Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor. His early work included the television series Gunsmoke (1962–1965), Hawk (1966) and Dan August (1970–1971). Following leading roles in the films Navajo Joe (1966), and 100 Rifles (1969), his breakthrough performance was as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972).

Reynolds played leading roles in films such as White Lightning (1973), The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (which started a seven-year box-office reign), Semi-Tough (1977), The End (1978), Hooper (1978), Starting Over (1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Sharky's Machine (1981), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), Smokey and the Bandit III (1983), and Cannonball Run II (1984), several of which he directed. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Reynolds was voted the world's number-one most bankable movie star from 1978 to 1982 in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a five-year record he shared with Bing Crosby, Clint Eastwood, and Tom Hanks, until Tom Cruise surpassed them all in 2001.

After a number of box-office failures, Reynolds returned to television. He starred in the situation comedy Evening Shade (1990–1994), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. His performance as high-minded pornographer Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) brought him renewed critical acclaim, earning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, as well as nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.