Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard (Photo/NCM)
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an actor who celebrates another birthday, his 74th, on February 11, 2010. That makes over fifty years in the entertainment business as a stunt man and actor.
Some of Burt Reynolds' memorable roles include Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning, Paul "Wrecking" Crewe in The Longest Yard, Coach Nate Scarborough in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, with Chris Rock and Adam Sandler, Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, J.J. McClure in The Cannonball Run, with Sally Field and Dom Deluise...
...the voice of Charlie B. Barkin in the All Dogs Go to Heaven franchise, and Jack Horner in Boogie Nights, voice of Delgo's father in Delgo with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard with Willie Nelson (Roy Hammock is Nelson lookalike), Jessica Simpson...
Reynolds is one of America's most recognizable film and television personalities with more than 90 feature film and 300 television episode credits.
During his beginning days of acting, Reynolds studied in New York and tried out for parts. Once he was told he couldn't get a part because he looked too much like Marlon Brando. He was advised to go to Hollywood.
Reynolds worked odd jobs while waiting for acting opportunities. He waited tables, washed dishes, drove a delivery truck and worked as a bouncer at the Roseland Ballroom. It was while working as a dockworker that Reynolds was offered $150 to jump through a glass window on a live television show.
His film debut was in 1961, in the movie Angel Baby. At the urging of friend Clint Eastwood, Reynolds used his TV fame to secure leading roles in overseas low budget films, commonly called "Spaghetti Westerns".
Reynolds' first Spaghetti Western, Navajo Joe, came out in 1966. Reynolds claims he was offered the role of James Bond by producer Albert R. Broccoli, after Sean Connery (two Connery lookalikes - John Allen, Dennis Keogh), left the franchise. Reynolds turned the role down, saying:
Burt Reynolds (Photo/wiki)
An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done."
In the 1980s, after Smokey and the Bandit, Reynolds became typecast in similar, less well-done and less successful movies. But during the first half of the 1990s, he was the star of the CBS television series Evening Shade, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1991).
Reynolds started a comeback with the movie Striptease with Demi Moore, in 1996, and the critically acclaimed Boogie Nights, in 1997, put his career back on track.
In 2007, Reynolds, at the World Stuntman Awards, was awarded the Taurus Lifetime Achievement Award. While presenting him with the award Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to him as the greatest of the great.
A Bunch of Amateurs (2008) is about a down and out Hollywood actor shooting a film in England. Reynolds portrayed the character, Jefferson Steel, wonderfully, and was not type-cast! Great actor Burt Reynolds, continues to entertain us in all genres for years to come. Thanks Mr. Reynolds!
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