Burt Reynolds

The Knee That Made a Star

Burt Reynolds wanted to become a professional football player. A serious injury at Florida State University and a car accident soon after shattered his athletic dream before he turned twenty. So he ended up in acting classes because he didn't know what else to do with his life.

And it worked.

Throughout the sixties, he landed supporting roles in TV series such as Gunsmoke or Riverboat. His look bore too strong a resemblance to Marlon Brando. But Reynolds resented the comparison and sought an identity of his own that blended the toughness of the tough guy with an almost parodic sense of humor.

Hollywood's Most Bankable Man

In 1972, he starred in Deliverance, and the world discovered that this handsome guy could really act. It was his ticket to the top tier of the industry. Shortly after, he decided to pose nude for Cosmopolitan magazine on a bearskin rug. That photo shoot was the biggest mistake of his career, as he would later confess himself decades afterward.

It cost him credibility with the Academy but brought him unprecedented global fame.

Between 1978 and 1982, he was the biggest box office draw in the world. Films such as Smokey and the Bandit or The Cannonball Run confirmed that audiences preferred seeing him drive fast cars and crack jokes over playing intense dramatic roles.

Million-Dollar Rejections and Debts

Reynolds turned down the chance to play James Bond after Sean Connery left the role. He also passed on the part of Han Solo in Star Wars and the role of Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. His instinct for choosing scripts began to fail spectacularly in the mid-1980s.

Bad luck combined with disastrous financial decisions.

In 1996, he filed for bankruptcy with debts exceeding ten million dollars. His Florida mansion and private plane disappeared while the industry turned its back on him, viewing him as a has-been actor.

The Last Glow in the Valley

Paul Thomas Anderson brought him back from obscurity in 1997 to play Jack Horner in Boogie Nights. Reynolds hated the film during filming and fired his agent after seeing the first cut. But critics fell for his performance, and he won the Golden Globe.

He lost the Oscar to Robin Williams.

That defeat hit him hard. He kept working in minor productions and voicing characters in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2002 to keep his finances afloat. In 2018, he was ready to shoot his scenes in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood under the direction of Quentin Tarantino.

He died of a heart attack in September 2018 at a hospital in Florida, without having shot a single frame of that film.