A handsome, muscular leading man, Burt Reynolds first achieved prominence on TV's "Riverboat" (NBC, 1959-61). Although he made his film debut in 1961, he remained best known for his small-screen work, notably as partly Native American characters on "Gunsmoke" (CBS, 1962-65; a blacksmith), and "Hawk" (ABC, 1966; a detective). He began the 70s inauspiciously as the star of the little-watched police detective drama "Dan August" (ABC, 1970-71), but then his movie breakthrough came in John Boorman's powerful backwoods drama "Deliverance" (1972), pushing him into the front rank of Hollywood stars. (His appearance as a nude centerfold in a 1972 issue of COSMOPOLITAN didn't hurt either.)
Consistently at the top of box-office polls from the mid-70s through the early 80s, Reynolds essayed a series of light, comically roguish, working and middle-class heroes in such vehicles as "The Longest Yard" (1974), "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977), and "Hooper" (1978). His "good ol' boy" image served as a pal to male devotees of action flicks while women fans enjoyed his tongue-in-cheek sexiness. Reynolds occasionally attempted to expand his range via the subdued romantic comedy of "Starting Over" or the black humor of "The End" (both 1978) but did not always enjoy a similar measure of popular success. His career as a 'hyphenate' (actor-director) began in 1976 with "Gator" and reached a peak with the taut cop drama, "Sharkey's Machine" (1981).
Reynolds lost his box-office sock rather abruptly in the mid-80s but was extremely good in his first character part as the aging safecracker in Bill Forsyth's 1989 comedy "Breaking In". After enjoying modest success as retired cop-turned-private investigator B.L. Stryker in a series of TV-movies (ABC, 1989-90), he turned to TV production, garnering popular and critical acclaim with the laid-back CBS ensemble sitcom "Evening Shade" (CBS, 1990-94). He also starred in the show and won his first major industry award, a 1991 Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy series, for his work as Wood Newton. Reynolds increasingly devoted time to directing and teaching at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre and Institute for Theatre Training in Jupiter, FL (founded 1978), returning to the big screen with the action comedy "Cop and a Half" (1993).
The reversal in fortune caused by the dimming of his star (exacerbated by his vitriolic divorce from Loni Anderson, best known for the CBS sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati") led Reynolds to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 1996. He has worked tirelessly as the star of a plethora of low-budget, straight-to-video fare (i.e., "The Maddening" and "Frankenstein and Me", both 1996) and made-for-TV movies (e.g., HBO's "The Cherokee Kid" and TMC's "The Raven", both 1996) to pay off his debts. He has also occasionally played supporting roles in higher-profile films like a televangelist in "Citizen Ruth" and a sleazy senator entranced with stripper Demi Moore in "Striptease" (both 1996). Reynolds' career received a major boost from Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights" (1997), in which he delivered an outstanding, understated comic performance as porn mogul Jack Horner. Reynolds received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance and was considered a front-runner but his cause wasn't helped when old interviews surfaced wherein he complained about Hollywood's not taking him seriously as an actor. When the award was presented, it went to another former TV star--Robin Williams.
The expected career boost from the nomination also seemingly failed. Reynolds returned to the small screen in a handful of projects including a series of TNT movies that cast him as a former cop and ex-con ("Hard Times", "The Premonition" and "Hostage Hotel"). Big screen roles in little-seen projects like "The Hunter's Moon" (1999) and "Pups" (2000) also followed. Reynolds did find a rare role worthy of his talent, playing a coach of a local hockey team that gets a chance to play opposite the New York Rangers in the David E Kelley-penned "Mystery, Alaska" (1999). Still, audiences stayed away. His next effort as director-star, "The Last Producer" (2000), reflected where his career stood as he was cast as an aging veteran producer in desperate need of a hit. Even stunt casting, opposite fellow 70s/80s icon Sylvester Stallone in the middling race car flick "Driven" (2001) failed to recapture the kind of heat that "Boogie Nights" gave Reynolds' third act career. Through a string of B to Z grade films ("Tempted," "Hotel" "The Hollywood Sign" [all 2001] and "Snapshots" [2002]) Reynolds still conjured much of his old charm, and turned in a nice performance as a U.S. Marshal on the trail of three brothers in the TNT Western miniseries "Johnson County War" (2002), which was followed by a series of decent telepic turns by the actor.
He resurfaced in films for the mainstream comedy "Without a Paddle" (2004), cleverly riffing on his "Deliverance" role by playing the former partner of legendary bank robber D.B. Cooper, who's waited 25 solitary years in the backwoods waiting to collect his share of Cooper's haul. Perhaps sensing that tweaking nostalgic memories of his classic films would reignite interest in his career, the actor also gave his blessing to a remake of "The Longest Yard" (2005) starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, this time with Reynolds playing prison team Coach Nate Scarboro, who much like Reynolds just might have a few plays left in him. Reynolds then donned the white suit and Stetson of the villainous Boss Hogg for the dumb but mildly diverting big screen version of TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard" (2005). Though Reynolds approached the role with verve and the film was intended as a tribute to his "Smokey & The Bandit" films, the actor--who saw the Hogg part as akin to Jackie Gleason's role in their films together-was given little by way of comedic material to work with.