Tennessee
, he played the fast-talking, gas station robbing
manager of a group of country musicians whose collective dream is
to one day play the Grand Ole Opry
. Two years later,
Smokey and the Bandit perhaps
showcased Reynolds at his apex in this period. As "The Bandit",
Reynolds appears completely in his element and humorous Southern
charm as a smooth-talking, fast-driving, law-evading modern-day
Southern outlaw. The film also featured legendary comedian
Jackie Gleason as Reynolds's would-be foil,
as well as popular Georgia country singer-songwriter-musician
Jerry Reed. It was and remains one of
Reynolds's best-known and well-loved films. Filmed entirely in
Georgia, the successful comedy was followed in 1980 by
Smokey and the Bandit II,
which was filmed partially in Georgia and Florida.
Reynolds's next film,
The
Cannonball Run, was shot almost entirely in Georgia,
referred to as "Burt's good luck state" by the director,
Hal Needham. That same year Reynolds directed
and starred in
Sharky's
Machine.
Filmed entirely in Atlanta, the movie features Reynolds as a narcotics officer
investigating the murder of a prostitute in the city.
During these years, Reynolds starred in a number of other notable
films, including
The
Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,
Semi-Tough,
The End (which he also directed),
Starting Over and
The Best
Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Personal life
Relationships
At various points in his life, Reynolds was romantically involved
with
Tammy Wynette,
Lucie Arnaz,
Adrienne Barbeau,
Susan Clark,
Sally
Field,
Lorna Luft,
Tawny Little, Pam Seals,
Dinah Shore and
Chris
Evert. His relationship with Shore garnered particular
attention given the fact she was 20 years his senior. Reynolds was
married to actress/comedienne
Judy Carne
from 1963 to 1965, and actress
Loni
Anderson from 1988 to 1993, with whom he adopted a son, Quinton
Anderson Reynolds (born August 31, 1988).
E! Online
reported that he dated Kate Edelman Johnson from 2003 to
2005.
Sports team owner
On
July 3,
1982, Reynolds
lived out one of his dreams by once again getting involved with a
sport that still holds a certain soft spot in his heart, by
becoming a co-owner of the
Tampa Bay
Bandits, a professional football team in the
USFL whose nickname was inspired by his then-recent
Smokey and the Bandit movies. Other owners included
John Bassett and
Stephen Arky, an attorney from Miami. Reynolds
was a general partner of the team from 1982 to 1985, the entire
existence of the
USFL. The team held a winning
record in every year. In 1983 they went 11–7–0 in the Central
Division but did not make the playoffs. In 1984 they went 14–4–0 in
the Southern Division and lost in the conference semifinals to the
Birmingham Stallions 36–17. In
1985 they went 10–8–0 in the Eastern Conference but lost in the
quarterfinals to the
Oakland
Invaders 30–27.
Reynolds also co-owned a
NASCAR Winston Cup team with
Hal
Needham, which ran the #33
Skoal Bandits car, with
driver
Harry Gant.
Burt Reynolds was selected as the special guest ring announcer for
the main event of
WrestleMania
X.
Filmography
Awards and achievements
Television and general film awards
- 1991 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (for
Evening Shade)
- 1992 Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series -
Comedy/Musical (for Evening Shade)
- 1979 Favorite Motion Picture Actor
- 1979 Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer
- 1980 Favorite Motion Picture Actor
- 1982 Favorite Motion Picture Actor
- 1982 Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer
- 1983 Favorite Motion Picture Actor
- 1983 Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer
- 1984 Favorite Motion Picture Actor (tied with Clint Eastwood)
- 1991 Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Series
- 1980 Favorite Film Star - Male
- 1991 Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series (for Evening
Shade)
- 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1998 Supporting Actor of the Year
- 1990 Golden Boot
- 1978 Male Star of the Year Award
- 1980 Male Star of the Year Award
Honorary recognitions
Reynolds has received a number of honorary recognitions over the
years, mostly keys to various cities, or deputy badges from being
deputized.
