Burt Reynolds, legendary actor of 'Smokey and the Bandit' fame, dead at 82

Burt Reynolds, the legendary actor with the disarming smile and trademark mustache who starred in iconic films including "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Longest Yard," has died, Fox News has confirmed. He was 82.

The actor's agent, Todd Eisner, told us Reynolds died Thursday morning from cardiac arrest.

Reynold's Hollywood career skyrocketed in the ‘70s after his breakout film role as Lewis Medlock in 1972’s “Deliverance.” The star went on to appear in nearly 200 films throughout his lifetime.

He received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of adult film director Jack Horner in 1997's "Boogie Nights."

(Reuters)

Born Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. in Waycross, Ga., Reynolds attended Florida State University for two years on a football scholarship. However, his promising career as a running back was cut short after he suffered a knee injury in a car accident.

Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up

- Burt Reynolds on his relationship with Sally Field

Reynolds then focused on acting and moved to New York City where he struggled to find his footing. His first credited role was the 1958 TV series “Flight.” He also made several guest roles in shows such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Perry Mason” and “The Twilight Zone,” among others.

HOLLYWOOD REACTS TO BURT ...LDS' DEATH

The “Smokey and the Bandit” icon dated his co-star, Sally Fields, for five years after they met on the set of the 1977 film. The former couple appeared in four films together before calling it quits in the ‘80s.

Burt Reynolds, Loni Anderson and Dom DeLuise at The 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards on August 25, 1991 at Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. (ABC via Getty Images)

Reynolds would go on to marry actress Loni Anderson in 1988. That marriage ended in 1994. He was also married to English actress Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965.

Reynolds himself admitted over the years that ending his relationship with Field was probably one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

Reynolds said he wanted Field to star with him in “Smokey and the Bandit” but was told the actress was not sexy. (Getty)

“I miss her terribly,” he told Vanity Fair back in 2015. “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.”

Back in March, Reynolds revealed to “Today” show host Hoda Kotb that Field was the love of his life. Reynolds also explained he wanted Field to star with him in “Smokey and the Bandit” but was told the actress was not “sexy.”

“I said, ‘You don’t get it, talent is sexy,’” said Reynolds.

Actors Burt Reynolds and Ariel Winter address the audience during a Q&A session at the Los Angeles premiere of 'The Last Movie Star' at the Egyptian Theatre on March 22, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (2018 Getty Images)

His last completed film, “Defining Moments,” is set to be released on December 2018. He was currently filming “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” opposite Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. That film, which details the Manson family and their reign of terror over Hollywood, is set to be premiere in 2019.

Reynolds also made his mark in Westerns, such as 1959’s “Riverboat” and “Gunsmoke” from 1962 until 1965.

In 2010, Entertainment Tonight reported Reynolds underwent quintuple bypass surgery.

In a statement at the time, Reynolds’s rep Erik Kritzer said: “Mr. Reynolds has been released from a hospital in Florida in which he had a planned bypass operation. He wants to thank everyone for their good wishes and states that he has a great motor with brand new pipes and he is feeling great. Doctors plan on a speedy recovery. ”

Reynolds is survived by his son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, whom he shared with Loni Anderson.

The 1997 movie Boogie Nights is my favorite movie of the 90s.Burt was terrific in that film.

He used to be so handsome back in the day. RIP Burt.

A legend is gone. RIP.

Sticky thread



RIP Mr. Reynolds.

'RIP Mr. Burt Reynolds: My introduction as an actor was Mr. Reynolds 3 year TV run on Gunsmoke. Reynolds' was kinda the transition between Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver) and then Festus (Ken Curtis) becoming Matt Dillon's sidekick.

I remember Mr. Reynolds' more for his witty one liners and his gift for story telling on ALL the talk shows. I always thought Dinah Shore was a cool woman for haven't bagged this gorgeous man. Even so some obits regard his career and his choices of movies as being light weight, though he was for about a decade box-office King. I think it bothered the Hollywood elite's that he didn't take himself too nor the acting profession too seriously. I never understood why the Cosmo centerfold "marked" his acting career. Even so my favorite Reynolds' movie, "Starting Over".Wow, know all of the principle actors of Gunsmoke have passed. My condolences to his family and those who loved him dearly.

