Age, Biography, and Wiki
Burt Reynolds was born on February 11, 1936, in Lansing, Michigan. He rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s with his charismatic performances in numerous films. Reynolds passed away on September 6, 2018, at the age of 82.
For more detailed information about Burt Reynolds' life and career, his Wikipedia page offers a comprehensive biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Reynolds
| Occupation | Football Players |
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| Date of Birth | 11 February 1936 |
| Age | 89 Years |
| Birth Place | Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aquarius |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 6 September, 2018 |
| Died Place | Jupiter, Florida, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific measurements are not always detailed, Burt Reynolds was known for his tall and lean physique, which contributed to his charismatic screen presence.
For director Blake Edwards, Reynolds starred in The Man Who Loved Women (1983), a remake in English of François Truffaut's 1977 film L'Homme qui aimait les femmes, but it also failed. In an interview at about this time, he said: Getting to the top has turned out to be a hell of a lot more fun than staying there. I've got Tom Selleck crawling up my back. I'm in my late 40s. I realize I have four or five more years where I can play certain kinds of parts and get away with it. That's why I'm leaning more and more toward directing and producing. I don't want to be stumbling around town doing Gabby Hayes parts a few years from now. I'd like to pick and choose and maybe go work for a perfume factory like Mr. Cary Grant, and look wonderful with everybody saying, 'Gee, I wish he hadn't retired'. Cannonball Run II (1984), directed by Needham, brought in some money but only half of the original. City Heat (1984), which teamed Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, was mildly popular but was considered a major critical and box-office disappointment. Reynolds was injured badly during filming when he was hit in the jaw with a real chair instead of a breakaway prop, causing him excruciating chronic pain as well as a sharp weight loss that resulted in rumors circulating for years that he had AIDS.
During the height of his career, Reynolds was considered a male sex symbol and icon of American masculinity. Stephen Dalton wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that Reynolds "always seemed to embody an uncomplicated, undiluted, effortlessly likable strain of American masculinity that was driven much more by sunny mischief than angsty machismo." Reynolds's roles were often defined by his larger-than-life physicality and masculinity, contrasted with juvenile but self-aware humor. Though he was not considered a serious dramatic actor during his heyday, his later career was defined by performances that often referenced his own reputation, creating what Dalton called "sophisticated, soulful performances".
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Dating & Relationship Status
Burt Reynolds was married twice, first to Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965, and then to Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1993. His marriage to Loni Anderson was particularly tumultuous and ended in a costly divorce that significantly impacted his finances.
During his career, Reynolds often claimed to have been born in Waycross, Georgia, although in 2015, he stated that he was actually born in Lansing, Michigan. In his autobiography, he stated that Lansing is where his family lived when his father was drafted into the United States Army.
Reynolds, his mother, and his sister joined his father at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where they subsequently lived for two years. When his father was sent to Europe, the family relocated to Lake City, Michigan, where his mother had been raised. In 1946, the family relocated to Riviera Beach, Florida, where, in sixth grade, Reynolds began a lifelong close friendship with Dick Howser. Reynolds's father eventually became Chief of Police of Riviera Beach, which is adjacent to the north end of West Palm Beach, Florida.
It was around this time when Reynolds also gained notoriety when he began a well-publicized relationship with Dinah Shore, who was 20 years his senior, and after he posed nude in the April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan. Reynolds said that he posed for Cosmopolitan for "a kick. I have a strange sense of humor," and because he knew that Deliverance was about to be released. He later expressed regret for posing for Cosmopolitan.
Around that time, he stated: The only thing I really enjoy is this business, and I think my audience knows that. I've never been able to figure out exactly who that audience is. I know there have been a few pictures even my mother didn't go see, but there's always been an audience for them. I guess it is because they always know that I give it 100 percent, and good or bad, there's going to be quite a lot of me in that picture. That's what they're looking for. I don't have any pretensions about wanting to be Hamlet. I would just like to be the best Burt Reynolds around.
