BYE-BYE BANDIT
Burt Reynolds 1936-2018
Burt Reynolds , who rode to boxoff ice gold in “Smokey and t he Bandit” and starred in critical classics l i ke “Deliverance,” died yesterday at 82.
Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds, the mustachioed silverscreen hero of the 1970s who melted hearts with his rugged good looks and cracked up audiences with his self-effacing humor, died Thursday at age 82.
The “Smokey and the Bandit” star was rushed at about 1 p.m. to Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, where he was pronounced dead, according to his manager, Erik Kritzer.
Reynolds had some “health issues,” but that his death was “totally unexpected,” his niece Nancy Lee Hess told The Post.
“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,” she said in a statement.
She added that he was “tough — anyone who breaks their tailbone on a river and finishes the movie is tough. And that’s who he was.”
Reynolds started acting professionally in New York in the 1950s, and never stopped. He took on a project as recently as this past May, when it was announced that he had joined the ensemble cast of Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which includes Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie.
He died just weeks before his parts were to be filmed, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino and the amazing cast that was assembled,” Hess said.
Reynolds began appearing on television in the late ’50s, toiling in relative obscurity for a little over a decade before he got his big-screen breakthrough in 1972’s “Deliverance,” John Boorman’s thriller about four friends whose rural rafting trip takes a terrifying turn.
Reynolds said he considered the Oscar-nominated film, which co-starred Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, the best of his career.
He’d go on to star in a string of memorable hits including “White Lightning” (1973), “The Longest Yard” (1974), “Gator” (1976), “Semi-Tough” (1977) and his signature movie, “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977).
Reynolds starred in that film alongside future girlfriend Sally Field, playing Bo “Bandit” Darville, a lead-footed outlaw in a Trans Am.
He was nominated for a supporting-actor Oscar for his role of pornographer Jack Horner in 1997’s “Boogie Nights.”
Born in Lansing, Mich., on Feb. 11, 1936, they young Reynolds and his family settled in Riviera Beach, Fla., after his father returned in 1946 from serving in the Army in Europe.
An all-state football player at Palm Beach HS, Reynolds attended Florida State University on an athletic scholarship, playing halfback.
Although he intended to go pro, his career was cut short by a series of injuries.
Reynolds briefly contemplated a career in law enforcement, but a teacher recognized his talent while reading Shakespeare in English class and pushed him toward acting.
The move would be a fruitful one, earning him the Florida State Drama Award in 1956, which came with a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater in Hyde Park, New York.
Afterward, Reynolds had a brief stopover on Broadway, where he appeared in several theatrical productions before moving out west to Hollywood.
“He was a trailblazer. He showed the way to transition from being an athlete to being the highest paid actor, and he always inspired me,” tweeted Arnold Schwarzenegger, who called Reynolds “one of my heroes.”
An action star who did many of his own stunts, Reynolds was also a charismatic rogue and relentless flirt on-screen, helping to make him one of the biggest sex symbols of his time.
So did his infamous appearance lounging nude on a bearskin rug as a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972.
The actor was as much of a ladies’ man off-screen and was married twice, to Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965 and to Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1993.
Despite those two trips down the aisle, the love of f Reynolds’ life appeared to be his “Smokey and the Bandit” ” co-star Field, whom he famously described as the one e who got away.
Field said Thursday in a statement: “There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even 40 years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as s long as I live. Rest, Buddy.”
No matter the role, Reynolds always tended to play lovable e rascals, something he knew au-diences expected of him.
“We’re only here for a little while, and you’ve got to have some fun, right?” he told The New York Times in the spring of 2018. “I don’t take myself seriously, and I think the ones that do, there’s some sickness with people like that.”