I loved his laugh, it was so infectious!

He was soooo sexy, RIP in The Best Little Whore House in Texas (1982)

I loved Burt. His movies in the 70's and 80's were excellent. He was very funny and very good looking. And, who can forget Deliverance, great movie.

let's also take a moment to remember 'hotline,' the incredible book of steamy fan letters that reynolds published in 1972.

it is magnificent.

R.I.P

Burt Reynolds nude: 10 facts about the Cosmo centrefold https://www.msn.com/en-us...DJ?ocid=st

it's 40 years since a nude Cosmopolitan centrefold of actor Burt Reynolds broke a taboo and launched a new era of women's magazine publishing.

"At last a male nude centrefold - the naked truth about guess who!!" screamed a banner on the front page. Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown saw it as a victory for women whose "visual appetites" had been ignored by male magazine editors and proprietors.

It also boosted Cosmopolitan's circulation and turned Burt Reynolds into a 1970s sex icon. So what was the story behind the photograph?

1. It began on a TV show. Burt Reynolds was standing in for Johnny Carson as presenter of the Tonight show on NBC, and Helen Gurley Brown was his guest. "He was handsome, humorous, wonderful body, frisky," she told James Landers, author of a book on the first 100 years of Cosmopolitan. "During our conversation I asked him if he would pose for us." He agreed.

2. It could have been Paul Newman. Gurley Brown had approached him, before putting the question to Burt Reynolds, but he had refused.

3. It made Burt Reynolds into a celeb. The day after the magazine hit news-stands, he was mobbed by women asking him to sign their copy. Reynolds also noticed a change in the behaviour of theatre audiences from "polite to boisterous". "Standing ovations turned into burlesque show hoots and catcalls. They cared more about my pubes than they did about the play," he wrote in his 1994 autobiography, My Life. Gurley Brown said: "He had been a movie star, now he was a celebrity."

4. It made Cosmopolitan notorious. "At the time, you know, men liked to look at women naked. Well, nobody talked about it, but women liked to look at men naked. I did," Gurley Brown told Landers, who noted that the photograph pushed Cosmopolitan across a threshold, in the public mind, from a mainstream magazine "to a sex magazine".

5. It spawned Playgirl magazine. Douglas Lambert, owner of the Playgirl Club, decided to launch the magazine after seeing what a "winner" the Burt Reynolds centrefold was. "It came to me, that's what women want. If a woman says she wants to see a man's smile, his eyes, I say 'Don't lie to me,'" he was quoted as saying.

6. Reynolds chose the picture. A number of shots were taken. The choice of which would be published was left to the model.

7. The bearskin was a humorous touch. "I think that's probably a joke," says New York-based fashion portrait photographer Max Vadukul. "This is a very macho statement, a real bloke, full on, and totally confident," he says. He reckons Reynolds would have been happy going further, and removing the artfully placed arm from his lap.

8. You won't see this in 2012. It would be a tough photograph to take in 2012, Vadukul says, because of the "commodity factor" - the actor's publicists would be concerned about damage to his brand, among some members of the public. "It's a very modern picture, it would still be a very talkative picture. Who would be the equivalent of this guy - George Clooney? It's very far ahead of its time, from that period when anything goes, people swinging partners non-stop..."

9. The photographer was the celebrated Francesco Scavullo. Scavullo shot most Cosmopolitan covers over a 30-year period, and was involved in controversy again when he took photographs of a young Brooke Shields that some considered too sexual. He died in 2004, on the day he was due to photograph CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the next but one centrefold. Cosmopolitan did not do these very often. It took two years for the next to appear, and Schwarzenegger made his appearance in 1977. Another man to grace the centre pages was Scott Brown, now a Massachusetts senator, but in June 1982 a law student who had entered and won the magazine's America's Sexiest Man contest. He posed for the cameras days before his final exams.

