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Burt Reynolds (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/burt-reynolds-star-deliverance-smokey-185417744.html) has died (https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Burt%20Reynolds%22&src=tren&data_id=tweet%3A1037777712931368961) at the age of 82, Us Weekly can confirm exclusively.

A source tells Us the actor went into cardiac arrest at a hospital in Florida on Thursday, September 6. His family was by his side.

After starring in TV shows such as Gunsmoke and Dan August, Reynolds rose to fame in the ‘70s for his breakout role as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance. The actor, who has nearly 200 film and TV credits, also starred in multiple successful films including 1974’s The Longest Yard, 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit, 1996’s Striptease and 1997’s Boogie Nights, the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination.

Reynolds’ movie Defining Moments is set to be released in December 2018. He was also currently filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood alongside Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, which is expected to hit theaters in 2019.

Reynolds underwent heart surgery in 2010. His manager told CNNOpens a New Window. at the time that Reynolds “has a great motor with brand new pipes.”

Reynolds was married to Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965 and Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1993, with whom he shares his adult son Quinton Anderson Reynolds. He previously said ex-girlfriend Sally Field, whom he dated on-off for five years in the ‘70s and ’80s, was the one who got away during a December 2015 interview with Vanity Fair.

“I miss her terribly,” he told magazine at the time. “Even now, it’s hard on me. I don’t know why I was so stupid. Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up.”

Reynolds is survived by his son.


Burt Reynolds Dies at 82 (https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/burt-reynolds-dead-actor-dies-at-82/)

He had been suffering from heart problems for a number of years apparently. :(

Burt Reynolds, best known for hit films such as "Smokey and the Bandit," "Gator" and "The Longest Yard," among several other '70s and early '80s multiplex films, has died today at age 83.


Reynolds, who'd been suffering from Health Problems for several years, went into Cardiac Arrest at a local Hospital in Jupiter, Florida where he died of a Massive Heart Attack; though sudden, the end of Burt Reynolds' life was not entirely unexpected.


Born on February 11, 1935 in Lansing, Michigan (verified by his "E! True Hollywood Story" and the 1987 pilot of Peter Tomarken's "Wipeout" where Burt's then-current age was revealed to be 52), Burton Leon Reynolds, Jr. grew up in Jupiter, Florida, the son of Burt Reynolds, Sr., who after retiring from the Army in 1936 moved his wife and then 1-year-old Buddy (as Burt's family called him in his youth) to Jupiter, Florida; as a young teenager living in nearby Riviera Beach, Florida, Buddy befriended an orphaned classmate, Jimmy, to whom he convinced his parents to legally adopt him as Buddy's younger brother.


In 1962, at age 27, Burt found his initial fame as Quint Asper for 3 years on CBS's "Gunsmoke," then followed that success with a slew of short-lived flops e.g. "Hawk" and "Dan August" before finding his greatest success as a Box Office Multiplex star with hit after hit after hit, from "Gator" to "The Longest Yard," "Smokey and the Bandit" to "Switching Channels."


He failed twice at marriage--first to Judy Carne in the early 1960s and later to Loni Anderson, whose marriage to Burt ended in divorce in 1993, and who along with their son Quinton, survives him.


As half of Burt & Bert, Burt Reynolds co-created with the late Bert Convy the late '80s game show "Win, Lose or Draw," which had 2 teams each composing of 2 Celebrity Guests and an Ordinary Contestant per show competing in a game where the object was to guess words, names & phrases by drawing--a show that spun off into Disney Channel's Saturday-morning game show "Teen Win, Lose or Draw."


Both the original and Teen "Win, Lose or Draw" versions ceased production in 1990, with Burt & Bert leaving the original in 1989 and having veteran producer Richard Kline (NOT to be confused with the actor from TV's "Three's Company") take over as showrunner, with disastrous results.


He followed "Win, Lose or Draw" with the early '90s sitcom "Evening Shade," which Burt himself solely created, basing the sitcom on a fictionalized version of his real life as a star football player at Florida State University in Tallahassee--only for his football aspirations to be cut tragically short, causing him to become an actor instead.


He also hired "Designing Women" creator Linda Bloodworth to write a Pilot Script for "Evening Shade" and helped him pitch the series to MTM Enterprises, Inc., which greenlit the series, with CBS airing the series from 1990-1994, spanning 4 seasons of 98 episodes til its abrupt cancellation.


After the cancellation of "Evening Shade," Burt made a few more comeback films such as "Boogie Nights" and the upcoming "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."


Despite his troubles, physically and otherwise, Burt Reynolds will always be remembered for the many roles and films and TV series he made as a successful actor, and for that, may he RIP.


