Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LAST MOVIE STAR Clint joked about doing a couple of bad films... I did a lot more – and I turned down Bond and Star Wars!
I start .... ?” Deliverance should have won him an Oscar nomination. But he blew his chances by famously posing for Cosmopolitan magazine – lying naked on a bearskin rug with his left arm covering his wedding tackle.
He meant it as a joke but found he got wolf-whistles everywhere and said fans “cared more about my pubes than they did about the play”.
Burt admits: “It seemed like a good idea at the time – but now I think it was really stupid. But you can’t regret things like that, you have to move on.”
He was soon sporting another rug (the hairpiece that for years kept fans guessing). But that did not stop him becoming THE 1970s sex symbol.
Burt fuelled a million female fantasies – and Queen star Freddie Mercury also considered him his dream date.
He romanced Goldie Hawn and Farrah Fawcett, but actress Sally Field became “the love of my life”.
They dated for five years but split in 1982 – and he still blames himself.
“I miss her terribly, even now,” he says. “Men are like that. You find the perfect person and you screw it up.”
In 1977 came Smokey and The Bandit. Only Star Wars beat the tale of two booze smugglers in box office takings.
From 1978 to 1983 Burt was Hollywood’s top box office draw.
No one since, not Mel Gibson nor Tom Cruise, has matched that.
At his peak he earned $10million [£8million] a year and had six mansions and estates across the US. There was also a jet, helicopter, custom-made cars, 150 horses and $100,000 of designer toupees.
But he lost a fortune by investing in a restaurant chain, nightclub, theatre and football team,
And soon, lazy film choices such as Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 and Cannonball Run II hit his bankability.
Then in 1984 he broke his jaw doing a stunt in cop drama City Heat.
Unable to eat, he lost 40lbs and it was rumoured he had Aids. His career nosedived. In 1988 Burt wed actress Loni Anderson. They adopted a son, Quinton, and things looked up when he landed a part in TV comedy Evening Shade, which won him an Emmy.
But Burt claimed shopaholic Loni blew tens of thousands on clothes and jewels. In 1993 they had a high profile divorce (Loni alleged Burt was carrying on with a barmaid).
Film roles and endorsements dried up and he ran up debts of $11.2million, In 1996 he filed for bankruptcy.
Yet again he battled back and his 1998 performance in Boogie Nights won a Golden Globe, a string of other awards and an Oscar nomination.
But, in 2009, Burt had spinal surgery, a heart op and then went into rehab for pain killer addiction.
In recent years, his frail looks and difficulties walking alarmed fans. But Burt insists he is in better health than for years – and is “getting in shape” for three films he has lined up. Playing Vic has clearly given him a new lease of life – which he sees through his favourite rose-coloured specs. “I learned a lot about myself though this role,” he says.
“There were times when I really felt very vulnerable. One was at a football stadium where I’d played when I was a kid. I feel I am, only now, ready to show what I’ve never shown before.”
Maybe that will be in the new Quentin Tarantino film, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, in which Burt will star alongside Brad Pitt, Leonardo di Caprio, Tim Roth and Margot Robbie.
“I still haven’t done the best work I can do and I’d like to do something people really wouldn’t expect,” he says.
The Last Movie Star is available on digital now.