Goddess4Real said:

Burt Reynolds nude: 10 facts about the Cosmo centrefold https://www.msn.com/en-us...DJ?ocid=st

it's 40 years since a nude Cosmopolitan centrefold of actor Burt Reynolds broke a taboo and launched a new era of women's magazine publishing.

"At last a male nude centrefold - the naked truth about guess who!!" screamed a banner on the front page. Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown saw it as a victory for women whose "visual appetites" had been ignored by male magazine editors and proprietors.

It also boosted Cosmopolitan's circulation and turned Burt Reynolds into a 1970s sex icon. So what was the story behind the photograph?

1. It began on a TV show. Burt Reynolds was standing in for Johnny Carson as presenter of the Tonight show on NBC, and Helen Gurley Brown was his guest. "He was handsome, humorous, wonderful body, frisky," she told James Landers, author of a book on the first 100 years of Cosmopolitan. "During our conversation I asked him if he would pose for us." He agreed.

2. It could have been Paul Newman. Gurley Brown had approached him, before putting the question to Burt Reynolds, but he had refused.

3. It made Burt Reynolds into a celeb. The day after the magazine hit news-stands, he was mobbed by women asking him to sign their copy. Reynolds also noticed a change in the behaviour of theatre audiences from "polite to boisterous". "Standing ovations turned into burlesque show hoots and catcalls. They cared more about my pubes than they did about the play," he wrote in his 1994 autobiography, My Life. Gurley Brown said: "He had been a movie star, now he was a celebrity."

4. It made Cosmopolitan notorious. "At the time, you know, men liked to look at women naked. Well, nobody talked about it, but women liked to look at men naked. I did," Gurley Brown told Landers, who noted that the photograph pushed Cosmopolitan across a threshold, in the public mind, from a mainstream magazine "to a sex magazine".

5. It spawned Playgirl magazine. Douglas Lambert, owner of the Playgirl Club, decided to launch the magazine after seeing what a "winner" the Burt Reynolds centrefold was. "It came to me, that's what women want. If a woman says she wants to see a man's smile, his eyes, I say 'Don't lie to me,'" he was quoted as saying.

6. Reynolds chose the picture. A number of shots were taken. The choice of which would be published was left to the model.

7. The bearskin was a humorous touch. "I think that's probably a joke," says New York-based fashion portrait photographer Max Vadukul. "This is a very macho statement, a real bloke, full on, and totally confident," he says. He reckons Reynolds would have been happy going further, and removing the artfully placed arm from his lap.

8. You won't see this in 2012. It would be a tough photograph to take in 2012, Vadukul says, because of the "commodity factor" - the actor's publicists would be concerned about damage to his brand, among some members of the public. "It's a very modern picture, it would still be a very talkative picture. Who would be the equivalent of this guy - George Clooney? It's very far ahead of its time, from that period when anything goes, people swinging partners non-stop..."

9. The photographer was the celebrated Francesco Scavullo. Scavullo shot most Cosmopolitan covers over a 30-year period, and was involved in controversy again when he took photographs of a young Brooke Shields that some considered too sexual. He died in 2004, on the day he was due to photograph CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the next but one centrefold. Cosmopolitan did not do these very often. It took two years for the next to appear, and Schwarzenegger made his appearance in 1977. Another man to grace the centre pages was Scott Brown, now a Massachusetts senator, but in June 1982 a law student who had entered and won the magazine's America's Sexiest Man contest. He posed for the cameras days before his final exams.

I was gonna post this pic but I thought I shouldn't... LOL He was a furry kind of guy-Vain Andy would love this. LOL Hairy men were considered sexy way back when...

purplethunder3121 said:

Goddess4Real said:

Burt Reynolds nude: 10 facts about the Cosmo centrefold https://www.msn.com/en-us...DJ?ocid=st

it's 40 years since a nude Cosmopolitan centrefold of actor Burt Reynolds broke a taboo and launched a new era of women's magazine publishing.

"At last a male nude centrefold - the naked truth about guess who!!" screamed a banner on the front page. Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown saw it as a victory for women whose "visual appetites" had been ignored by male magazine editors and proprietors.

It also boosted Cosmopolitan's circulation and turned Burt Reynolds into a 1970s sex icon. So what was the story behind the photograph?

