Fifth anniversary of the death of Burt Reynolds
The most beautiful mustache in Hollywood
This is how millions of fans around the world remember Burt Reynolds.
© imago images/Everett Collection
A daredevil straight out of a picture book: September 6 marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds.
This parade role makes him immortal
Those were the days when Burt Reynolds was the manliest man in Hollywood. His star role: “The crafty rascal,” a guy who serially fools the cops from several states with his souped-up Trans Am. A hugely successful car comedy that had a blockbuster sequel with ‘All Hell’s Gone on the Highway’. And Reynolds was a box office magnet. He was a daredevil straight out of a picture book. 1.80 meters tall, muscular, handsome and always tanned. He was athletic by nature, earning a football scholarship to Florida State University, where he was also named to the All-Star team.
On a bearskin as a sex symbol
Reynolds switched from sports to acting. After training at the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York, he made his theatrical debut on Broadway. And with “Everyone is the first to die” (1972) he made his breakthrough in the cinema. John Boorman’s (90) dark action thriller was a huge success with critics and audiences and is considered Reynolds’ best film.
He was a star, but sexy Burt made it to sex symbol with a single photo: In 1972 he posed in the April issue of the women’s magazine “Cosmopolitan” as a centerfold model. Reynolds lounged naked on a bearskin. The women were crazy about him – and he was crazy about them! He had countless affairs.
His “great love” Sally Field
However, one woman in particular stood out: Sally Field (76). The two acting stars got to know and love each other during the shooting of “A clever rascal”. They made four films together and were a couple for around five years before their relationship broke up in 1982. In a 2015 interview with Vanity Fair, Reynolds said he still loves and misses Field. He referred to her as “the love of my life”. After Reynolds’ death, Field said in a statement: “My years with Burt will never be forgotten. He is part of my story and part of my heart for as long as I live.”
He could have become James Bond
The bearskin picture made a world career and Reynolds was under discussion as James Bond. He would have become a legendary 007 – and many things would have taken a different course in his life. Unfortunately, as so often in his career, he declined. He was supposed to play Han Solo in “Star Wars” and the male lead in “Pretty Woman”, which then went to Richard Gere (73).
He also couldn’t warm to the lead roles in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Days of Tenderness,” which Jack Nicholson (86) then took over, winning two Oscars with it. After all, Reynolds did get a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for “Boogie Nights,” although he didn’t like the role of a porn film producer, but the critics loved it.
Bitter War of the Roses with Loni Anderson
In his memoir But Enough About Me, Reynolds settled accounts with himself. He often behaved “like an asshole” and only thought of himself: “I was very young and very stupid,” he wrote. Among his biggest mistakes he counted his uncovered appearance on the bearskin – and the explosive marriage to Loni Anderson (78). The actress was (after Judy Carne) his second wife (1988-1994).
And Anderson’s divorce turned into a public mud fight that also ruined his career. In 1996 he had to file for private bankruptcy for the first time. Eventually, malicious rumors surfaced that Burt Reynolds had contracted AIDS because he had lost a lot of weight. In truth, the weight loss was due to an addiction to painkillers after surgery on his jaw.
The deep fall
In the last few years before his death, the action icon of the 1970s and 1980s had been declining more and more. “Two vertebrae dissolve more or less,” he once told the “Bild am Sonntag”. He also had to undergo heart surgery with five bypasses in 2010. Most recently, he appeared in public with a cane. Financially, things were no longer looking rosy. In 2011, Reynolds filed for bankruptcy again, allegedly because he could no longer service the mortgage on his Florida home. His villa was foreclosed on.
The last gasp for a comeback
The daredevil of yore had become mild with age. “Be nice to your friends and even nicer to your enemies and find a good wife,” he said years ago in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. He already had a new wife, his “much younger” girlfriend Rhonda Stearns had met him in a class at the drama school that Burt Reynolds ran. He had long since moved away from Hollywood, he lived in the sunny state of Florida, the paradise of retirees.
Shortly before his death, Burt Reynolds made a name for himself with a new film project. He was supposed to play in Quentin Tarantino’s (60) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (48) and Brad Pitt (59). Filming had already started, but its scenes weren’t finished yet. He was really looking forward to this shoot, his niece Nancy Lee Hess said in a statement. His close friend Bruce Dern (87) finally took over his role.