Burt Reynolds was Hollywood’s populist hero. And he knew it.
“I was Number One at the box office five years in a row, which I don’t think anybody has done since,” the movie star bragged in his 2015 memoir, “But Enough About Me.” “In 1978, I had four movies at once playing nationwide. If I met you then, I’m sorry.”
Reynolds, who died on Thursday at age 82, was self-regarding, self-deprecating and self-aware. He was never polished or boring, predictable or pretentious. He was proudly and unapologetically Burt.
“Here’s the bottom line: The guy was an icon the likes of which I think we don’t have today in Hollywood,” said producer Donna Gigliotti. “If you consider that he went from ‘Deliverance’ to ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ — who is it that’s doing that today? He had a kind of versatility that’s pretty remarkable.”
Reynolds moved easily from broad comedies to artful dramas. He sang a boudoir duet with Dolly Parton as a sheriff in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and he played a sleazy ’70s porn producer in “Boogie Nights.”
A personal favorite of mine was his role as an eccentric numerologist on “The X-Files” aptly named Mr. Burt.
As evidenced by his choice in projects, the guy had a disarming sense of humor about himself that his contemporaries such as Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson wouldn’t acquire for decades.
While audiences loved Reynolds for it, critics were indifferent. Roger Ebert reduced his now-famous turn in “Deliverance” to “macho” and “finely tuned.” The Los Angeles Times called his performance in “Smokey and the Bandit,” one of the highest-grossing films of 1977, merely “pleasant to be around.”
The dismissals irked Reynolds. The actor believed “Deliverance” would finally get him credit for the caliber of his acting. But the movie’s release date was beaten by a famous 1972 Cosmo spread in which Reynolds posed nude. Despite cementing his status as a heartthrob, appearing in the buff elicited snickers in Tinseltown.
Twenty-six years later, Reynolds received his first and only Oscar nomination, for “Boogie Nights.” He didn’t win, but it mattered little. Reynolds didn’t just act for awards. Going all the way back to his regular role on TV’s “Gunsmoke” in the ’60s, Reynolds made projects to delight regular people.
The drive-in movie audience Reynolds said he most valued: “the guys who show up in pickup trucks.”
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