Burt Reynolds (full name Burton Leon Reynolds Jr.) is a famous American actor, director, screenwriter and producer, winner of Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar nominees. The peak of its popularity was in the 1970s-1980s.
Reynolds's career began in the 1950s. Many years later, film critics called him one of the most ingenious actors in Westerns. In the 1970s, Bert became a real sex symbol of the generation, posing practically nude for Cosmopolitan magazine. In his mature years, Reynolds appeared on the screen in the main image of a wise, kind southerner.
His cinematic career includes more than 300 roles in television and film projects, including participation in film awards, popular entertainment programs and documentaries. The last time Bert appeared on the screen was in 2017.
He dreamed of playing in K. Tarantino's film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", was approved for the role of George Spahn and even started filming. But, unfortunately, his dreams were not destined to come true. Reynolds died suddenly of a heart attack in the fall of 2018 at the age of 82. The role intended for Bert was played by Bruce Dern, and Reynolds himself was played by James Paul Marden.
Biography facts
The future actor and Hollywood star was born in America in the winter of 1936. After World War II, the family moved to Riviera Beach, where Bert's father became Chief of Police.
The boy received his primary education at Palm Beach High School. During his school years, he became interested in sports and played American football. Bert has achieved good results and received a personal sports scholarship. After entering college, he became a midfielder for the University of Florida national team.
Further plans for a sports career were disrupted by a serious knee injury and a car accident, as a result of which his spleen was removed. Bert could no longer play football, but he remained a fan of this sport forever.
The young man wanted to get a specialty and go to work in the police just like his father. To do this, he began attending special courses at the College of Law, where he met with the teacher of English literature Watts B. Duncan, who became a real mentor for him.
Once Duncan heard a young man read Shakespeare's poems, and invited him to play in a student play. Bert agreed. From that moment on, art firmly entered the life of a young man. Soon he decided that he wanted to become an actor, and went to New York to comprehend the basics of the profession.
Creative way
For 2 years, Reynolds worked on the theater stage and took acting courses. In his free time, he worked part-time in restaurants and bars, attended television auditions. Many acquaintances and colleagues suggested that he leave for Hollywood and try to make his way to acting fame there, but Reynolds believed that he was not ready for this.
Constant auditions on television have yielded results. Bert got a few bit parts in the series and gradually gained self-confidence. In the late 1950s, he made contact with Universal Studios for seven years and began acting in television projects.
Among his works were roles in famous TV series: Trunk Smoke, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Theater 90, Perry Mason, Naked City, River Boat, Imprisonment, The Twilight Zone.
At one of the auditions, Bert auditioned for the main role, but the director thought that he was too similar to the famous actor Marlon Brando and refused him the role. In the future, he again came across this comparison more than once, although many believed that Bert simply underestimated himself and therefore received refusals. Although he did have some superficial resemblance to a celebrity.
For a long time, Reynolds played only roles in action films and westerns of not the best quality. Although he played the main roles, he himself began to call himself a famous actor who appeared only in unknown films.
The rise in his career as an actor took place in 1972, when he landed the lead role in the thriller Deliverance. Later, the actor himself said that he had been waiting for such a job for many years and finally his dream became a reality.
The plot of the picture unfolds in the Appalachians. Four friends go on a boat trip to relax and enjoy nature. They could not even imagine that they would be ambushed by local sadists and thugs. Friends will have to go through serious tests and try to stay alive.
The film was nominated three times for an Oscar and five times for a Golden Globe. The film never received an award, but for Reynolds, shooting in this film was a real breakthrough in his career.
Soon he received an invitation to shoot for the famous director Woody Alain and played one of the central roles in the film "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask."
This was followed by the main roles in projects: "Shaimas", "The Man Who Loved the Dancing Cat", "White Lightning", "The Longest Yard", "Finally Love", "Dirty Business", "Gator", "Dream Traders" ".
Soon, Reynolds entered the list of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, finishing in fourth place. He remained on this list until the mid-1980s.
Reynolds played one of his most famous roles in the movie "Smokey and the Bandit" and in its two sequels. His fee for the first part of the film was $ 1 million. He received an even larger sum of $ 5 million for his role in the first and second parts of the action movie "Cannonball Race".
In the 1980s, Reynolds was a very popular and sought after performer. But gradually the films where he starred, began to receive negative reviews from film critics, and the picture "Stips" with Demi Moore in the title role was even nominated for "Golden Raspberry".
Only in 1997 he was able to regain his fame, starring in the drama "Boogie Night". Bert won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for Oscars, the Actors Guild and the British Academy.
Reynolds' career in cinema continued literally until the last day of his life. He died in the fall of 2018 as a result of a heart attack.
Personal life
Bert was officially married twice.
Judy Karn became the first wife. Their marriage only lasted 2 years and resulted in divorce.
After that, Bert met with many famous representatives of show business. His romance with the singer Dina Shor made a lot of noise in the press, because Dina was 20 years older than her lover.
In 1988, Bert became the husband of actress Loni Andersen. The couple did not have children, they adopted a boy. In 1994, the couple broke up due to the fact that Bert had a new girlfriend - the waitress Pam Seals. A few years later, they even announced their engagement, but they never officially became husband and wife.
