Boogie Nights

Background:

“It's obvious why someone, I think, would be afraid of this project, and I thought I had some baggage in terms of a lot of people who grew up with movies like I did would wonder why I would even be near a film like that. I also felt like this thing will either crash and burn, be the biggest disaster of all time, or the most talked about film of the year. Quite honestly, I needed a jump start, and so it was a brave choice. I kept turning it down and then getting reassurances that we had humanity. And the humanity was I was a surrogate father for damaged goods, and the first day we read, I was astounded at the talent these young actors who I hadn’t worked with, some of ‘em I didn’t know, incredible. And about 10, 15 minutes into the reading, Mark Wahlberg came over and sat down beside me, and he said, ‘How ya doin' Dad?’ It stayed like that, the relationship stayed like that through the whole film.” Burt Reynolds on Boogie Nights

Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominee Burt Reynolds received acclaim and recognition for portraying the supporting role of porn mogul Jack Horner in the highly-praised Boogie Nights (1997), a movie by Paul Thomas Anderson. Due to his spectacular performance, he nabbed many awards like a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Satellite Award, a Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association Award, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, a Chicago Film Critics Association Award, an Online Film Critics Society Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, ShoWes Award and a National Society of Film Critics Award, as well as earned Oscar, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA nominations. On the small screen, Reynolds made a name for himself as Wood Newton in the hit sitcom Evening Shade (1990), where he nabbed a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a People’s Choice Award.

“Success is Burt Reynolds' only handicap. Some of our finest actors have survived the stigma of being Number One at the box-office.” Orson Welles

Once one of Hollywood’s most sought-after superstars, Reynolds constantly peaked at No. 1 at the box-office polls throughout the mid 1970s till the early 1980s with such hits as The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Hooper (1978). The success was further flamed by taking home eight People’s Choice Awards for “Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer” and “Favorite Motion Picture Actor,” as well as two NATO Awards in 1978 and 1980 for “Male Star of the Year.”

Recently, the American actor was featured in Jason Ensler’s comedy Grilled (2005), co-starred in two remakes, The Dukes of Hazzard (2005, as Boss Hogg) and The Longest Yard (2005, starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock) and completed Forget About It (2006) and Cloud Nine (2006). Fans should not miss Reynolds’ performances in the forthcoming End Game (2005), Randy and the Mob (2006), In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2006) and Angel from Montgomery (2006). He will also provide his voice for the upcoming animated Delgo (2006) and Instant Karma (2005).

Off screen, in 1994, 6’ tall Reynolds released his autobiography called “My Life,” which became a worldwide best-selling hit. Showing a great dedication to education and his profession, Reynolds formed the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre (B.R.I.T.T.) in Tequesta, Florida, and created a program that gives college students scholastic credit and wages for their work while obtaining an education at B.R.I.T.T. In June 2000, he was honored with a “Children At Heart” Award for his charitable efforts benefiting and aiding the children of Chernobyl.

As for his romantic life, Reynolds has been married twice. He was initially married to actress Judy Carne from 1963 to 1966 before marrying actress Loni Anderson in 1988. Unfortunately, the second marriage also ended in divorce in 1993. In addition to his ex-actress wives, Reynolds also had relationships with other actresses such as Sally Field, Inger Stevens and Dinah Shore, as well as tennis star Chris Evert.


Buddy

Childhood and Family:

Born on February 11, 1936, in Waycross, Georgia, Burton Leon Reynolds Jr., who would later be famous as Burt Reynolds, was raised in Florida. His father, Burton Leon Reynolds Sr., was a former police chief of Riviera Beach, Florida, and is a half-Cherokee Indian, and her mother, Fern Reynolds, is of Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Burt Reynolds, who carried the nickname Buddy, was educated in Palm Beach High School before continuing his studies at Florida State University on a football scholarship. He was so good that the Baltimore Colts National Football League team drafted him. Unfortunately, a knee injury in 1955 and then a devastating car accident forced Burt to dump his sports’ career. Burt switched from athletics to collage drama and later won a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse.

“I'm terrified of marriage. I'm terrified of not doing something so important . . . and at the same time I think you shouldn't rush into these things.” Burt Reynolds on marriage

Burt has been married twice. He was briefly married to actress Judi Carne (born in 1939) in 1963, but the marriage ended in divorce two years later. In 1988, Burt married actress Loni Anderson, but the couple divorced in 1993. The separation received much media attention. Burt and Anderson adopted a son named Quinton Reynolds (born in 1988).


Evening Shade

Career:

Georgia-born, Florida-raised Burt Reynolds turned to acting after a knee injury and a debilitating car accident abruptly cut short his dreams of becoming a professional football player. Trained at the Hyde Park Playhouse, 21-year-old Reynolds made his first professional stage performance in John Forsythe’s revival of “Mr. Roberts,” which starred Charlton Heston. Shortly after, he inked a TV acting contract.

Reynolds kicked off his screen acting two years later when he landed the regular role of Ben Frazer in the 1959 series “Riverboat” (1959-1960). Two big screen films, Angel Baby and Armored Command, followed the subsequent year, but Reynolds’ handsome and charming look was popular among TV audiences as blacksmith Quint Asper in the TV series “Gunsmoke” (1962-1965) and detective Lt. John Hawk in “Hawk” (1966). He further increased his fame with a number of performances in various TV talk shows in the early 1970s while also waiting for a movie break.

Eleven years after his movie debut, Reynolds’s breakthrough film role eventually arrived with the costarring role of Lewis Medlock, opposite Jon Voight, in John Boorman’s powerful backwoods drama Deliverance (1972). The film not only launched Reynolds as a movie star, but also established him as a serious actor. The same year, Regained gained additional recognition as a major sex symbol when he was featured as the first near-nude male centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Reynolds stayed one of Hollywood’s favorite superstars with numerous projects like Shamus (1973), White Lightning (1973), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), At Long Last Love (1975), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), Lucky Lady (1975), Hustle (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Nickelodeon (1976), Semi-Tough (1977), The End (1978), Starting Over (1979), Rough Cut (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Paternity (1981), City Heat (1984), Cannonball Run II (1984), The Man Who Loved Women (1983), Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983), Stroker Ace (1983), Best Friends (1982), and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), among others. In 1976, Reynolds also started an actor-director career with Gator (1976) and was best-known for his efforts in Sharky’s Machine (1981).

Additionally, Reynolds continuously reached No 1 at the box-office by playing a string of comically-impish, working and middle-class heroes in such movies as The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), and Hooper (1978). Due to his outstanding achievements, Reynolds was honored with a 1978 NATO and a 1980 NATO for Male Star of the Year. Moreover, he was named People’s Choice’s “Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer” in 1979, 1982 and 1983, as well as being awarded “Favorite Motion Picture Actor” in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983 and 1984.

In the mid 1980s, however, Reynolds lost his box-office hit status with the 1989 Breaking In, a comedy film helmed by Bill Forsyth. With the decline of his film career, Reynolds decided to focus more on the small screen and enjoyed a moderate success as retired cop-turned-private investigator B.L. Stryker in a series of TV-films (1989-1990).

Still working on TV, Reynolds gained critical acclaim and wide recognition with the starring role of Wood Newton in the 1990 sitcom Evening Shade. Produced by Burt Reynolds Productions in combination with CBS and Mozark Productions, the series became a hit all over America. As for Reynolds, his career rebounded and Reynolds received a Golden Globe for Best Actor, an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor and a People’s Choice for Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Series.

After a few years away from filmmaking, Reynolds made his way back to film with the action comedy Cop and ½ (1993). A tragedy struck, however, following the divorce from his second wife, which led to Reynolds declaring bankruptcy in late 1996. He began his movie comeback by playing a drunken congressman entranced with stripper Demi Moore in Striptease (1996). Though the film received negative reviews from film critics, Reynolds’s performance was widely appreciated. Unfortunately, with Moore, Reynolds won a Razzie for Worst Screen Couple the following year.

Reynolds was put back in the spotlight when he costarred with Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed Boogie Nights (1997). Delivering an outstanding, modest comic performance as porn entrepreneur Jack Horner, Reynolds won film critics’ hearts, as well as countless awards, including a Golden Globe, a Golden Satellite, a Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association, a Chicago Film Critics Association, an Online Film Critics Society, a New York Film Critics Circle and a National Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor. His brilliant acting also earned Oscar, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA nominations. Additionally, the role won Reynolds a ShoWest for Supporting Actor of the Year.

Reynolds followed the massive success with a handful of television movie projects like Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998), Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998), Hard Time (1998), Hard Time: The Premonition (1999) and Hard Time: Hostage Hotel (1999). He suffered from the big screen duds The Hunter's Moon (1999), Pups (1999) and Disney’s Mystery, Alaska (1999, opposite Russell Crowe).

Entering the new millennium, Reynolds desperately needed a hit from his efforts in The Crew (2000, with Richard Dreyfuss), The Last Producer (2000, opposite Ann-Margret, Benjamin Bratt and Lauren Holly), Driven (2001), Tempted (2001), Hotel (2001), The Hollywood Sign (2001), Snapshots (2002) and Time of the Wolf (2002), but they did little to boost his career. Reynolds then returned to TV with his nice performance as Hunt Lawton, the U.S. Marshal on the trail of three brothers, in the TNT miniseries “Johnson County War” (2002). He also starred in the TV movies Miss Lettie and Me (2002) and Hard Ground (2003).

After a two-year hiatus from the big screen, Reynolds returned for the mainstream comedy Without a Paddle (2004), in which he was cast as Del Knox, the former co-worker of celebrated bank robber D.B. Cooper, and The Librarians (2004). He recently appeared in Jason Ensler’s comedy Grilled (2005) and co-starred in two remakes, The Dukes of Hazzard (2005, as Boss Hogg) and The Longest Yard (2005, starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock). He has also finished two more films, Forget About It and Cloud Nine, due for a 2006 release.

Reynolds will add six more upcoming projects to his resume. Fans will be able to catch him in End Game (2005), Randy and the Mob (2006), the animated Delgo (2006), Instant Karma (2005), In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2006) and Angel from Montgomery (2006).


Awards:

• ShoWest: Supporting Actor of the Year, 1998
• Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, Boogie Nights, 1998
• Golden Satellite: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Drama, Boogie Nights, 1998
• Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actor, Boogie Nights, 1998
• Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actor, Boogie Nights, 1998
• Online Film Critics Society: Best Supporting Actor, Boogie Nights, 1998
• New York Film Critics Circle: Best Supporting Actor, Boogie Nights, 1997
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actor, Boogie Nights, 1997
• National Society of Film Critics: Best Supporting Actor, Boogie Nights, 1997
• Razzie: Worst Screen Couple, shared with Demi Moore, Striptease, 1997
• Golden Globe: Best Actor in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical), