Burt Reynolds, star of Smokey and the Bandit, Boogie Nights and Deliverance, dead at 82
Reynolds, best known for films such as ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, ‘The Cannonball Run’ and ‘Boogie Nights’, has died aged 82
Burt Reynolds, whose good looks and charm made him one of Hollywood’s most popular actors as he starred in films such as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit in the 1970s and ’80s, died on Thursday age of 82, The Hollywood Reporter said, citing his manager.
Citing an unnamed source, Us Weekly said he had succumbed to a cardiac arrest. It was unclear why he had been admitted to hospital.
At the peak of his career, Reynolds was one of the most bankable actors in the film industry, reeling off a series of box office smashes until a career downturn in the mid-1980s. He rebounded in 1997 with a nomination for a best supporting actor Oscar for Boogie Nights and won an Emmy Award for his role in the 1990-1994 TV series Evening Shade.
I took the part that was the most fun – ‘Oh, this will be fun.’ I didn’t take the part that would be the most challenging
With his trademark moustache, rugged looks and macho aura, he was a leading male sex symbol of the 1970s. He appeared naked – reclining on a bearskin rug with his arm strategically positioned for the sake of modesty – in a centrefold in the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan in 1972.
Reynolds’ personal life sometimes overshadowed his movies, with marriages that ended in divorce to actresses Loni Anderson and Judy Carne and romances with others, including Sally Field and Dinah Shore. Reynolds also generated attention for financial woes and his struggles with prescription pain medication.
Reynolds cited director John Boorman’s Oscar-nominated 1972 Deliverance as his best film and said he regretted that the hoopla from his Cosmopolitan appearance detracted from the movie that made him a star. He played tough-guy Lewis Medlock – opposite Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox – in the chilling tale of a canoe trip gone bad in rural Georgia.
He starred in dozens of films, also including White Lightning (1973), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), Hustle (1975), Nickelodeon (1976) and Semi-Tough (1977). He was the top moneymaking star at the box office in an annual poll of movie exhibitors 1978 through 1982.
