Ringside Report Remembers Legendary Movie Actor & Our “Brother In Boxing” Burt Reynolds

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Anyone who would pass up a role opposite his girlfriend in a movie because his wife would probably poison him, whose father waited until his 95th year to tell him he was proud of him, his son and who once turned down the advances of Greta Garbo has a tale to tell… and boy what a tale that was…

We are talking about a man who was out of sorts with his time – the whole time.

He was a matinee idol, after matinees had gone. He craved to be seen as a serious actor in films where their trivial approach gave people reason to trivialize him. He was an open and honest man whose honesty put him in tabloid exposes rather than in our affections. He was also a man who openly spoke of the unspeakable, his private life, and the personal, how he coped with it all, thus opened up his life at a time when things could be easily hidden; this was a man for the Twitter age when there was no social media.

Of his time and bypassed by his time, Burt Reynolds was an enigma. Easily dismissed by the serious cerebral critics who watched with envy as his popularity soared they waited with disdain as they thought and hoped he had thrown it all away.

By the end, the man who gave us the Bandit to Smokey became someone we adored because he redeemed himself, with Boogie Nights, then continued to play the best role he was ever given – Burt Reynolds; meaning that he never had to redeem himself at all.

The facts are that Burton Lee Reynolds was born in Michigan in 1936; the same year that Hitler oversaw the Olympics in Berlin and Mutiny on the Bounty won best picture at the Academy Awards. His death on the 6th September this year in Florida meant he graced us on the planet for a whole 82 years.

He was not born to softness and greatness as his relationship with his father was a tough one, as his father was a tough man to please. An Army veteran, venerated in his community he became a sherriff who once left his son in a cell for 2 days to learn his lesson; his son learnt it well.

Even from birth he was to work hard on his enigmatic presence as he waited until 2015 to confirm where he was actually born. His heritage has been variously suggested as everything from Dutch to Scottish to Cherokee.

A career in acting nearly did not happen as he was to be found in college as a scholarship student and a quarterback on the college team. Had he not injured his knee, lost his spleen and then suffered another knee injury in a car accident he may not have made it to our screens as an actor; it is believed that in 1957 he gave the sport up.

A career in law enforcement beckoned as his father was a policeman but neither the police nor the parole service, his father’s suggested compromise, led to him going into a uniform after a teacher pushed him into acting. In 1956, a Florida State Drama Award for his performance meant he was destined for the stage thanks to mentor and teacher, Watson B Duncan III; a man for whom Reynolds had such affection that perhaps he found the heart of a father in a teacher who would guide him well thereafter.

Soon he was learning the bumpy road of a creative which involved driving the tour bus but also sharing a stage with the likes of Charlton Heston. After a period of fortunate stage employment then came the itinerant jobs – dishes, tables, trucks and bouncer at a door which became his wings in which to wait before he could get called back onto his stage.

The calls started coming in the late fifties with appearances on a variety of TV shows before Riverboat and what he later described as a stupid part. His quick temper was therefore evident even at an early stage of his career as he quit the role after only 20 episodes.

By the dawn of the 60’s he was making his film debut and still appearing regularly on TV; the tables and dishes were gone and he was ready to break through properly.

The enigma of the man was to be further cemented when he landed in 1962 a role in Gunsmoke. He claimed he would stay on the show until it ended; he left in 1965. His career on the small screen was not just as an actor as he directed many episodes of work he was involved in and appeared regularly on many a talk show. He was demonstrating that he was aware not just of how to work a live audience but that his greatest commodity as an actor was no arching eyebrow or brooding menace but, Burt Reynolds.

His suggested Indian heritage may have helped him gain a few roles as leads of TV shows where he was cast as an Indian detective before that break through really came in Deliverance.

What followed was a degree of fame and infamy that would dog his reputation. This was because in in 1972, just before the release of Deliverance he decided to pose naked for Cosmopolitan; becoming America’s first male centerfold. It was a daring thing to do but in the context of its time, and many of his closest friends and advisors failed to dissuade a man who thought it would be a great laugh. Later in life he admitted great regret at doing something which was thought to have hampered his career and could have cost him an Oscar nomination. His view was in his biography, “Suddenly, my life was a carnival. I couldn’t go anywhere without women asking me to sign their copies, each one a painful reminder of my stupidity.”

It was not the only controversy he faced. In 1973 he became implicated in the death of David Whiting during the filming of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. Though the eventual verdict was one of accidental death, Reynolds had been associated with the whole thing and it came close to fatally damaging his career.

In between these two major events we got the 1972 classic cinematic vision which was Deliverance which in turn was widely regarded, especially by him, as containing his best film role. It catapulted him into new roles in the 1970’s which kept bringing him rewards right into the early eighties. The late seventies and eighties though, were his era. In that time, we saw him in White Lightning (1973), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (also 1973), Lucky Lady (1975) and Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981). A tough actor, he was known for doing his own stunts, he also became known for his quick temper. In 1986 one director was to sue him for assault.

This had happened during a period of addiction to painkillers that was down to a stunt accident on the film, City Heat in 1984 when he suffered a broken jaw as he was hit with a real bar stool and not the fake one! The addiction to the prescription drugs led to rumors of him suffering from AIDS as his weight significantly dropped during this time as well as he had heightened anger issues.

Not long after, through the 1980’s was a dip. Having turned down the opportunity to play the quintessential Englishman, James Bond, his picking of parts just got worse. The dip was a serious dent in his ego, self-esteem and wallet. He had turned down Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, Pretty Woman and Han Solo and was even considered a pick for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Any one of these would have made that slump that bit more comfortable – that was how bad his picking roles at the time became. But he only ever regretted one – Terms of Endearment.

Television picked him off the floor with Evening Shade in the early 90’s. By the end of the decade he was to become nominated for an outstanding performance in Boogie Nights for an Oscar. It was, over 30 years on from his screen debut a fitting tribute to a man who acted his whole life in front of the cameras and often gave his best performances when it was real life but was always able to give performances when the camera rolled which were the best on set.

The 90’s had been tough as lady luck had taken a break. In 1996 he was close to being declared bankrupt; living, divorce and disastrous investment had taken their toll. In his time, he had owned a theater, restaurants, part of a football team, a race car team and never been far from the gossip columns or divorce courts.

What did make his future brighter was a refusal to lie down and he worked at anything that came his way to maintain his career and his family. The renaissance of his career thanks to Boogie Nights meant he had a career end that was less stressful, less full on and with less of a financial outlay, far more comfortable. He worked tirelessly and ceaselessly though and through a heart bypass, a very serious back operation and innumerable appearances on television his star was back where it belonged.

Throw in a couple of Golden Globes and an Emmy along with a whole host of other nominations, this was a guy who had the looks of a 50’s star, the misfortune of a career in the unfashionable 80’s, the star quality of a man who got an Academy Award nomination in the 90’s and someone who continued to exude star quality, not always with star qualities until the end; finally an iconic 21st century figure indeed.

Ringside Report says goodbye to a man who lived life to the fullest and since we cover boxing as well, our “Brother in Boxing” because Burt Reynolds, loved the sport and was seen many times over the years at the big Vegas fights.

RIP…

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