Hollywood superstar Burt Reynolds, famous for his roles in such films as Deliverance, The Cannonball Run, and Boogie Nights, passed away on Thursday morning at the age of 82, while at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida. For diehard car fans, Reynolds will perhaps most fondly be remembered for his portrayal of Bo Darville (“Bandit”) in Smokey and the Bandit (1977), driving a now-iconic black Pontiac Trans Am with a massive firebird emblem on the hood to escort a truck full of bootleg beer as it made its way across the U.S. to Georgia.
Sales of the Pontiac Trans Am reportedly took off after the film’s opening, nearly doubling within two years of its release, and Reynolds claims that Smokey was the late, great Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite film. It spawned two sequels, both of which also starred Burt Reynolds, and also prominently featured a Pontiac Trans Am from the same year of release.
Photo: Pat Loika
Prior to his breakout film role playing Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972), Burt Reynolds played running back on his high school football team in Florida, leading to him attending Florida State University on a football scholarship. He had hoped to go on to play professionally, but fate had other plans, as he injured one knee during a game, and injured the other in a car crash. He left Florida State, eventually finding his way to Palm Beach Junior College, where an English teacher pressured Reynolds to try out for a part in a play he was producing.
From there, Reynolds began acting regularly in theater productions, finding his way onto television in the 1950s, and later, into film.
Reynolds is survived by his son, Quinton, and ex-wife, Loni Anderson.
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
Comments
Burt was a real car guy. Bandit, Cannonball Run, Gator, White Lighting, were all great car movies.
To be honest even Stroker Ace was closer to the real NASCAR than a Days of Thunder.
Burt has given us many hours of great entertainment and laughs.
Yes he was flawed and made mistakes but he was closer to a real person than the normal Hollywood flake. He has a loyal group of friends and when he was ill he really learned who really were his friends.
I hope God is ready now Burton’s Hal are back together again.
I can tell you it will never be boring in heaven.
Agree, a truly remarkable man. Alpha male, funny, intelligent, witty…Too bad we just have Hollyweirdos now.
How dare you call Reynolds flawed without listing your impression of his flaws so we can attack each one of your accusations. An experiment with a restaurant chain is no reason to call a man flawed on his funeral day.
Reynolds had NO flaws. Stop taking the “I know everything about a famous man and here it is” road. You aren’t the judge of anyone’s life.
Reynolds was using his restaurants for trying to provide employment for young folks in his community, exactly like Billy Durant was doing with his bowling alley at the end of his life. NOT a flaw.
You really do have a screw loose.
Read his biography he wrote if you can and he points out his mistakes and flaws in his life. He was very honest and a true gentleman to the end.
The flaw commentary was not mine but his.
The flaw commentary was his not yours – exactly. NOT yours to mention on this day, but hey, you went ahead and mentioned it to show how you know so much more than others.
I enjoyed his movies in my younger days. Reading excerpts of his book, he seemed like a decent and sympathetic figure who made the most of what life brought him. If nothing else, he surely would’ve been a fun guy to make a movie with.
I was born and raised in the deep south. Burt Reynolds showed the rest of the world that a “good ole boy”, as folks like to refer to us as, could be more than a stereotype from a cartoon. He was and will remain a hero to many a southern man.
“Here’s to the Bandit”
I had considered the same thing.
So many idiots like to paint that if you are from the south or have southern heritage you are a racist. He was proof that you could be a good all boy and get along with and be good to everyone.
Here’s to the Bandit Clink!
He was a long time hero of mine in one of my all time favorite movies- Smokey and the Bandit. “They don’t make ’em like they used to” could be applied to both Burt and the gorgeous Trans Am’s he drove. Very sad
White Lightning is my favorite Burt Reynolds movie. Ned Beatty was perfect as the crooked sheriff JC Conners and Burt was great runnin’ hard in that plain jane ’71 Ford Custom 500. “……..Only scared of 2 things…….women and the police.”
RIP Burt
I was a college student in Georgia when the Smokey and Bandit movie hit the big screen. That black Trans AM stirred my blood as much as the coeds did that year!