Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (born February 11, 1936 in Waycross, Georgia) is an American actor of (partial) Cherokee descent. He may be best remembered as the "Bandit" in the 1977 hit film Smokey and the Bandit and the film's two sequels, Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983).
Biography
Reynolds attended Florida State University on a
college football scholarship, becoming an all-star Southern
Conference halfback. After a knee injury in 1955 and then a debilitating car accident,
Reynolds switched from athletics to college drama and won the 1956 Florida State Drama
Award. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts National Football League team, but he never played
professional football.
Reynolds won a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse and moved to upstate New
York. He did gigs as a stuntman for television programs until he was "discovered" in a
revival of Mister Roberts in New York City and signed to a television acting contract. He made his Broadway debut in Look, We've
Come Through.
Reynolds first starred on television, in the 1950s series Riverboat. His film debut was in 1961, in the movie
Angel Baby. His breakout
performance in Deliverance (1972) made him a star.
Reynolds gained additional notoriety in 1972 when he posed in the April (Vol. 172, No. 4) issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. It is said to be the first centerfold of a (near) nude male.
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). In 1997, Reynolds 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. Reynolds has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Reynolds has also directed a few movies, the best-known being Sharky's Machine, released
in 1981.
Reynolds was married to actress Judy Carne from 1963 - 1965 and actress Loni
Anderson from 1988 - 1993 and had relationships
with other actresses such as Sally Field and Dinah Shore. The divorce from Loni Anderson became a highly publicized, bitter feud.
The bad press from his divorce caused Reynolds' already slowing career to nosedive and he had to declare bankruptcy in late 1996. Reynolds started a
comeback with the movie Striptease (1996), and the critically acclaimed Boogie Nights
(1997) put his career back on track. In early 2000, he created and toured Burt Reynolds'
One Man Show. His autobiography, titled My Life, was published in 1994.
Filmography
- Angel Baby (1961)
- Armored Command
(1961)
- Operation
C.I.A. (1965)
- Navajo Joe (1966)
- Blade Rider, Revenge of the Indian Nations (1966)
- 100 Rifles (1969)
- Sam Whiskey (1969)
- Impasse (1969)
- Shark! (1969)
- Skullduggery
(1970)
- The Dangerous World of 'Deliverance' (1972) (short subject)
- Fuzz (1972)
- Deliverance (1972)
- Everything You Always Wanted to Know
About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) (Cameo)
- Shamus (1973)
- White Lightning (1973)
- The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
- The Longest Yard (1974)
- At Long Last Love (1975)
- W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975)
- Lucky Lady (1975)
- Hustle (1975)
- Silent Movie (1976) (Cameo)
- Gator (1976) (also director)
- Nickelodeon (1976)
- Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
- Semi-Tough (1977)
- The End (1978) (also director)
- Hooper (1978) (also producer)
- Starting Over (1979)
- Rough Cut (1980)
- Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
- The Cannonball Run (1981)
- Paternity (1981)
- Sharky's
Machine (1981) (also director)
- The Best Little Whorehouse
in Texas (1982)
- Best Friends
(1982)
- Stroker Ace (1983)
- Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983)
- The Man
Who Loved Women (1983)
- Cannonball Run II (1984)
- City Heat (1984)
- Southern Voices, American Dreams (1985) (documentary)
- Stick (1985) (also director)
- Uphill All the
Way (1986) (Cameo)
- Sherman's March (1986) (documentary)
- Heat (1986)
- Malone (1987)
- Rent-a-Cop (1988)
- Switching Channels (1988)
- Physical
Evidence (1989)
- Breaking In (1989)
- All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) (voice)
- Modern Love (1990)
- The Player (1992) (Cameo)
- Cop & 1/2
(1993)
- A Century of
Cinema (1994) (documentary)
- The Maddening
(1995)
- Frankenstein and
Me (1996)
- Citizen Ruth (1996)
- Striptease (1996)
- Mad Dog Time
(1996)
- Meet Wally
Sparks (1997)
- Raven (1997)
- Bean (1997)
- Boogie Nights (1997)
- Crazy Six (1998)
- Waterproof (1999)
- The Hunter's
Moon (1999)
- Pups (1999)
- Big City Blues
(1999)
- Stringer (1999)
- Mystery, Alaska
(1999)
- The Crew (2000)
- The Last
Producer (2000) (also director)
- Driven (2001)
- Tempted (2001)
- Hotel (2001)
- The Hollywood
Sign (2001)
- On Heart and
Kidneys (2001)
- Snapshots (2002)
- Time of the
Wolf (2002)
- The Librarians
(2003)
- 4th and Life (2003)
(documentary)
- Gumball
3000: The Movie (2003)
- Without a Paddle (2004)
- The Longest Yard (2005) (currently in
post-production)
- The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) (currently in
post-production)
- Forget About It
(2005) (currently in post-production)
- Delgo (2005) (voice) (currently in post-production)
- Cloud Nine (2005) (currently in post-production)
- Grilled (2005) (currently filming)
- End Game (2005) (currently
filming)
- Instant Karma (2005)
(currently in production)
External links
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