Burt Reynolds Jr. had been an American film and television actor, director, as well as producer who was regarded as just a sex symbol as well as an idol in American popular culture.
Burt Reynolds originally gained fame as just a star of television shows including Gunsmoke, Hawk (1966), and Dan August. Reynolds had starring parts in movies including Navajo Joe (1966) as well as 100 Rifles (1969), but it was as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance that he made his mark (1972). Reynolds went on to star in a slew of subsequent box office hits, including White Lightning, The Longest Yard, Smokey as well as the Bandit, Semi-Tough The End (1978), Hooper (1978), Starting Over (1979), Smokey as well as the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Sharky’s Machine (1981), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and Cannonball Run II (1984), most of which he directed himself.
Burt Reynolds received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor inside a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Inside the annual Top Ten Money-Making Stars Poll, Reynolds was chosen the world’s number one box-office star for 1978 through 1982, a record he holds with Bing Crosby. Reynolds went to television after just a string of film office disappointments, appearing inside the comedy Evening Shade (1990–1994), for which he earned a Golden Globe Award as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor inside a Comedy Series. His portrayal of high-minded pornographer Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997) earned him another Golden Globe (for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture), as well as Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
Burt Reynolds resumed the football team when he returned to Florida State in 1957, despite the fact that his leg had been wounded inside the automobile accident, which slowed him considerably. On October 12, 1957, he was blamed, properly or not, again for the team’s loss to North Carolina State. He informed his teammates right after the game which he was done playing football.