Burt Reynolds - Acting Career

Acting Career

The Florida State Drama Award included a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater, in Hyde Park, New York. Reynolds saw the opportunity as an agreeable alternative to more physically demanding summer jobs, but did not yet see acting as a career. While working at Hyde Park, Reynolds met Joanne Woodward, who helped Reynolds find an agent, and be cast in Tea and Sympathy at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Reynolds received favorable reviews for his performance in Tea and Sympathy. Reynolds then went on tour with Tea and Sympathy, driving the bus as well as appearing on stage.

After the tour Reynolds returned to New York and enrolled in acting classes. His classmates included Frank Gifford, Carol Lawrence, Red Buttons and Jan Murray. After a botched improvisation in acting class, Reynolds briefly considered returning to Florida, but he soon got a part in a revival of Mister Roberts, with Charlton Heston as the star. After the play closed, the director, John Forsythe, arranged a movie audition with Josh Logan for Reynolds. The movie was Sayonara, and Reynolds was told he couldn't be in the movie because he looked too much like Marlon Brando. Logan advised Reynolds to go to Hollywood, but Reynolds did not feel confident enough to do so.

Reynolds began working 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.

He made his Broadway debut in Look, We've Come Through. Reynolds first starred on television with Darren McGavin in the 1959-1961 NBC series, Riverboat. On June 11, 1959, he appeared as Tony Sapio with Ruta Lee as Gloria Fallon in the episode entitled "The Payoff" of NBC's 1920s crime drama, The Lawless Years. In 1960-1961, he appeared in two episodes of the syndicated series The Blue Angels, about elite fliers of the United States Navy. That same season, he guest starred in the syndicated crime drama, The Brothers Brannagan in the episode "Bordertown". Reynolds went on to appear in a number of other shows, including a role as blacksmith/ de facto deputy, and half-Native American Quint Asper on CBS's Gunsmoke from 1962–1965. In 1962 Reynolds secured a guest appearance on Perry Mason in "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank". In 1963 he played a character named Rocky in The Twilight Zone episode 155 "The Bard," in which he amusingly lampooned his then-lookalike Marlon Brando. In 1965 he guest-starred as Technical Sergeant Chapman, a Flight Engineer in the second season episode 7, "Show Me A Hero" of 12 O-Clock High.

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". (Eastwood advised Reynolds from experience, as he had done the same). Reynolds first Spaghetti Western, Navajo Joe, came out in 1966. These low budget starring roles established Reynolds as a bankable leading man in movies, and earned him starring roles in American big-budget motion pictures. During this period, he starred in two short-lived cop shows: Hawk and Dan August. He disparaged these shows, telling Johnny Carson that Dan August had "two forms of expression: "mean and meaner." His breakout performance in Deliverance in 1972 made him a star. The same year, Reynolds gained notoriety when he posed naked in the April (Vol. 172, No. 4) issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Reynolds was offered the role of James Bond by producer Albert R. Broccoli, after Sean Connery left the franchise. Reynolds turned the role down, saying "An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done." Broccoli offered the role to another non-Englishman, Australian George Lazenby. In 1973, he released the album Ask Me What I Am. He would also sing with Dolly Parton in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Reynolds appeared on ABC's The American Sportsman hosted by outdoors journalist Grits Gresham, who took celebrities on hunting, fishing, and shooting trips around the world.

In 1977, director and producer George Lucas offered Reynolds the part of Han Solo in the first film of the Star Wars franchise. Reynolds declined - at which point Lucas offered the part to Tom Selleck, who also declined due to other work commitments (he was starring in the T.V series Magnum P.I. at the time), so Lucas asked Harrison Ford.

On March 15, 1978, Reynolds earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in the same year built a dinner theatre in Jupiter, Florida. His celebrity was such that he drew not only big-name stars to appear in productions but sell-out audiences as well. He sold the venue in the early 1990s, but a museum highlighting his career still operates nearby.

In the 1980s, after the hugely successful Smokey and the Bandit and its sequels, he became typecast in similar, less well-done and less successful movies. One of his more acclaimed roles during this period was in Michael Crighton's Physical Evidence (1989). He had his hand at producing two television shows with friend Bert Convy. One in 1987 was called Win, Lose or Draw. He appeared as a celebrity gameplayer in the inaugural week of the show along with Justine Bateman, Debbie Reynolds and Loretta Swit. The set of Win, Lose or Draw was modeled after Reynolds' living room. Another show Burt and Bert produced was titled 3rd Degree, and like on Win, Lose, or Draw, Burt appeared on a few episodes as a panelist. That show aired from 1989-90.

In 1989 he starred on the short lived detective drama B.L. Stryker, one of the rotating elements of the ABC Mystery Movie.

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).

Despite much success, Reynolds's finances were bad, due in part to an extravagant lifestyle, a messy divorce from Loni Anderson (see below), and failed investments in some Florida restaurant chains; consequently, in 1996, Reynolds filed for bankruptcy. The filing was under Chapter 11, from which Reynolds emerged two years later.

In 1996, Reynolds sought a comeback in the movie Striptease with an over-the-top performance as a sex-obsessed congressman. Though a financial success, the film was generally panned by critics. According to Reynolds, his performance was inspired by politicians he met through his father, who had been a police chief. The following year he appeared in the critically acclaimed Boogie Nights, and his career was officially back on track. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance and took home a Golden Globe Award. He was considered a front-runner for the Supporting Oscar, but ultimately lost to Robin Williams, for Good Will Hunting.

In 1997 Reynolds co-authored the children's book Barkley Unleashed A Pirate a "whimsical tale illustrates the importance of perseverance, the wonders of friendship, and the power of imagination" .

In early 2000, he created and toured Burt Reynolds's One-Man Show. In 2002, he lent his voice to the character Avery Carrington in the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ("Vice City Tourist Guide" p. 23).

In 2005, he co-starred in a remake of The Longest Yard, with Adam Sandler playing the role of Paul Crewe, the role Reynolds had played in the 1974 original. This time around, Reynolds took on the role of Nate Scarborough. The irony in Reynolds's participation in the remake was that his role in the 1974 original garnered him a Golden Globe nomination "Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy", while his role in the remake saw him receive a Razzie Award nomination for "Worst Supporting Actor". He also appeared in a movie version of the popular 1980s TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, as Boss Hogg.

He starred in the audio book version of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. In May 2006, Reynolds began appearing in Miller Lite beer commercials. In 2007 at the World Stuntman Awards he was awarded the Taurus Lifetime Achievement Award. While presenting him with the award Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to him as the greatest of the great.

In July 2010, he guest starred as an ex-CIA agent being hunted down by a Russian wet ops team who wanted to kidnap, interrogate, then kill him, on USA's Burn Notice. Part of this role denoted absent-mindedness which was noted in the closing scene as "not only being when he drank" implying his character suffered from some form of memory disability or disease.

In January 2012 Reynolds had a guest starring role as himself in an episode of the animated FX TV show Archer. The episode titled "The Man from Jupiter" features Reynolds helping Archer (who idolizes him) take on a team of Cuban hitmen.

He also appears as himself in Saints Row: The Third as the mayor of Steelport.