Reynolds was offered a role in Anderson's third film, Magnolia (1999), but he declined it. In 2012, he clarified he did not hate Boogie Nights itself and called it "extraordinary", saying his opinion of the film has nothing to do with his relationship with Anderson. In his second autobiography, But Enough About Me (2015), Reynolds attempted to come to terms with his difficult nature. In a 2015 GQ interview, he said that his problem with Anderson was a matter of their differing personalities: "I think mostly because he was young and full of himself. Every shot we did, it was like the first time [that shot had ever been done]. I remember the first shot we did in Boogie Nights, where I drive the car to Grauman's Theater. After he said, 'Isn't that amazing?' And I named five pictures that had the same kind of shot. It wasn't original. But if you have to steal, steal from the best." Despite his Oscar nomination for Boogie Nights and a new appreciation of his acting talent by movie critics, Reynolds failed to return to the A list; while work was plentiful, prestige projects were lacking.
Reynolds was married to English actress Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965. He lived with actress Miko Mayama from 1968 to 1971. He and American singer-actress Dinah Shore (20 years his senior) were in a relationship from early 1971 until 1975. In the mid-1970s, Reynolds briefly dated singer Tammy Wynette.
He had a relationship from 1976 to 1980 (then off-and-on until 1982) with American actress Sally Field, during which time they appeared together in four films. In 2016, he regarded Field as the love of his life.
Reynolds died of a heart attack at the Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter, Florida, on September 6, 2018, at the age of 82. His ex-wife Loni Anderson and their son Quinton held a private memorial service for Reynolds at a funeral home in North Palm Beach, Florida, on September 20. Those in attendance included Sally Field, FSU coach Bobby Bowden, friend Lee Corso, and quarterback Doug Flutie. Reynolds' body was cremated and his ashes were given to his niece, Nancy Lee Brown Hess. He was subsequently interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on February 11, 2021. In September of that year, a bronze bust of Reynolds was placed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
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| Husband | Judy Carne (m. 1963-1965) Loni Anderson (m. 1988-1994) |
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Net Worth and Salary
At the peak of his career, Burt Reynolds' net worth was estimated to be around $60 million, which is equivalent to approximately $150 million today when adjusted for inflation. However, by the time of his death in 2018, his net worth had significantly decreased to between $3 and $5 million due to financial struggles and costly divorces.
Reynolds suffered a steep decrease of his career earnings after the cancellation of Evening Shade, as his popularity waned due to bad publicity from his divorce from Loni Anderson, which became tabloid fodder. His decrease of earnings as an actor plus the great expense of his divorce settlement, child support and alimony payments to Anderson caused a cash depletion by the mid-1990s.
Career, Business, and Investments
Reynolds' acting career spanned several decades, with notable films including Smokey and the Bandit, Deliverance, and Cannonball Run. He was one of the highest-paid actors of his time, earning up to $10 million per movie. However, his financial success was marred by poor investments and a lavish lifestyle. Reynolds filed for bankruptcy in 1996, listing liabilities of $10 million.
Reynolds was voted the world's number one movie actor from 1978 to 1982 in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a six-year record he shares with Bing Crosby. After a number of box-office failures, Reynolds returned to television, featuring in the situation comedy Evening Shade (1990–1994), which won a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. His performance as high-minded pornographer Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) brought him renewed critical attention, earning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, with nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Florida State Drama Award included a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater in Hyde Park, New York. Reynolds considered the opportunity as an agreeable alternative to more physically demanding summer jobs, but did not yet consider acting as a possible career. While working there, Reynolds met Joanne Woodward, who helped him find an agent.
"I realized that people liked me, that I was enough," said Reynolds. "So if I could transfer that character—the irreverent, self-deprecating side of me, my favorite side of me—onto the screen, I could have a big career."
Another turning point in Reynolds's career came when he made the light-hearted car-chase film written by William W. Norton, White Lightning (1973). Reynolds later called it "the beginning of a whole series of films made in the South, about the South and for the South... you could make back the cost of the negative just in Memphis alone. Anything outside of that was just gravy." Car-chase movies would be Reynolds's most profitable genre. At the end of 1973, Reynolds was voted into the list of the ten most-popular movie actors in the US at number four. He would stay on that list until 1984.
Toward the end of his life, Reynolds revealed that he declined the role of Han Solo in Star Wars. Reynolds told Business Insider in 2016, "I just didn't want to play that kind of role at the time. ...Now I regret it. I wish I would have done it."
