- Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit watch movie#
- Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit watch series#
- Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit watch tv#
“I don’t belong in places like New York or Los Angeles,” he insisted when pressed. “I spent a long time playing the third Indian from the left,” he says ruefully of those early jobs.įrom the start of the “swingin’ Sixties,” he seldom felt at home among the young, self-important thespians who would eventually rule the industry. He even served as a contestant on The Dating Game. At the time he bore an uncanny resemblance to superstar Marlon Brando, and along with new pals like Clint Eastwood he spent long, disheartening years scrambling between minor roles in various television shows such as Riverboat and Gunsmoke. Future stars like Joanne Woodward and Rip Torn were early friends during his New York salad days, and the connections he built there ultimately allowed him to journey west in the late Fifties to seek his fortune in Hollywood.
Like John Wayne thirty years earlier, an injury ended Reynolds’ budding college football career, and in 1955 he turned toward acting. Such antics were an early harbinger of both the charismatic charm and voracious, self-destructive appetites that would define (and sometimes decimate) his later career (a typical joke - Q: Why didn’t Burt Reynolds ever take Loni Anderson out to dinner? A: He made it a rule never to date married women.) He grew up handsome and tough, randy and reckless - by fourteen, he had lost his virginity to a much older woman, and soon after knocked up the prom queen (his attempts to cajole her into marriage were rebuffed by the girl’s society-maven mother, who forced her daughter to abort the baby).
Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit watch movie#
Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit watch series#
In between his more serious films, such as 1979’s “Starting Over,” Reynolds liked to star in fun romps featuring his friends such as Dom DeLuise and Charles Nelson Reilly, both of whom joined Reynolds for the “Cannonball Run” series of films, probably the best of Reynolds’ “fun film” period as it followed a coast-to-coast car race filled with guest stars ( Frank Sinatra! Dean Martin! Sammy Davis, Jr.! Jackie Chan!) and lots of character bits.
The contrast between the Cosmopolitan centerfold and the delightful talk show guest endeared Reynolds to moviegoers. Though Reynolds was soon starring in such box-office hits as “The Longest Yard” and “Smokey and the Bandit,” he never abandoned television, utilizing such talk shows as “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” (where he was one of the funniest guests ever) to hone his image, strutting on as a sex symbol and then acting like an utter goofball once he sat the guest’s chair. He had made his name through television, appearing as a regular for 50 episodes on the hit series “Gunsmoke,” then headlining his own series, “Hawk” and “Dan August.” But then Reynolds got his big break in feature films, co-starring in the John Boorman classic “Deliverance” (1972). In the 1970s, Reynolds was arguably the biggest movie star in the world. But how many of his titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit watch tv#
The Oscar-nominated actor remained active up until his death in 2018, starring in dozens of movies and TV shows. Burt Reynolds would’ve celebrated his 84th birthday on February 11, 2020.