Everyone said I looked like Brando — but when we met he was just rude
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). ). Jack Nicholson won the Oscar ar for that.
But by far the dumbest thing I ever did was turn down the role e of the dissipated ex-astronaut in n Terms Of Endearment (1983). ). Jack got another Oscar for it.
He was so good in both roles, I can’t imagine anyone else in n them — including me.
Why did I turn down the part rt of Han Solo in one of the Star ar Wars sequels? I guess it would d have been nice to be part of film m history, but I don’t regret it.
Then I had to pass on the e Kevin Kline part opposite my y ex-girlfriend Sally Field in Soapdish pd (1991) because my second wife, Loni Anderson, would have e poisoned me. My FIrST wife was the actress ss Judy Carne. We divorced after er just three years, though it was as over long before that.
We’d married in 1963, after dating for just six months, and it soon became obvious that we had very little in common.
I couldn’t get into her lifestyle — the non- stop partying, the hard drugs, the kinky sex — and she wasn’t thrilled by my tendency to resort to fisticuffs in arguments with other men.
After one of my many brawls, she said: ‘God, you’re boring.’
To this day, I credit Judy with helping me to discover that a guy doesn’t need his fists to make a point.
In 1968, the year of our divorce, she suddenly became a sensation on a TV show called rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Later, Judy’s career began to wane; her substance abuse got worse, and she made a lot of money talking about me to the tabloids. She claimed I hit her, which wasn’t true. That broke my heart.
In the Seventies, I met the woman I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with: Dinah Shore. She was 20 years older than me and we met on her daytime show, Dinah’s Place.
Making love became a new experience: for the first time, I was sharing intimacy with my heart full of genuine, unconditional love. I’d never felt that way about a woman before.
She taught me about music, art, food and wine; she taught me which fork to use; how to dress. We were soulmates, but marriage wasn’t in the cards.
My career was on fire and my ego was out of control. I wanted to enjoy the fruits of my popularity and I didn’t want to do it on the sly.
And there was something else: I finally admitted to myself that the age difference did matter in one important respect: I wanted a child of my own.
Breaking up with Dinah was the hardest thing I’d ever done. She sat on the sofa, holding a hankie. And she kept her composure, but I lost mine.
I missed her the minute I walked out the door. I could barely function for weeks. She’s the most wonderful person I’ve ever known.
And then came Sally Field. When I told Universal that I wanted her for my co- star in Smokey And The Bandit, they said: ‘Why would you want the goddamn Flying Nun?’ ‘Because she has talent,’ I said. They came back with: ‘ She isn’t sexy.’
‘you don’t understand,’ I said. ‘Talent is sexy.’
When I finally won the battle, I called Sally to ask her to be in the picture — she wasn’t thrilled. ‘ I know your movies are commercial, but it’s not the kind of thing I want to do,’ she said. ‘Then again, my agents tell me I need a commercial movie . . .’
I wasn’t overjoyed by her reaction, but I was taken with her immediately at the first rehearsal. She was strong and funny and spectacularly good.
One of the things people say about Smokey is that it’s like watching two people genuinely fall in love, and it’s true. I mean, the sexual tension was bouncing off the walls.
Sally and I proposed to each other more than once, but every time I wanted to get married, she didn’t; and every time she wanted to get married, I didn’t.
If we’d married, I think it would have been a dangerous mix, like fire and gasoline, but there would have been wonderful moments, too. And I would have been determined to make it work.
I wish I could turn back the clock. I’m sorry I never told her that I loved her, and I’m sorry we couldn’t make it work. It’s the biggest regret of my life. THE actress Loni Anderson was the most striking- looking woman I’d ever seen. She came up to me one evening at an awards gala, asked me to dance and whispered in my ear: ‘I want to have your baby.’
I told her I was flattered, but didn’t she think we should find out if we liked each other first?’
The truth is, I never did like her. She was gorgeous (though I always thought she wore too much make-up) and being with her was nice. But I’d be thinking: ‘This is not the person for me. What the hell am I doing with her?’
I don’t remember actually asking her to marry me, but sheput me under constant pressure. I managed to stall her for four years — so why did I give in?
Besides the physical attraction, it was the force of her personality. Her determination. Marriage was something she wanted, and she would not be denied.
On the way to the ceremony in 1988, my best man, the American football player Vic Prinzi, said: ‘Do you really want to do this?’
‘ No, I don’t,’ I said. ‘Then let’s get the hell out of here,’ he said.
‘But my mum and dad are sitting there waiting for me. My mum loves Loni. It’ll kill her.’
‘I hate to break this to you,’ Vic said, ‘ but your mother can’t stand Loni.’
I paused in the doorway of the chapel. As I stood there looking at the assembled guests, Mum caught my eye. She was shaking her head: NO. But I didn’t have the guts to pull the plug.
Loni bought everything in triplicate, from day dresses to jewellery, china and linens. She bought gowns for $10,000 a pop and wore them only once.
I gave her a platinum Amex card with a $45,000 credit limit. She maxed it out in half an hour.
We called it quits after five years of marriage. The worse part of the divorce was losing custody of our son, Quinton. I’d fallen in love the second I laid eyes on him, and we’d adopted him when he was three days old.
One of the hardest things I ever had to do was tell him when he was six that Loni and I were separating. He thought for a moment. ‘ It’ll be all right, Daddy,’ he said. ‘you’re a man.’ THE picture would be a milestone in the sexual revolution, said Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, and I was the one man who could pull it off. Would I agree to become their first male nude centrefold?
I found out later that she’d asked Paul Newman first, but he’d turned her down.
I wish I could say that I agreed because I wanted to show my support for women’s rights, but I just thought it would be fun. I was flattered and intrigued.
Everybody I respected told me not to do it. I’d just made Deliverance and my agent warned that posing nude would cancel out whatever the film might do to establish me as a serious actor.
Even my Deliverance co- star Ned Beatty couldn’t believe it: ‘They’re gonna see your tallywacker? What the hell are you trying to prove?’
On the way to the photo-shoot, I stopped for two quarts of vodka and finished one before arriving at the studio, which was freezing cold — bad for a naked man’s self-esteem.
The photographer took hundreds of shots of me on a bearskin rug: with a hat in front of my tallywacker, with a dog in front of it, with my hand in front of it. (If I was trying to prove something, why would I cover it up with my hand? I have very small hands.)
The magazine hit the stands three months before Deliverance opened, and quickly sold all 1.5 million copies.
Suddenly, my life was a carnival. I couldn’t go anywhere without women asking me to sign their copies, each one a painful reminder of my stupidity.
I got some of the filthiest letters I’ve ever seen, many enclosing Polaroids. The Catholic church condemned me. And I got: ‘Hey! I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on’ 50 times a day.
My centrefold appeared on panties, T- shirts, key chains, coasters, floor mats. The low point was when I checked into a hotel and found myself imprinted on the sheets.
It was a total fiasco. I’m still embarrassed: doing that shoot was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made — and I’m convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved.
ADApteD by Corinna Honan from But enough About Me by Burt Reynolds, published by Blink at £8.99. © Burt Reynolds 2015. to order a copy for £7.19 (offer valid until September 15, 2018), visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. p&p is free on orders over £15.