Burt Reynolds 1936 - 2018

[JasonEvans]

RIP, Bandit...



-Jason "best laugh EVER!" Evans

[jacone21]

Damn. That dude was an icon.

In a book I read recently, the author wrote that death is like an unstoppable train. It rumbles down the track, taking everyone in front of you until one day, it takes you. Then it just keeps on going. Eventually, it gets everyone.

[accfanfrom1970]

One of my fondest movie memories is my dad going with me to see "The Longest Yard." Still my favorite Burt Reynolds movie, although later "Sharkey's Machine" was another, although Rachel Ward might have skewed that one.

[Indoor66]

One of my fondest movie memories is my dad going with me to see "The Longest Yard." Still my favorite Burt Reynolds movie, although later "Sharkey's Machine" was another, although Rachel Ward might have skewed that one.

Glad you checked your spelling.

[OldPhiKap]

An underappreciated role for Burt was as the Judge in Mystery, Alaska. I really like that film.

[MartyClark]

An underappreciated role for Burt was as the Judge in Mystery, Alaska. I really like that film.

RIP Burt, best wishes to his family and loved ones.

I'm in the minority here, I guess, but I thought he was a terrible actor.

Jason, you are the film critic, what do you think?

[OldPhiKap]

I don't think he was a very good actor. But I don't think he took himself seriously, and that was part of the charm of his characters.

The only really straight-up serious role I recall him in was Deliverance, and I think he was the weak link of the acting in it.

Being in on the joke is what made his characters in Smokey, Hooper, and others fun. At least to me.

[JasonEvans]

RIP Burt, best wishes to his family and loved ones.

I'm in the minority here, I guess, but I thought he was a terrible actor.

Jason, you are the film critic, what do you think?

There are some folks who are great in everything -- the truly great actors -- but if you get the right role and the right script and the right director, even a mediocre actor can be great. I would not say that Burt Reynolds was one of the great actors, but he did have a number of notable performances that were really impressive. It is impossible not to appreciate what he did in Boogie Nights. He was really good in Starting Over and The Longest Yard too. I think he is fun to watch in the Bandit films and in Hooper as well.

No, he was not one of the greats in terms of acting, but what he was was an icon. You have to respect that, even if he laid a few stinkers along the way (Cop and a Half, City Heat... ugh!). He brought joy and excitement to the movies as much as anyone in the 1970s. Let's celebrate that at this time.

-Jason "I think Burt just enjoyed making movies. That came through time and time again. If it meant he wasn't fully emoting on screen, so what? We all loved watching him have fun on screen" Evans

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I'm in the minority here, I guess, but I thought he was a terrible actor.

He wasn't an actor...he played Burt Reynolds in everything. He was a presence, a personality, an image. Lot of stars fit that model, and successfully, and we love them for it. Just like his co stars in Bandit...Gleason and Jerry Reed...all three of them were pretty much who they were. Great flick...lot of fun, but nothing required the versatility of Kevin Spacey.

Ditto Longest Yard. Iconic more than great I guess.

[MartyClark]

He wasn't an actor...he played Burt Reynolds in everything. He was a presence, a personality, an image. Lot of stars fit that model, and successfully, and we love them for it. Just like his co stars in Bandit...Gleason and Jerry Reed...all three of them were pretty much who they were. Great flick...lot of fun, but nothing required the versatility of Kevin Spacey.

Ditto Longest Yard. Iconic more than great I guess.

Good comments from you and Jason. Thanks.

I guess I don't appreciate his movies or roles which, in my opinion, were lazy and pandering. I probably like some movies that you guys don't so I'm not trying to be superior.

Full disclosure, I've been watching "Gossip Girls" when I can't sleep. Terrible, stupid series. I can't turn it off.

[OldPhiKap]

Tweet from Patton Oswald:

“Burt Reynolds & Clint Eastwood were fired from GUNSMOKE & RAWHIDE at the same time. Burt was told he couldn't act and Clint his neck was too skinny. In the parking lot, Burt said to Clint, "I dunno what you're gonna do, but I'm gonna take acting lessons." #RIPBurtReynolds“

[bundabergdevil]

After dinner one night the very Scottish father of my then girlfriend, now wife insisted I come into the living room to watch Deliverance with him while the girls cleaned up. It was one of his favorite movies, he said. After he moved the family from Scotland to the U.S., the company he worked for did raft trips on the Chattooga River where Deliverance was filmed. That was his reasoning. Just a world class uncomfortable viewing experience for me. Like, way more uncomfortable than the first time I watched a movie with a sex scene and my parents were in the room.

Anyway, RIP Burt.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Good comments from you and Jason. Thanks.

I guess I don't appreciate his movies or roles which, in my opinion, were lazy and pandering. I probably like some movies that you guys don't so I'm not trying to be superior.

Full disclosure, I've been watching "Gossip Girls" when I can't sleep. Terrible, stupid series. I can't turn it off.

Burt Reynolds movies, like Clint Eastwood movies, some Bronson - and like shows like Sanford and Son...etc...are my "guilty pleasures." For example, Josey Wales to me is a very mediocre movie but it has like 30 great iconic scenes in it.

Not everything can be October Sky or Apollo 13 and so on...

[Indoor66]

Not everything can be October Sky or Apollo 13 and so on...

Nor should they be...

[cato]

He wasn't an actor...he played Burt Reynolds in everything.

Everything like Deliverance?

As for me, I will always remember his appearance on Jeopardy.

[aimo]

If you've never seen it, try to watch Evening Shade, a sitcom he did in the 90s. Great cast, funny show! He played a southern high school football coach, imagine that!

[brevity]

Burt Reynolds was no Marlon Brando... or was he?

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Everything like Deliverance?

As for me, I will always remember his appearance on Jeopardy.

Admittedly....Deliverance is kind of the outlier there...

[Nick]

RIP. He played himself in one of the more memorable Archer episodes:



And Norm McDonald wanting to do a Burt Reynolds impression helped bring the famous SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skits into existence:

It was that take on Reynolds — as a guy who didn’t have a care in the world and treated the exasperated Jeopardy host with indifference — that drove Macdonald to want to write the sketch in the first place.

...Then came the Reynolds twist. The actor was one of Macdonald’s childhood heroes, and the chance to impersonate him was the motivating force to get to the sketch to air.

“When it came time to do the sketch, I went down and saw my wardrobe and there was white beard and a bald white cap, and I said, ‘No, no, I want to do Burt Reynolds from 1972,” Macdonald told Stern. “And it’s funny to me, but no one ever mentioned it, that one guy on ‘Celebrity Jeopardy’ is from 40 years ago.”

Macdonald also played Reynolds in other sketches, including 1997’s “Christmas with Burt.”

The comic ended up meeting Reynolds on the set of an Adam Sandler movie (probably 2005’s “The Longest Yard”). Reynolds “was real nice to me. He told me really funny stories,” Macdonald said. “He has a very good sense of humor.”

[Reddevil]

Much has been covered here. I just want to add that I hope Dom DeLuise and Burt are together again in some capacity. I enjoyed his carefree style, but the antics of those two in The End and Cannonball Run are what I will remember most fondly.