Reynolds ‘ box- office gold’
director Jack Horner in the 1997 film Boogie Nights.
Last year, he also drew critical acclaim for his performance in the indie movie The Last Movie Star.
Reynolds was considered box office gold in the 1970s and early ’ 80s with such hits as Smokey and the Bandit, Starting Over and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, films that were popular at the box office but often less popular with critics.
It was his breakout role in the 1972 thriller Deliverance, in which he played macho survivalist Lewis Medlock, that cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s leading men in the 1970s and ’ 80s.
The film – infamous for its hillbilly male rape scene – earned three Oscar nominations for best picture, best director and best editing. But Reynolds failed to get an Oscar nod and he would later say that his nude spread that year in Cosmopolitan probably had cost him a chance at the golden statuette.
During his career, he would also become known as much for the hit movies he racked up as the big roles he turned down.
Reynolds notably walked away from playing the space scoundrel Han Solo in the first Star Wars, turned down a chance to be James Bond and declined the leading role played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. He also rejected an offer to play retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in the 1983 hit movie Terms of Endearment. The role was taken up by Jack Nicholson, who took home an Oscar.
“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 wrote in his 2015 memoir But Enough About Me.
“As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles,” he added.
“By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance.”
On the personal front, the actor was married and divorced twice, the first time to British actress Judy Carne and the second to American actress Loni Anderson, with whom he adopted a son, Quinton.
His divorce with Anderson would go down as one of the nastiest in Hollywood history.
He also had a high- profile romance with actress Sally Field, described by Reynolds as “the love affair of my life”.