BURT REYNOLDS (1936-2018)
‘Smokey and the Bandit’ and ‘Deliverance’ star dead at 82 //
Burt Reynolds, who flaunted his macho, hirsute good looks in a string of hit movies, high-profile romances and a steamy Cosmopolitan centrefold, has died. He was 82.
The Associated Press reported his death, citing his agent. No details were provided.
Few actors rivalled Reynolds’ box-office appeal during a prolific run, starting in the 1970s, when he starred in “Deliverance,”
“The Longest Yard,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” and “Starting Over.” The films established Reynolds as a likable, adventurous rogue with an easy laugh and a twinkle in his eye. On television, he starred in the CBS series “Evening Shade” from 1990 to 1994, winning an Emmy Award in 1991 for lead actor in a comedy. A series of flop movies dimmed Reynolds’ Hollywood star before his performance as a pornographic-film producer in “Boogie Nights” (1997) earned him an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor. His most famous appearance may have been in the centrefold of the April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, in which he was photographed reclining nude on a bearskin rug, his private attributes covered only by his left arm.
“I thought it would be a kick,” Reynolds told the New York Times in 1972. “I have a strange sense of humour.” Intended as a satire of Playboy, the centrefold became a popular poster, a symbol of the sexual revolution of the 1970s and, according to Reynolds, an obstacle to being treated seriously as an actor. “Deliverance,” his breakout movie, hit theatres while the centrefold was still big news.
“The truth is that it hurt my career much more than it helped,” Reynolds wrote in “My Life,” his 1994 autobiography.
Reynolds was married twice, to actors Judy Carne and Loni Anderson. He was reported to have had romantic relationships with celebrities including Lorna Luft, Tammy Wynette, Sally Field, Dinah Shore, Adrienne Barbeau and Chris Evert. He told Vanity Fair in 2015 that Field was the “love of my life” and he regretted their 1980s breakup. Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was born on Feb. 11, 1936, and raised in Lansing, Michigan. His father, Burt Sr., served in the U.S. army and was part of the D-Day invasions of Europe. After the war, he and his wife, Fern, a nurse, moved their two children, Burt and older sister Nancy Ann, to Riviera Beach, Florida, where he became chief of police.