ACTOR BURT REYNOLDS PASSES AWAY AT 82
THE ACTOR WAS KNOWN FOR HIS PERFORMANCE IN BOOGIE NIGHTS
Burt Reynolds, the handsome film and TV star known for his acclaimed performances in Deliverance and Boogie Nights, commercial hits such as Smokey and the Bandit and for an active off-screen love life which included relationships with Loni Anderson and Sally Field, has died at 82.
The mustachioed, smirking Reynolds inspired a wide range of responses over his long, erratic career: critical acclaim and critical scorn, popular success and box office bombs. Reynolds made scores of movies, ranging from lightweight fare such as the hits The Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit to more serious films like The Longest Yard and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.
He received some of the film world’s highest and lowest honours. He was nominated for an Oscar for Boogie Nights, the Paul Thomas Anderson film about the pornography industry; won an Emmy for the TV series Evening Shade, and was praised for his starring role in Deliverance.
But he also was a frequent nominee for the Razzie, the tongue-in-cheek award for Hollywood’s worst performance, and his personal life provided ongoing drama, particularly after an acrimonious divorce from Anderson in 1995. He had a troubled marriage to Judy Carne, a romance with Dinah Shore and a relationship with Field damaged by his acknowledged jealousy of her success.
Through it all, he presented a genial persona, often the first to make fun of his own conflicted image. “My career is not like a regular chart, mine looks like a heart attack,” he told The Associated Press in 2001.