1. It began on a TV show. Burt Reynolds was standing in for Johnny Carson as presenter of the Tonight show on NBC, and Helen Gurley Brown was his guest. "He was handsome, humorous, wonderful body, frisky," she told James Landers, author of a book on the first 100 years of Cosmopolitan. "During our conversation I asked him if he would pose for us." He agreed.

2. It could have been Paul Newman. Gurley Brown had approached him, before putting the question to Burt Reynolds, but he had refused.

3. It made Burt Reynolds into a celeb. The day after the magazine hit news-stands, he was mobbed by women asking him to sign their copy. Reynolds also noticed a change in the behaviour of theatre audiences from "polite to boisterous". "Standing ovations turned into burlesque show hoots and catcalls. They cared more about my pubes than they did about the play," he wrote in his 1994 autobiography, My Life. Gurley Brown said: "He had been a movie star, now he was a celebrity."

4. It made Cosmopolitan notorious. "At the time, you know, men liked to look at women naked. Well, nobody talked about it, but women liked to look at men naked. I did," Gurley Brown told Landers, who noted that the photograph pushed Cosmopolitan across a threshold, in the public mind, from a mainstream magazine "to a sex magazine".

5. It spawned Playgirl magazine. Douglas Lambert, owner of the Playgirl Club, decided to launch the magazine after seeing what a "winner" the Burt Reynolds centrefold was. "It came to me, that's what women want. If a woman says she wants to see a man's smile, his eyes, I say 'Don't lie to me,'" he was quoted as saying.

6. Reynolds chose the picture. A number of shots were taken. The choice of which would be published was left to the model.

7. The bearskin was a humorous touch. "I think that's probably a joke," says New York-based fashion portrait photographer Max Vadukul. "This is a very macho statement, a real bloke, full on, and totally confident," he says. He reckons Reynolds would have been happy going further, and removing the artfully placed arm from his lap.

8. You won't see this in 2012. It would be a tough photograph to take in 2012, Vadukul says, because of the "commodity factor" - the actor's publicists would be concerned about damage to his brand, among some members of the public. "It's a very modern picture, it would still be a very talkative picture. Who would be the equivalent of this guy - George Clooney? It's very far ahead of its time, from that period when anything goes, people swinging partners non-stop..."

9. The photographer was the celebrated Francesco Scavullo. Scavullo shot most Cosmopolitan covers over a 30-year period, and was involved in controversy again when he took photographs of a young Brooke Shields that some considered too sexual. He died in 2004, on the day he was due to photograph CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the next but one centrefold. Cosmopolitan did not do these very often. It took two years for the next to appear, and Schwarzenegger made his appearance in 1977. Another man to grace the centre pages was Scott Brown, now a Massachusetts senator, but in June 1982 a law student who had entered and won the magazine's America's Sexiest Man contest. He posed for the cameras days before his final exams.

I was gonna post this pic but I thought I shouldn't... LOL He was a furry kind of guy-Vain Andy would love this. LOL Hairy men were considered sexy way back when...

Yuuup him and Lee Majors (The Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy fame)

The Best Little Special in Texas (1982) I remember watching this yeas ago.....I love the film 4.5 out of 5 Burt & Dolly were magic together I highly recommmend this hoot of a film

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The Longest Yard has finished. RIP

I still remember being a kid and my Gramma watching the Dinah Shore Show all the time--Burt was a constant guest and you could see a really comfortable comradery between them. That was pretty radical at the time for an older woman to expose her relationship with a younger man in public like that. Burt Reynolds really was considered a sex symbol back in the '70s.

He tapped Dinah.

2freaky4church1 said:

He tapped Dinah.

Duh, they were a couple for years.

PennyPurple said:

2freaky4church1 said:

He tapped Dinah.

Duh, they were a couple for years.

Good god

Sally Fields: Burt Reynolds 'will be in my history and my heart' I watched Smokey & The Bandit (1977) the other day. I give it a 4 out of 5 Its funny, it has lots of action, a great theme song and Burt & Sally had great screen chemistry