MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Director , Executive producer
Birth name Burton Leon Reynolds Jr.
Nationality American
Birth February 11, 1936 (Waycross, Georgia – United States)
Death September 6, 2018
BIOGRAPHY
Born to a Cherokee father and an Italian mother, Burt Reynolds grew up in Palm Beach, Florida, and began a professional football career that was abruptly interrupted by a serious car accident. Turning to the profession of stuntman then actor, he performed in a few television series such as Gunsmoke (1962-1965) and Hawk (1966), before distinguishing himself in the cinema in the westerns Navajo Joe (1966) and The Hundred Rifles (1969) . ).
But it was by playing a middle-class American who improvised as an adventurer and archer in Deliverance in 1972 that the athletically built actor achieved fame. He then specialized in the roles of macho and strong man, reconnecting with his first love, American football , to take it hard in Robert Aldrich ‘s comedy . After founding the production company Roburt Company with the latter in 1975, he began directing, starring in Gator (1976), a thriller where a former burglar is responsible for bringing about the downfall of a corrupt politician. , and L’Anti-gang (1981), the story of a vice squad cop investigating a murder case.
Passionate about speed and car racing, Burt Reynolds plays two recurring characters under the leadership of Hal Needham , one of whom, Bandit, spends his time taunting the sheriffs ( Run after me sheriff in 1977 and You’re no match for sheriff! in 1980) and the other, JJ McClure, competed for Cannonball ( L’Equipée du cannonball in 1981 and Cannonball 2 in 1984). Having filmed under the direction of directors as talented as Peter Bogdanovich ( Nickelodeon ), Alan J. Pakula ( Thank You for Being My Wife ) and Don Siegel ( The Lion Bares His Claws ), the mustachioed actor nevertheless finds himself confined, in the 80s, to the roles of violent cops as evidenced by his performances in the thrillers Haut les flingues! (1984), Malone (1987), and Supporting Evidence (1988).
Not afraid of self-deprecation, even if it means sinking into “beaufitude”, Burt Reynolds shows off his aging tough guy figure in unconvincing comedies like A Cop and a Half (1993) and Striptease(1996), where he plays a crooked and libidinous politician. His career found new life in 1997 with Boogie Nights , and international critics praised his performance as an X-rated film director in this feature film by Paul Thomas Anderson inspired by the life of porn actor John Holmes. But his following films – Mystery, Alaska , Stringer and The Crew – did not achieve the expected success, the actor had to be content with secondary roles in the form of winks like in Up to the Neck (2005), where his character of an eccentric hermit refers to Délivrance , and Half-time in the mitard (id.), remake of Plein la bouche .
Despite his relatively advanced age, Burt Reynolds continues to be active in front of the cameras. He is thus featured in several films (mostly unpublished in France) in registers ranging from comedy ( Sherif, make me afraid , Forget About It , Cloud 9 ) to thriller ( End Game , Hollow Creek ) in going through fantasy ( King Rising – In the Name of the King ) and drama ( Dog Years ). At the same time, the actor participates in several television films ( A Heart on the Hook , In the Heart of the Storm ) and television series ( Earl , American Dad! and “Archer Hitting the Breaks”).