02/11/1935 - 09/06/2018

RIP Burt!! This is very sad and shocking!!!:eek: This has been a really bad day!!:(

His legacy will always live on and never be forgotten.

:( :O Is all I can say.

Ed.

So sad to hear of his passing. I recently watched an episode of The X-Files that he was in and I really enjoyed his acting.

Burt on Season 9 of The X-Files:

My dad and I were also talking about Evening Shade and how he found the show to be funny.

Rest in peace.

Burt with Raquel Welch & Marilu Henner on Evening Shade.

Rest in peace.

The ex-jock from Florida starred in 'Deliverance' and 'Boogie Nights' but preferred making such populist, fun fare as 'Smokey and the Bandit,' 'The Cannonball Run' and 'Starting Over.'

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/

Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of such films as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit who set out to have as much fun as possible on and off the screen — and wildly succeeded — has died. He was 82.

Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Always with a wink, Reynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in such romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews.

Though beloved by audiences for his brand of frivolous, good-ol'-boy fare, the playful Reynolds rarely was embraced by the critics. The first time he saw himself in Boogie Nights, he was so unhappy he fired his agent. (He went on to win a Golden Globe but lost out in the Oscar supporting actor race to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, a bitter disappointment for him.)

"I didn't open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn't interested in challenging myself as an actor. I was interested in having a good time," Reynolds recalled in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me. "As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance."

Still, Reynolds had nothing to apologize for. He was Hollywood's top-grossing star every year from 1978 through 1982, equaling the longest stretch the business had seen since the days of Bing Crosby in the 1940s. In 1978, he had four movies playing in theaters at the same time.

Reynolds' career also is marked by the movies he didn't make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively. He often said that passing on James L. Brooks' Endearment was one of his worst career mistakes. (Nicholson won an Oscar for playing Breedlove.)

Reynolds also indicated he was Milos Forman's first choice to play R.P. McMurphy (another Nicholson Oscar-winning turn) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "backed away" from playing Batman on TV in the 1960s and declined the part made famous by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

In John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), based on a book by James Dickey, Reynolds starred as macho survivalist Lewis Medlock, one of four guys from Atlanta who head to the wilderness for the weekend. Filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond along the Chattooga River near the Georgia-South Carolina border, it was an arduous production that Boorman shot in sequence.

"When I asked John why, he said, 'In case one of you drowns,'" Reynolds wrote.

He had good reason. When Reynolds saw test footage of a dummy in a canoe going over the falls in one scene, he told Boorman the scene looked fake. He climbed into the canoe, was sent crashing into the rocks and ended up in the hospital. "I asked [Boorman] how [the new footage] looked, and he said, 'Like a dummy going over the falls,'" Reynolds wrote.

Deliverance, infamous for its uncut 10-minute hillbilly male rape scene ("squeal like a pig"), was nominated for three Academy Awards but came away empty. It lost out to The Godfather in the best picture battle.

"If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance," Reynolds wrote. "I don't know if it's the best acting I've done, but it's the best movie I've ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me."

Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the "standard of hirsute masculinity" — showed off his mustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)

The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. "It's been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made," he wrote, "and I'm convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved."

A running back in high school and college who talked with legendary coach Bear Bryant about attending Alabama, Reynolds put his gridiron skills to use in Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard (1974), playing Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, who leads his rag-tag team of prison inmates in a game against the guards. He later starred in Semi-Tough (1977), another football film.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977), written and directed by his pal, the legendary stuntman Hal Needham, grossed $126 million (that's $508 million today, and only Star Wars took in more that year). Reynolds, who stars as Bo "Bandit" Darville, hired to transport 400 cases of Coors from Texas to Atlanta in 28 hours, noted that, unbelievable as it sounds, Smokey was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movie.

Reynolds drives a sleek Pontiac Trans-Am in the film, and after the picture opened, sales of the model soared. (His black car is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch," and the Tampa Bay Bandits, a U.S. Football League team in which he had an ownership stake, were named for the movie.)

Smokey spawned two sequels, and Reynolds went on to work again with Needham in The Cannonball Run (1981), another fun-filled action film that spawned another franchise. His other high-octane films included Sharky's Machine (1981) and two movies as ex-con Gator McClusky.


In Smokey, Reynolds starred alongside Sally Field, and the two were an item for some time. He also had relationships with the likes of Dinah Shore (20 years his senior), Inger Stevens and Chris Evert, and he talked about dating Hawn and Farrah Fawcett in his book.

"There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later," Field said in a statement. "My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy."

Reynolds was married to British actress Judy Carne (famous for NBC's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) from 1963-66 and then to Loni Anderson, the voluptuous blonde best known for the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, from 1988-93. Both marriages were tempestuous, and his divorce with Anderson was particularly messy.

After a string of big-screen failures and the cancellation of his ABC private detective series B.L. Stryker, Reynolds rejuvenated his career by starring in the 1990-94 CBS sitcom Evening Shade, created by Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

He won an Emmy Award in 1991 for best actor in a comedy series for playing Woodrow "Wood" Newton, a former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback who returns to his small-town home in Arkansas to coach a woeful high school team.

Burton Milo Reynolds Jr. was born on Feb. 11, 1936, in Waycross, Georgia, and raised in Florida's Palm Beach County. His father was an Army veteran who became the police chief in Riviera Beach, Florida, not too far from the Everglades.

"My dad was my hero, but he never acknowledged any of my achievements," he wrote in his memoir. "I always felt that no amount of success would make me a man in his eyes."

Then known as Buddy Reynolds, he played halfback at Palm Beach High School, where his teammate was future New York Yankees manager Dick Howser, then suited up at Florida State, where Lee Corso, later a college coach and ESPN analyst, played on both sides of the ball. But he suffered a knee injury as a sophomore, and that was it for football and Florida State.

Reynolds enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College and appeared in a production of Outward Bound, playing the part handled by John Garfield in the 1944 film adaptation, Between Two Worlds. That led to a scholarship and a summer-stock stint at the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York. He roomed with another aspiring actor, Rip Torn, and they studied at the Actors Studio.

After a few appearances on Broadway and on television, Reynolds was off to Hollywood, where he signed with Universal and manned the wheel as Ben Frazer on Riverboat, an NBC Western that starred Darren McGavin.

He met Needham on that show, and the stuntman would double for him on projects through the years. Reynolds is referenced in "The Unknown Stuntman," the theme song from the 1980s ABC series The Fall Guy, and he played an aging stuntman in Needham's second film, Hooper (1978).

Reynolds joined Gunsmoke for its eighth season in 1962 as Quint Asper, a half-Comanche who becomes the Dodge City blacksmith. He played the title warrior in the 1966 spaghetti Western Navajo Joe, was an Iroquois who worked as a New York City detective in the short-lived ABC series Hawk and portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in 100 Rifles (1969).

Reynolds got another shot at toplining his own ABC show, playing homicide detective Dan August in a 1970-71 Quinn Martin production, but the series was axed after a season.

Reynolds appeared often on NBC's The Tonight Show, and in 1972 he became the first non-comedian to sit in for Johnny Carson as guest host (Reynolds' first guest that night was his ex-wife, Carne; they hadn't spoken in six years, and she made a crack about his older girlfriend Shore). He and Carson once engaged in a wild and improvised whipped-cream fight during a taping, and he got to show a side of him the public never knew.

"Before I met Johnny, I'd played a bunch of angry guys in a series of forgettable action movies, and people didn't know I had a sense of humor," he wrote. "My appearances on The Tonight Show changed that. My public image went from a constipated actor who never took a chance to a cocky, wisecracking character."

Reynolds showed that lighter side when he played a sperm in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972), and he lampooned his lavish Hollywood lifestyle in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976). He was not above making fun of himself and his toupee.

In 1979, he opened the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter and in the 1980s, he developed the syndicated game show Win, Lose or Draw with host Bert Convy. The set was modeled after his living room.

With his divorce from Anderson and bad restaurant investments contributing to more than $10 million in debts, Reynolds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996 and came out of it two years later. In recent years, he sold properties in Florida, including his fabled 160-acre ranch — The Allman Brothers recorded an album there in the 1990s — and auctioned off personal belongings.

"My uncle was not just a movie icon; he was a generous, passionate and sensitive man who was dedicated to his family, friends, fans and acting students," his niece, Nancy Lee Hess, said in a statement.

"He has had health issues, however, this was totally unexpected. He was tough. Anyone who breaks their tailbone on a river and finishes the movie is tough. And that’s who he was. My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino [In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood] and the amazing cast that was assembled."

Survivors also include his son, Quinton; he and Anderson adopted him when he was 3 days old.

Despite the ups and downs of a Hollywood life, Reynolds seemed to have no regrets.

"I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging," he wrote in the final paragraph of his memoir. "Well, so far, so good. I know I'm old, but I feel young. And there's one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did."

The ex-jock from Florida starred in 'Deliverance' and 'Boogie Nights' but preferred making such populist, fun fare as 'Smokey and the Bandit,' 'The Cannonball Run' and 'Starting Over.'

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/

Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of such films as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit who set out to have as much fun as possible on and off the screen — and wildly succeeded — has died. He was 82.

Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Always with a wink, Reynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in such romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews.

Though beloved by audiences for his brand of frivolous, good-ol'-boy fare, the playful Reynolds rarely was embraced by the critics. The first time he saw himself in Boogie Nights, he was so unhappy he fired his agent. (He went on to win a Golden Globe but lost out in the Oscar supporting actor race to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, a bitter disappointment for him.)

"I didn't open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn't interested in challenging myself as an actor. I was interested in having a good time," Reynolds recalled in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me. "As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance."

Still, Reynolds had nothing to apologize for. He was Hollywood's top-grossing star every year from 1978 through 1982, equaling the longest stretch the business had seen since the days of Bing Crosby in the 1940s. In 1978, he had four movies playing in theaters at the same time.

Reynolds' career also is marked by the movies he didn't make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively. He often said that passing on James L. Brooks' Endearment was one of his worst career mistakes. (Nicholson won an Oscar for playing Breedlove.)

Reynolds also indicated he was Milos Forman's first choice to play R.P. McMurphy (another Nicholson Oscar-winning turn) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "backed away" from playing Batman on TV in the 1960s and declined the part made famous by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

In John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), based on a book by James Dickey, Reynolds starred as macho survivalist Lewis Medlock, one of four guys from Atlanta who head to the wilderness for the weekend. Filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond along the Chattooga River near the Georgia-South Carolina border, it was an arduous production that Boorman shot in sequence.

"When I asked John why, he said, 'In case one of you drowns,'" Reynolds wrote.

He had good reason. When Reynolds saw test footage of a dummy in a canoe going over the falls in one scene, he told Boorman the scene looked fake. He climbed into the canoe, was sent crashing into the rocks and ended up in the hospital. "I asked [Boorman] how [the new footage] looked, and he said, 'Like a dummy going over the falls,'" Reynolds wrote.

Deliverance, infamous for its uncut 10-minute hillbilly male rape scene ("squeal like a pig"), was nominated for three Academy Awards but came away empty. It lost out to The Godfather in the best picture battle.

"If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance," Reynolds wrote. "I don't know if it's the best acting I've done, but it's the best movie I've ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me."

Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the "standard of hirsute masculinity" — showed off his mustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)

The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. "It's been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made," he wrote, "and I'm convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved."

A running back in high school and college who talked with legendary coach Bear Bryant about attending Alabama, Reynolds put his gridiron skills to use in Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard (1974), playing Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, who leads his rag-tag team of prison inmates in a game against the guards. He later starred in Semi-Tough (1977), another football film.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977), written and directed by his pal, the legendary stuntman Hal Needham, grossed $126 million (that's $508 million today, and only Star Wars took in more that year). Reynolds, who stars as Bo "Bandit" Darville, hired to transport 400 cases of Coors from Texas to Atlanta in 28 hours, noted that, unbelievable as it sounds, Smokey was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movie.

Reynolds drives a sleek Pontiac Trans-Am in the film, and after the picture opened, sales of the model soared. (His black car is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch," and the Tampa Bay Bandits, a U.S. Football League team in which he had an ownership stake, were named for the movie.)

Smokey spawned two sequels, and Reynolds went on to work again with Needham in The Cannonball Run (1981), another fun-filled action film that spawned another franchise. His other high-octane films included Sharky's Machine (1981) and two movies as ex-con Gator McClusky.


In Smokey, Reynolds starred alongside Sally Field, and the two were an item for some time. He also had relationships with the likes of Dinah Shore (20 years his senior), Inger Stevens and Chris Evert, and he talked about dating Hawn and Farrah Fawcett in his book.

"There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later," Field said in a statement. "My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy."

Reynolds was married to British actress Judy Carne (famous for NBC's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) from 1963-66 and then to Loni Anderson, the voluptuous blonde best known for the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, from 1988-93. Both marriages were tempestuous, and his divorce with Anderson was particularly messy.

After a string of big-screen failures and the cancellation of his ABC private detective series B.L. Stryker, Reynolds rejuvenated his career by starring in the 1990-94 CBS sitcom Evening Shade, created by Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

He won an Emmy Award in 1991 for best actor in a comedy series for playing Woodrow "Wood" Newton, a former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback who returns to his small-town home in Arkansas to coach a woeful high school team.

Burton Milo Reynolds Jr. was born on Feb. 11, 1936, in Waycross, Georgia, and raised in Florida's Palm Beach County. His father was an Army veteran who became the police chief in Riviera Beach, Florida, not too far from the Everglades.

"My dad was my hero, but he never acknowledged any of my achievements," he wrote in his memoir. "I always felt that no amount of success would make me a man in his eyes."

Then known as Buddy Reynolds, he played halfback at Palm Beach High School, where his teammate was future New York Yankees manager Dick Howser, then suited up at Florida State, where Lee Corso, later a college coach and ESPN analyst, played on both sides of the ball. But he suffered a knee injury as a sophomore, and that was it for football and Florida State.

Reynolds enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College and appeared in a production of Outward Bound, playing the part handled by John Garfield in the 1944 film adaptation, Between Two Worlds. That led to a scholarship and a summer-stock stint at the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York. He roomed with another aspiring actor, Rip Torn, and they studied at the Actors Studio.

After a few appearances on Broadway and on television, Reynolds was off to Hollywood, where he signed with Universal and manned the wheel as Ben Frazer on Riverboat, an NBC Western that starred Darren McGavin.

He met Needham on that show, and the stuntman would double for him on projects through the years. Reynolds is referenced in "The Unknown Stuntman," the theme song from the 1980s ABC series The Fall Guy, and he played an aging stuntman in Needham's second film, Hooper (1978).

Reynolds joined Gunsmoke for its eighth season in 1962 as Quint Asper, a half-Comanche who becomes the Dodge City blacksmith. He played the title warrior in the 1966 spaghetti Western Navajo Joe, was an Iroquois who worked as a New York City detective in the short-lived ABC series Hawk and portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in 100 Rifles (1969).

Reynolds got another shot at toplining his own ABC show, playing homicide detective Dan August in a 1970-71 Quinn Martin production, but the series was axed after a season.

Reynolds appeared often on NBC's The Tonight Show, and in 1972 he became the first non-comedian to sit in for Johnny Carson as guest host (Reynolds' first guest that night was his ex-wife, Carne; they hadn't spoken in six years, and she made a crack about his older girlfriend Shore). He and Carson once engaged in a wild and improvised whipped-cream fight during a taping, and he got to show a side of him the public never knew.

"Before I met Johnny, I'd played a bunch of angry guys in a series of forgettable action movies, and people didn't know I had a sense of humor," he wrote. "My appearances on The Tonight Show changed that. My public image went from a constipated actor who never took a chance to a cocky, wisecracking character."

Reynolds showed that lighter side when he played a sperm in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972), and he lampooned his lavish Hollywood lifestyle in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976). He was not above making fun of himself and his toupee.

In 1979, he opened the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter and in the 1980s, he developed the syndicated game show Win, Lose or Draw with host Bert Convy. The set was modeled after his living room.

With his divorce from Anderson and bad restaurant investments contributing to more than $10 million in debts, Reynolds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996 and came out of it two years later. In recent years, he sold properties in Florida, including his fabled 160-acre ranch — The Allman Brothers recorded an album there in the 1990s — and auctioned off personal belongings.

"My uncle was not just a movie icon; he was a generous, passionate and sensitive man who was dedicated to his family, friends, fans and acting students," his niece, Nancy Lee Hess, said in a statement.

"He has had health issues, however, this was totally unexpected. He was tough. Anyone who breaks their tailbone on a river and finishes the movie is tough. And that’s who he was. My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino [In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood] and the amazing cast that was assembled."

Survivors also include his son, Quinton; he and Anderson adopted him when he was 3 days old.

Despite the ups and downs of a Hollywood life, Reynolds seemed to have no regrets.

"I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging," he wrote in the final paragraph of his memoir. "Well, so far, so good. I know I'm old, but I feel young. And there's one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did."

The ex-jock from Florida starred in 'Deliverance' and 'Boogie Nights' but preferred making such populist, fun fare as 'Smokey and the Bandit,' 'The Cannonball Run' and 'Starting Over.'

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/

Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of such films as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit who set out to have as much fun as possible on and off the screen — and wildly succeeded — has died. He was 82.

Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Always with a wink, Reynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in such romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews.

Though beloved by audiences for his brand of frivolous, good-ol'-boy fare, the playful Reynolds rarely was embraced by the critics. The first time he saw himself in Boogie Nights, he was so unhappy he fired his agent. (He went on to win a Golden Globe but lost out in the Oscar supporting actor race to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, a bitter disappointment for him.)

"I didn't open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn't interested in challenging myself as an actor. I was interested in having a good time," Reynolds recalled in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me. "As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance."

Still, Reynolds had nothing to apologize for. He was Hollywood's top-grossing star every year from 1978 through 1982, equaling the longest stretch the business had seen since the days of Bing Crosby in the 1940s. In 1978, he had four movies playing in theaters at the same time.

Reynolds' career also is marked by the movies he didn't make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively. He often said that passing on James L. Brooks' Endearment was one of his worst career mistakes. (Nicholson won an Oscar for playing Breedlove.)

Reynolds also indicated he was Milos Forman's first choice to play R.P. McMurphy (another Nicholson Oscar-winning turn) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "backed away" from playing Batman on TV in the 1960s and declined the part made famous by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

In John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), based on a book by James Dickey, Reynolds starred as macho survivalist Lewis Medlock, one of four guys from Atlanta who head to the wilderness for the weekend. Filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond along the Chattooga River near the Georgia-South Carolina border, it was an arduous production that Boorman shot in sequence.

"When I asked John why, he said, 'In case one of you drowns,'" Reynolds wrote.

He had good reason. When Reynolds saw test footage of a dummy in a canoe going over the falls in one scene, he told Boorman the scene looked fake. He climbed into the canoe, was sent crashing into the rocks and ended up in the hospital. "I asked [Boorman] how [the new footage] looked, and he said, 'Like a dummy going over the falls,'" Reynolds wrote.

Deliverance, infamous for its uncut 10-minute hillbilly male rape scene ("squeal like a pig"), was nominated for three Academy Awards but came away empty. It lost out to The Godfather in the best picture battle.

"If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance," Reynolds wrote. "I don't know if it's the best acting I've done, but it's the best movie I've ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me."

Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the "standard of hirsute masculinity" — showed off his mustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)

The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. "It's been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made," he wrote, "and I'm convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved."

A running back in high school and college who talked with legendary coach Bear Bryant about attending Alabama, Reynolds put his gridiron skills to use in Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard (1974), playing Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, who leads his rag-tag team of prison inmates in a game against the guards. He later starred in Semi-Tough (1977), another football film.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977), written and directed by his pal, the legendary stuntman Hal Needham, grossed $126 million (that's $508 million today, and only Star Wars took in more that year). Reynolds, who stars as Bo "Bandit" Darville, hired to transport 400 cases of Coors from Texas to Atlanta in 28 hours, noted that, unbelievable as it sounds, Smokey was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movie.

Reynolds drives a sleek Pontiac Trans-Am in the film, and after the picture opened, sales of the model soared. (His black car is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch," and the Tampa Bay Bandits, a U.S. Football League team in which he had an ownership stake, were named for the movie.)

Smokey spawned two sequels, and Reynolds went on to work again with Needham in The Cannonball Run (1981), another fun-filled action film that spawned another franchise. His other high-octane films included Sharky's Machine (1981) and two movies as ex-con Gator McClusky.


In Smokey, Reynolds starred alongside Sally Field, and the two were an item for some time. He also had relationships with the likes of Dinah Shore (20 years his senior), Inger Stevens and Chris Evert, and he talked about dating Hawn and Farrah Fawcett in his book.

"There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later," Field said in a statement. "My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy."

Reynolds was married to British actress Judy Carne (famous for NBC's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) from 1963-66 and then to Loni Anderson, the voluptuous blonde best known for the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, from 1988-93. Both marriages were tempestuous, and his divorce with Anderson was particularly messy.

After a string of big-screen failures and the cancellation of his ABC private detective series B.L. Stryker, Reynolds rejuvenated his career by starring in the 1990-94 CBS sitcom Evening Shade, created by Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

He won an Emmy Award in 1991 for best actor in a comedy series for playing Woodrow "Wood" Newton, a former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback who returns to his small-town home in Arkansas to coach a woeful high school team.

Burton Milo Reynolds Jr. was born on Feb. 11, 1936, in Waycross, Georgia, and raised in Florida's Palm Beach County. His father was an Army veteran who became the police chief in Riviera Beach, Florida, not too far from the Everglades.

"My dad was my hero, but he never acknowledged any of my achievements," he wrote in his memoir. "I always felt that no amount of success would make me a man in his eyes."

Then known as Buddy Reynolds, he played halfback at Palm Beach High School, where his teammate was future New York Yankees manager Dick Howser, then suited up at Florida State, where Lee Corso, later a college coach and ESPN analyst, played on both sides of the ball. But he suffered a knee injury as a sophomore, and that was it for football and Florida State.

Reynolds enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College and appeared in a production of Outward Bound, playing the part handled by John Garfield in the 1944 film adaptation, Between Two Worlds. That led to a scholarship and a summer-stock stint at the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York. He roomed with another aspiring actor, Rip Torn, and they studied at the Actors Studio.

After a few appearances on Broadway and on television, Reynolds was off to Hollywood, where he signed with Universal and manned the wheel as Ben Frazer on Riverboat, an NBC Western that starred Darren McGavin.

He met Needham on that show, and the stuntman would double for him on projects through the years. Reynolds is referenced in "The Unknown Stuntman," the theme song from the 1980s ABC series The Fall Guy, and he played an aging stuntman in Needham's second film, Hooper (1978).

Reynolds joined Gunsmoke for its eighth season in 1962 as Quint Asper, a half-Comanche who becomes the Dodge City blacksmith. He played the title warrior in the 1966 spaghetti Western Navajo Joe, was an Iroquois who worked as a New York City detective in the short-lived ABC series Hawk and portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in 100 Rifles (1969).

Reynolds got another shot at toplining his own ABC show, playing homicide detective Dan August in a 1970-71 Quinn Martin production, but the series was axed after a season.

Reynolds appeared often on NBC's The Tonight Show, and in 1972 he became the first non-comedian to sit in for Johnny Carson as guest host (Reynolds' first guest that night was his ex-wife, Carne; they hadn't spoken in six years, and she made a crack about his older girlfriend Shore). He and Carson once engaged in a wild and improvised whipped-cream fight during a taping, and he got to show a side of him the public never knew.

"Before I met Johnny, I'd played a bunch of angry guys in a series of forgettable action movies, and people didn't know I had a sense of humor," he wrote. "My appearances on The Tonight Show changed that. My public image went from a constipated actor who never took a chance to a cocky, wisecracking character."

Reynolds showed that lighter side when he played a sperm in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972), and he lampooned his lavish Hollywood lifestyle in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976). He was not above making fun of himself and his toupee.

In 1979, he opened the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter and in the 1980s, he developed the syndicated game show Win, Lose or Draw with host Bert Convy. The set was modeled after his living room.

With his divorce from Anderson and bad restaurant investments contributing to more than $10 million in debts, Reynolds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996 and came out of it two years later. In recent years, he sold properties in Florida, including his fabled 160-acre ranch — The Allman Brothers recorded an album there in the 1990s — and auctioned off personal belongings.

"My uncle was not just a movie icon; he was a generous, passionate and sensitive man who was dedicated to his family, friends, fans and acting students," his niece, Nancy Lee Hess, said in a statement.

"He has had health issues, however, this was totally unexpected. He was tough. Anyone who breaks their tailbone on a river and finishes the movie is tough. And that’s who he was. My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino [In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood] and the amazing cast that was assembled."

Survivors also include his son, Quinton; he and Anderson adopted him when he was 3 days old.

Despite the ups and downs of a Hollywood life, Reynolds seemed to have no regrets.

"I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging," he wrote in the final paragraph of his memoir. "Well, so far, so good. I know I'm old, but I feel young. And there's one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did."

Wow, we lost another legend today. He will certainly be missed... :( :( :(

I'm just in shock. :(

Rest in peace.

Burt with Raquel Welch & Marilu Henner on Evening Shade.

https://twitter.com/TheRealMarilu/status/1037793983404097537

Noooo! Not Burt Reynolds (https://www.tvtattle.com/topic/Burt-Reynolds-w9f798)! He was the most generous, talented, special man, co-star & friend EVER! I loved him so much & was lucky to work (https://www.tvtattle.com/topic/Evening-Shade-BKfLyw) w/him 5 times. So many great memories! #NoOneLikeHim #IMissYouBurt

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1037782886894555136/BzcrDEET?format=jpg&name=600x314

:rip:

Rest in peace Burt!

I am heartbroken. I loved him in Smokey and the Bandit:(

RIP Mr. Reynolds

One of the greats. :(

Evening Shade creators remember Burt Reynolds (https://twitter.com/THR/status/1037868351048114176)
Co-creators Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason released a statement paying tribute to Reynolds, who starred on the CBS sitcom from 1990 to 1994, earning an Emmy and a Golden Globe award. "The critically acclaimed series, Evening Shade, was created expressly for and with the incomparable help of Burt Reynolds," said the husband-and-wife producing team. "Burt won the Emmy for best actor during our first season. He was sweet, brash, exasperating, hot-tempered, generous and wickedly talented. To be sure, it was a wild ride. R.I.P. Burt. May your star never go out."

