Burt Reynolds

[maphillips3]

This guy was a very popular actor in the 70's, and 80's. He came out with those race car movies(Smokey And The Bandit, Cannon Ball Run), and became the number one box office attraction in the world, so was wondering what your opinions on this actor?

[chaney]

I liked Burt when he was more serious in DELIVERANCE and SHARKY'S MACHINE. I don't care for all the winking at the camera schtick that he fell into in the latter half of his career in the SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and CANNONBALL RUN films.

Burt was one of those who lost a lot of credibility by claiming he was things he was not. I don't know how many times I heard him over the years say he had done all of his own stunts, yet someone in the know could obviously pick out when Hal Needham or other doubles took over. Would prefer if he'd simply say he does "many" of his own stunts instead of "all". In his early bios he even claimed to be a U.S. Marine, which he wasn't or that he turned down James Bond back when he couldn't sell a TV pilot. Then there's the 40 plus years of hairpieces and lifts to make him appear taller ...

What did it for me was a TONIGHT SHOW appearance several years back, during the time of his divorce from Loni Anderson. Burt was in a foul mood throughout the interview and bad-mouthing pretty much everything. There was another guest who came out after Burt, who moved over on the couch. This guest was one of those one-shot guests who had done something interesting and this was his 15 minutes of fame. Burt kept cutting in on all of his answers and dominating the interview. At the end of the show somebody had the bright idea to bring out a couple of pies and Burt slammed the poor guy in the face with a pie. My jaw dropped and Jay Leno was just trying to sugar-coat everything as Burt stalked around the set. Pretty despicable.

Was browsing through a new book on Clint Eastwood at the bookstore (AMERICAN REBEL, I think is the title) and it talks about the movie he and Burt did together - CITY HEAT. That's the one that Burt got his jaw broke in a fight scene when he was hit by a real chair or so the story goes. Always wondered about that scene and what stuntman would be so foolhardy to pick up a real chair and clobber the star despite all the choreography that goes into these fights. The injury pretty much ended Burt's film career for a number of years. This book suggests that it was actually Clint who didn't pull his punch on Burt because Burt was being such an ass and that everything was covered up because of Clint's power in the industry. Pretty surprising, but I can actually buy that version more than I can the other.