Burt Reynolds, one of the great movie stars of the ’70s and a massive sex symbol on screen, has died. Reynolds flashed his charisma and his testosterone in largely blockbuster and action films, but he always demonstrated dramatic range and energy even late into his career. Here are some of the actor’s most iconic and memorable movie and TV roles.
“Gunsmoke” (1962 – 1965)
Reynolds hopped around TV for several years before landing a recurring part on the long-running Western “Gunsmoke.” For three years and 50 episodes he played Quint, a part Native American man who in this scene flips a guy onto a barroom table after he’s called a “dirty half-breed.”
“Deliverance” (1972)
In John Boorman’s classic about a group of men in a perilous fight against nature, Reynolds plays the domineering alpha male, open leather vest, crossbow and all. But the film grapples with themes of masculinity and how being out in the wild tests even the most virile and confident of men. It’s considered one of Reynolds’ finest performances.
“The Longest Yard” (1974)
Reynolds plays a hot-shot quarterback in “The Longest Yard,” now incarcerated, who is tasked with leading a team of his fellow inmates in a football game so that they can be pummeled by an opposing team of guards. Reynolds is charismatic, funny and in control as the leader of the Mean Machine. Reynolds would also appear in the remake in 2005 starring Adam Sandler.
“Nickelodeon” (1976)
Reynolds didn’t often do period pieces, but he had worked with writer/director Peter Bogdanovich on two films, the romance “At Long Last Love” and the comedy “Nickelodeon.” Both flopped, but Reynolds provides some color and life to this charming film about the early days of filmmaking in the 1910s.
“Smokey and the Bandit” (1977)
Spawning two sequels, Reynolds grins, sweet talks and chases his way through “Smokey and the Bandit” as a truck driver running a truck full of beer across state lines.
“The Cannonball Run” (1981)
Reynolds went screwball for the action comedy “The Cannonball Run,” in which he, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise and a cast that also includes Roger Moore, Peter Fonda, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Jackie Chan partake in an illegal road race across the country inside an ambulance.
“Boogie Nights” (1997)
Reynolds was nominated for an Oscar for his work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” in which he plays pornography filmmaker Jack Horner. The way Reynolds plays him, it’s like he’s the Martin Scorsese of smut, a visionary with an intoxicating and sexual glint in his eye, right at home in his California ’70s heyday.
“The Last Movie Star” (2017)
One of Reynolds’ final roles in “The Last Movie Star” cast him alongside Ariel Winter as an aging movie star, Vic Edwards, who accepts a film festival honor in a small town, only to discover that this honor is less than what he imagined, a symbol for his fading glory.