Not surprising. He had been in poor health for years. I remember seeing him on variety shows like Carol Burnett. He was a very gifted comedian and dramatic actor. He will be missed. :(

This one really kind of shocked me!!:eek: IDK ? I know he was 82 but nowadays that isn't even very old! But I just always remember him from his Smokey and the Bandid days ! Well 70's and 80's movies and I just always picture him at that age even though I know he was older of course! One of my Mother's crushes!! She LOVED Burt;):heart: as did lots of women in her generation! :)

My Mom passed a few years ago ,so hoping she gets to meet her hotty in heaven!! ;) But sad still cause like I said 82 isn't really that old, a shame he didn't have a few more years ! :(


RIP Mr. Reynolds!



http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/9113216-3x2-700x467.jpg

I know the film was panned, tanked, yada yada yada but I'll always have a special place for this 1970 Burt Reynolds movie...

Not surprising. He had been in poor health for years. I remember seeing him on variety shows like Carol Burnett. He was a very gifted comedian and dramatic actor. He will be missed. :(


Exactly. It's sad he died but he was in poor health for years and 82 years old. What upsets me is I remember him in his prime and he was 82.

I know everyone has their time to go, but this upsets me. Burt Reynolds was one heck of an actor. I loved him in the movie, Starting Over, with Jill Clayburgh and Candace Bergen. If you're a Reynold's fan and haven't seen it, check it out. You won't regret it. Solid performances all around.

My dad really liked him in Evening Shade, and it’s sad to see him pass. :(

I know everyone has their time to go, but this upsets me. Burt Reynolds was one heck of an actor. I loved him in the movie, Starting Over, with Jill Clayburgh and Candace Bergen. If you're a Reynold's fan and haven't seen it, check it out. You won't regret it. Solid performances all around.


Hilarious movie. Haven't seen it in years.

My favorite was Deliverance. Absolutely riveting but very tough to watch.

He will be missed...I may watch Semi-Tough in his honor....

The SO blog did a nice tribute to his television career.

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2018/09/sitcomsonline-digest-geoffrey-owens.html?m=1

Very sad yes :(

Yes i was quite surprised when I first heard :(

He does excellent in Smokey an the bandit (1977) and in BREAKIN IN (1989)

:(

:rip:

:rip:

A very young ,cute Burt Reynolds is guest starring on Gunsmoke on METV right now ! :)For the next few days ME will be showing Gunsmoke eps.with Burt guest starring ! :);)

Will there be any Evening Shade marathons?

Rest in peace.

Burt with Sally Field in Smokey and the Bandit:

Rest In Peace.

ABC's The Year in Memoriam will feature Loni Anderson paying tribute to her ex-husband Burt Reynolds (https://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/tv-guy/os-et-burt-reynolds-loni-anderson-salute-abc-special-20181206-story.html)

The Dec. 17 special hosted by Robin Roberts and produced by Jimmy Kimmel will also feature Reynolds' Evening Shade wife Marilu Henner. A tribute to Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin will also be a part of the program, featuring Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Kelly Clarkson and Smokey Robinson. There will also be salutes to former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, as well as John McCain and Stephen Hawking.

Burt Reynolds' ashes placed at Hollywood Forever Cemetery ... more than two years after his death (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9252621/Burt-Reynolds-ashes-placed-Hollywood-Forever-Cemetery-two-years-death.html)

Burt Reynolds' ashes were placed in a lakeside grave at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Thursday.

A family Zoom ceremony was held in memory of the actor, who died at 82 in a Jupiter, Florida hospital September 6, 2018 and was subsequently creamated following his passing, the AP reported.

This comes after a small memorial attended by friends and loved ones in the weeks following his death.

A temporary headstone with the actor's name was placed at the location of the grave, with plans on installing a bust of the iconic entertainer. It was not immediately clear why the timeline of the project was extended.

Tyler Cassity, the cemetery's co-owner and president, told the AP that plans are in the offing to unveil the bust this fall, to coincide with the third anniversary of Boogie Nights star's passing.

Reynolds' grave was decorated with flowers, a wreath and a small toy car resembling the Trans Am he drove in the Smokey and the Bandit movies.

It's located in the section of the establishment that is also the final resting place of actor Tyrone Power and late musical stars Johnny Ramone and Chris Cornell.

Monetary and legal aspects of Reynolds' estate were fully settled late last year, with his niece Nancy Hess overseeing the transactions.

At the time of his death, Reynolds had been slated to appear in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, playing Spahn ranch owner George Spahn. (Bruce Dern played the role in the wake of Reynolds' passing.)

'My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino, and the amazing cast that was assembled,' Hess said following Reynolds' death of the movie, which featured Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, the latter winning an Oscar for his efforts.