07 September 2018 - Burt Reynolds Dies Aged 82
Burt Reynolds, Hollywood film star, dies aged 82
(The Guardian, 07/09/2018)
Burt Reynolds, the star of Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Boogie Nights, has died aged 82. His manager, Erik Kritzer, confirmed the news on Thursday that Reynolds had died that morning at Jupiter medical center in Florida. The star had undergone a quintuple heart bypass in February 2010 but had been working until recently; he was filming Quentin Tarantino’s movie about the Charles Manson murders, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.
Reynolds, who famously turned down the roles of James Bond and Han Solo, nevertheless forged a film career that marked him out as a singular talent.
A Michigan native transplanted to Florida, he was an American football player in his youth, but switched to acting after a knee injury was aggravated by a car accident. Discouraged, Reynolds started part-time lessons at Palm Beach Junior College, where his acting talent was spotted by Watson B Duncan III, an English teacher who liked the way he read Shakespeare. Reynolds would later say that Duncan was the most important influence on his life.
On and off screen, Burt Reynolds followed many paths
John Rogers (AP News, 07/09/2018)
In the April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan, Burt Reynolds had (almost) nothing to hide.
With his trademark bushy mustache topping his ever-present smirk and one of his hands strategically covering his private parts, Reynolds dared to bare — as he did most of his life.
He would call his Cosmo centerfold one of his greatest regrets, a decision which undermined the respect he had gained for his performance in “Deliverance.” But candor was his curse and his appeal as Reynolds, the handsome film and television star who died Thursday at age 82, maintained an active and well documented public and private life.
Burt Reynolds Dies at 82; Made Hearts Throb and Audiences Laugh
Ralph Blumenthal (The New York Times, 06/09/2018)
Burt Reynolds, the wryly appealing Hollywood heartthrob who carried on a long love affair with moviegoers even though his performances were often more memorable than the films that contained them, died on Thursday in Jupiter, Fla. He was 82.
A spokeswoman for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said Mr. Reynolds died at the Jupiter Medical Center after being taken there by county Fire Rescue Department personnel from his home in nearby Hobe Sound. A caretaker at the home had called the authorities, apparently after Mr. Reynolds experienced chest pains, the spokeswoman said. No cause of death was given.
A self-mocking charmer with laugh-crinkled dark eyes, a rakish mustache and a hairy chest that he often bared onscreen, Mr. Reynolds did not always win the respect of critics. But for many years he was ranked among the top 10 movie draws worldwide, and from 1978 through 1982 he ruled the box office as few, if any, stars had done before.
How Burt Reynolds changed the way we thought about sex: By getting naked on a bearskin rug.
Taylor Telford (The Washington Post, 06/09/2018)
Burt Reynolds is stretched out on a bearskin rug like it’s a macho man’s chaise longue. He is tanned, mustachioed, and — much like the beast beneath him — very, very hairy. Bulging veins line his arms, one of which is conveniently placed in front of his nether regions. He is smiling easily, like he’s amused by what he’s depriving you of. Between his teeth, a lit cigarillo droops carelessly, not unlike a . . . well, you know.
He is making history, but you’d never know it from his expression.
The 1972 photo — Cosmopolitan magazine’s first male centerfold — was a radical statement: that women had desires that deserved not just to be acknowledged, but to be catered to. Its publication sparked a sort of revolution in women’s magazines. Looking back after Reynolds’s death Thursday, the centerfold has a powerful legacy. It captivated readers, challenged ideas about sexuality and spawned a wave of new publications. But although it launched Reynolds into a higher stratosphere of celebrity, his relationship with the picture was complicated.