- Keys to the cities of:
Hollywood,
Florida
/ Miami Beach, Florida
/ Ocala,
Florida
/ Orlando, Florida
/ Palm Beach County, Florida
/ West Palm Beach, Florida/ Buena Park, California
/ Oxnard, California
/ Savannah, Georgia
/ Niagara Falls, New York
/ Clark County, Nevada
/ Piggott, Arkansas
- Deputy Sheriff Badges:
Leon County,
Florida
/ Tallahassee, Florida
/ Tampa,
Florida
/ Mitchell County, Georgia
/ Ramsey County, Minnesota
/ Hawaii
/ South
Carolina
/ Warrensville Township, Ohio /
Arizona
/ Buffalo, New York
City Police / Jackson Parish, Louisiana
/ Jefferson
Parish, Louisiana / Los Angeles County,
California
- 1978
Star (for motion pictures) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd.
- National Association of Theater Owners No. 1 box-office star
for five straight years (1978–82)
- 1987 Eastman Kodak Second Century Award
- 1989 Durex Man Of The Year
- 1991 American Cancer
Society's Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2000 Children at Heart Award
- 2003 Atlanta IMAGE Film and Video Award
- 2007 Taurus Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2007 Best Buddies Canada Lifetime Achievement Award
Singles
| Year |
Single |
Chart Positions |
Album |
| US
Country |
US |
| 1980 |
"Let's Do Something Cheap and Superficial" |
51 |
88 |
Smokey and the Bandit II Soundtrack |
Notes
- ; can be viewed at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY3cuILM698
- Severalsources list Waycross, Georgia as Reynolds's birthplace
( , and ), for example, while other sources show that he was born
in Lansing, Michigan ( Burt Reynolds's Official website), ( NNBD and The
Palm Beach Post, June 28, 2000). Reynolds's autobiography (My
Life) does not name his birthplace, although it does cover his
childhood in Lansing, and fails to mention Waycross at all. For
more discussion on Burt Reynolds's birthplace, see ()
- Reynolds. Pp. 5-12
- Reynolds. Pp. 14-7
- Reynolds. Pp. 17-8
- Reynolds. Pp.18-9
- Reynolds. Pp. 17, 22-4
- Reynolds. Pp. 17, 27-8
- Reynolds. Pp. 17, 33-7, 41-4
- Photo gallery of Reynolds at FSU:
http://heritage.fsu.edu/photos/burtatfsu.html
- Reynolds. Pp. 49-56
- Reynolds. Pp. 57-9
- Reynolds. Pp. 59-63.
- Reynolds. Pp. 63-5.
- Reynolds. Pp. 65-7.
-
http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1038368.php
- Laura J. Margulies (2008), " Famous Bankruptcies".
- Gary Eng Walk (07 October1998), " Burt Reynolds closes the book on Chapter 11",
Entertainment Weekly
- Anderson. 251-253, 262-263
- BURT AND LONI, AND BABY MAKES GLEE (The Philadelphia Inquirer -
September 3, 1988)
- ( ) Burt Reynolds received a lifetime achievement award from
Best Buddies Canada. The Oscar-nominated actor received the honour
at a benefit gala with musical guest Chantal Kreviazuk
in Toronto on September
10, 2007. Best Buddies Canada is a national charitable organization
dedicated to fostering friendships between students and individuals
with intellectual disabilities. Reynolds is receiving its annual
award for his decades-long "commitment to aiding and inspiring
youth by supporting drama education and humanitarian causes", said
the group. Such causes include the Burt Reynolds Institute for
Theatre in Tequest, Florida, founded by the legendary actor in
1979. Donations by the star have also helped establish the Burt
Reynolds Eminent Scholar Chair in Regional and Professional Theatre
at Florida State University, and the Asolo
Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida Reynolds has already
been honoured for his efforts in aiding the children of
Chernobyl.
References
- Reynolds, Burt. (1994) My Life. New York: Hyperion.
ISBN 0-7868-6130-4
- Anderson, Loni. (1997) My Life in High Heels. Avon
Books. ISBN 9780380728541
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