Burt Reynolds, the macho movie star who had a string of blockbuster hits in the ’70s and ’80s, followed by an Oscar-nominated comeback in 1997’s Boogie Nights, died Thursday in Florida, according to his manager. He was 82.
With his sex symbol good looks and mischievous, self-deprecating sense of humor, Reynolds always seemed like a shoe-in for big-screen stardom. But he only took up acting after a promising football career was cut short by a knee injury while playing at Florida State University. Born Feb. 11, 1936, the Georgia native got his start in show business as a stuntman and taking bit parts on TV before landing a regular spot on the popular ’60s Western Gunsmoke.
Reynolds’ biggest early success on the silver screen was in 1972’s Deliverance, in which he played one of four male friends whose backwoods canoeing trip goes seriously awry. For the remainder of the ’70s and the first half of the ’80s, Reynolds ruled the box office, racking up hit after hit as a rebellious, Southern-fried good ol’ boy in the Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit films.
Reflecting on his ascent in 1981, Reynolds told the New York Times, “You know, there are three ways to make it in Hollywood. You can become an ‘ac-tor’ — a guy with things standing out in his neck — or you can become a personality, or you can become a star. I always wanted to be all three. I think … I think I may have made it.”
Though he continued to work steadily, Reynolds’ box office power waned. He found a home on TV, winning an Emmy in 1991 for his starring role in the long-running down-home sitcom Evening Shade, and he enjoyed a brief film comeback in the late ’90s thanks to his unlikely role as a patriarchal porn producer in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Off screen, Reynolds was known for a tabloid-worthy personal life, including his early-’70s relationship with singer and talk show host Dinah Shore (who was 20 years his senior), his 1972 nude centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine, his relationship with Smokey costar Sally Field, and his tumultuous marriages to comedian Judy Carne (1963-65) and actress Loni Anderson (1988-93). Nonetheless, Reynolds was happy to live outside the Hollywood spotlight, making his home in Jupiter, Florida, where he founded the Jupiter Theatre and mentored younger actors.
In his later years, Reynolds often played elder-statesman roles, in such movies as Adam Sandler’s Longest Yard remake and the big-screen adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard, in which he portrayed comic villain Boss Hogg. In 2018, he played the title role in the Adam Rifkin-directed drama The Last Movie Star, which drew on elements of Reynolds’ own life in a story about a fading matinee idol confronting his mortality and legacy.
Ahead of the film’s release, Rifkin spoke to EW about working with Reynolds. “There’s a saying: Never meet your heroes, because you will inevitably be disappointed,” he said. “But whoever said that never met Burt Reynolds.”
from Viral News Now https://ift.tt/2oNgs9S
via IFTTT
0 Comments