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Burt Reynolds

FULL NAME	Burton Leon Reynolds, Jr.
BORN	11 February 1936, Waycross, Georgia, USA
DIED	6 September 2018 (aged 82), Jupiter, Florida, USA
ASSOCIATION	Actor
NATIONALITY	American
HEIGHT	180 cm
REVIEWED ENTRIES	26 (23)
MAX. RATING	(Deliverance)
MIN. RATING
AVERAGE RATING	3.74
STRENGTHS	Charisma and screen-presence Smile and laughter Comic talent Timing in line delivery Sensitivity

FILMOGRAPHY (ONLY REVIEWED ENTRIES)

BIO

For me as a child in the early 1980s, few actors were bigger heroes than Burt Reynolds. I might have been fascinated by Clint Eastwood's coolness or Christopher Reeve's god-like appearance, but the charm, humour, and liveliness of Burt Reynolds were second to none. I first encountered Burt through Hooper (1978) and was instantly captivated by his carefree presence. That quality would come to define Reynolds' screen persona and career from the mid-1970s onwards, even though his career began to decline in the late '80s.

Before this, however, Burt had made his real breakthrough – both commercially and critically – with John Boorman's brilliant Deliverance (1972). Soon after, he became the biggest star of American cinema, coasting through the rest of the decade without caring too much about developing as an actor or worrying about which roles he chose. He was basically there to have fun, and there's little doubt that he did. He appeared in numerous films with his longtime girlfriend Sally Field (who famously never wanted to marry him), but by the mid-1980s, his films were no longer as popular as they had been, and the critics were increasingly unforgiving.

After a series of failures, Reynolds delivered a quietly accomplished performance in Breaking In (1989), accepting that he was no longer the youthful leading man he'd been for nearly two decades. The 1990s didn't start well, but a brilliant turn in Boogie Nights earned him his first (and only) Oscar nomination. From then on, Reynolds had a prolific – if uneven – final chapter to his career, once again choosing roles more for fun than for legacy.

AWARDS

The Golden Globes (film nominations)
1975		Nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy – The Longest Yard
1980		Nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy – Starting Over
1998		Best Supporting Actor for Boogie Nights

WHAT DO THE CRITICS SAY?

Semi-Tough

"Reynolds' charm makes up for film's other deficiencies" - Leonard Maltin

"(...) with that and Reynolds' polished good-ol'-boy Cary Grant performance, the movie is like a low-grade fever—you slip in and out of it painlessly" - Pauline Kael

Switching Channels

"Burt Reynolds reins himself in and shows some sly grace as Sully" - Pauline Kael

Breaking In

"Reynolds is extremely good in his first character role" - Leonard Maltin

QUOTES

[talking about the stunt scenes he did for his thriller Crazy Six (1997)]:
"I told them, 'Look, I can do this. I can still fall; I just can't get up. But the character is dead, anyway!"

"I regret that I do not have the dignity of Ricardo Montalban, the class of Dean Martin, or the humor of Bill Cosby. I DO have the heart of a lion."

"All of the younger actors keep coming up to me and asking me where all of the land mines are because they know I've stepped on them all."

"If you hold on to things long enough, they get back into style...like me."

"my films were the kind they only show in prisons and in airplanes, because nobody can leave..."

[on Larry King Show, talking about the great parts he turned down]:
"There are no awards in Hollywood for being an idiot."

"I'm finally choosing a role for the right reason. It's not about the location--Jamaica? I'll take it--or the leading lady. It's about the words. I know I'll never be No. 1 again, but I'll be a working actor. And this time, I'll be a grownup. It's time. We have a saying in the South: 'No man's a man until his father tells him he is.' Well, mine never told me, and that was a problem. But my son did."

"I may not be the best actor in the world but I'm the best Burt Reynolds in the world. And nobody does Burt Reynolds better than I do."

CHARACTER QUOTES

Semi-Tough

[When Shake says no to the girl at the altar]: 
Shake (Kris Kristofferson): "I don't, Billy Clyde. I just can't!"
Billy Clyde (Burt Reynolds): "I acknowledge that."

[While sitting on the toilet and somebody knocks on the door]
Billy Clyde (Burt Reynolds): "Just shit and shove it under the door!"