Reynolds made his directorial debut in 1976 with Gator, the sequel to White Lightning, written by Norton. "I waited 20 years to do it [directing] and I enjoyed it more than anything I've ever done in this business," he said after filming. "And I happen to think it's what I do best."
Reynolds had the biggest success of his career with the car-chase film Smokey and the Bandit (1977), directed by Hal Needham and co-starring Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed and Sally Field.
In 1983, an unnamed producer said that while Reynolds's salaries would not decrease because of Stroker Ace's failure, "if two or three more such pictures don't work, people will just stop putting him in that kind of movie and that's the kind of film for which he gets paid the most". Reynolds felt that it was a turning point in his career from which he never recovered. "That's where I lost them," he said of his fans.
In 1987, Reynolds teamed with Bert Convy to co-produce the game show Win, Lose or Draw for their production company Burt and Bert Productions. The show was based on "sketch pad charades", a game that he often played with his friends in his living room in Jupiter. Vicki Lawrence hosted the daytime version for NBC, while Convy hosted the syndicated version until 1989, when he quit to host 3rd Degree, also created by Reynolds and Convy.
Reynolds played a porn film director in the successful film Boogie Nights (1997), which was considered a comeback role for him. He received 12 acting awards and three nominations for the role, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Reynolds' first and only nomination for the award. Despite the acclaim, Reynolds disliked working on the film, particularly not getting along with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, and reportedly dismissed his agent for recommending it. Boogie Nights co-star William H. Macy stated in an interview that Reynolds was clueless about the film and had become out of touch with the film industry due to his age.
He had the lead in Big City Blues (1997) and supporting roles in Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998) and Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998).
He also owned the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida, with an emphasis on training young performers trying to enter show business. The theater opened in 1979 and was later renamed the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theater. Reynolds operated it until 1989 and leased it until 1996. It had a series of ownership changes until becoming the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in 2004.
Partnering with Killen Music Group owner Buddy Killen, Reynolds invested in Po' Folks, a chain of country-cooking, family-style restaurants located in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The chain, which was named after a Bill Anderson song, along with subsequent Killen-Reynolds investment in another Southern restaurant chain, failed.
Along with music industry executive Buddy Killen, who produced his 1973 country and western/easy listening album Ask Me What I Am, Reynolds invested in Po' Folks, a Southern regional restaurant chain named after a Bill Anderson song. As Po' Folks failed, Reynolds and Killen invested in another regional chain, Daisy's Diner, which also failed. Reynolds had invested the capital as an individual, not as a corporate investment, and was responsible personally for the liabilities when Po' Folks and the Daisy's Diner failed. In all, his investments in the restaurant industry resulted in losses of $20 million.
On August 16, 2011, Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation filed foreclosure papers, claiming Reynolds owed US$1.2 million on his home in Hobe Sound, Florida.
The Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures awarded the Richard "Diamond" Farnsworth Award to Reynolds in 2015. Richard Farnsworth was a stunt man who made the transition into a successful acting career. Having performed stunts early during his career, the debilitating health problems of an aging stunt man was central to the storyline of Reynolds' 1978 movie Hooper, which is subtitled on the poster "The Greatest Stuntman Alive."
Michael Chiklis has credited Reynolds for rescuing his acting career when Reynolds hired him for a role in B.L. Stryker after Chiklis was "blackballed" for his involvement in portraying John Belushi in the movie Wired (1989). Chiklis said that Reynolds knew what Chiklis was going through because he "grew up during the McCarthy era and didn't believe in blackballing."
In 2015, the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures awarded Reynolds the Richard "Diamond" Farnsworth Award, named after Richard Farnsworth, the career stunt man who made the transition into a successful acting career.
Social Network
Burt Reynolds was active in the entertainment industry until his death but did not have a significant presence on social media platforms. His legacy lives on through his films and the impact he left on the Hollywood scene.
After the play closed, the director John Forsythe arranged a movie audition with Joshua Logan for Reynolds. The movie was Sayonara (1957). Reynolds was told that he could not be in the movie because he looked too much like Marlon Brando. Logan advised Reynolds to go to Hollywood, although Reynolds did not feel confident enough to do so. (Another source says that Reynolds did a screen test after studio talent agent Lew Wasserman saw the effect that Reynolds had on secretaries in his office, but the test was unsuccessful. )
Reynolds began acting for television during the late 1950s, with guest roles on shows like Flight, M Squad, Schlitz Playhouse, The Lawless Years and Pony Express. He signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios. "I don't care whether he can act or not," said Wasserman. "Anyone who has this effect on women deserves a break."
In a 1969 interview, Reynolds expressed interest in playing roles like the John Garfield part in The Postman Always Rings Twice, but no one gave him the opportunity. "Instead, the producer hands me a script and says 'I know it's not there now kid, but I know we can make it work.'"
The Brando-Reynolds feud became Hollywood legend. Reynolds said that he could not understand Brando's enmity toward him. In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Reynolds said, "He was a strange man. He didn't like me at all." He did not consciously imitate Brando, nor act like him, nor try to look like him; he even grew a mustache so that people would stop saying that he looked like Brando.
He made a sports comedy with Robert Aldrich, The Longest Yard (1974), which was popular. Aldrich later said, "I think that on occasion, he's a much better actor than he's given credit for. Not always: sometimes he acts like a caricature of himself."
Reynolds continued to play lead roles in movies such as Cloud 9 (2006), Forget About It (2006), Deal (2008), and A Bunch of Amateurs (2008), and supporting parts in End Game (2006), Grilled (2006), Broken Bridges (2006), In the Name of the King (2007), Not Another Not Another Movie (2011), and Reel Love (2011).
Education
Reynolds attended Palm Beach High School and later enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College. He received a football scholarship to Florida State University but had to drop out after injuries.
In summary, Burt Reynolds' life was a testament to both the highs and lows of fame and fortune. His legacy as a Hollywood icon continues to inspire new generations of actors and filmmakers.
During 10th grade at Palm Beach High School, Reynolds was named First Team All State and All Southern as a fullback, and received multiple scholarship offers.
After graduating from Palm Beach High School, he attended Florida State University on a football scholarship and played halfback, starting in 1954. While at Florida State, he roomed with future college-football coach, broadcaster and analyst Lee Corso, and also became a brother of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
Reynolds had an outstanding freshman year as a football player. However, he injured his knee in the first game of his sophomore season and, later that year, lost his spleen and injured his other knee in a bad car accident. He did not return to the university for almost two years. To keep up with his studies, he enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College (PBJC) in neighboring Lake Park in early 1956. When Reynolds returned to Florida State in 1957, he rejoined the football team, although his leg injured by the car accident slowed him. He was blamed, fairly or not, for the team's loss to North Carolina State University on October 12, 1957. Immediately after the game, he told his teammates that he was done with football.
During his term at PBJC in early 1956, Reynolds was in an English class taught by Watson B. Duncan III. Duncan encouraged him to try out for a play he was producing, Outward Bound. He cast him in the lead role based on having heard him read Shakespeare in class, resulting in his winning the 1956 Florida State Drama Award for his performance. "I read two words and they gave me a lead," he later said.
"I was a working actor for two years before I finally took my first real acting class (with Wynn Handman at the Neighborhood Playhouse)," he said. "It was a lot of technique, truth, moment-to-moment, how to listen, improv."
After a botched improvisation in acting class, Reynolds briefly considered returning to Florida, but soon gained a part in a revival of Mister Roberts, in which Charlton Heston played the starring role.
Reynolds in college "was so good-looking, I used him as bait," college roommate Lee Corso recalled. "He'd walk across campus and bring back two girls, one beautiful and one ugly; I got the ugly girl. His ugly girlfriends were better than anyone I could get on my own."
Until its sale during bankruptcy, he owned the Burt Reynolds Ranch, where scenes for Smokey and the Bandit were filmed and which once had a petting zoo. In April 2014, the 153-acre (62 ha) rural property was rezoned for residential use and the Palm Beach County school system was empowered to sell it, which it did to the residential developer K. Hovnanian Homes.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Florida State University in 1981 and later endorsed the construction of a new performing arts facility in Sarasota, Florida.
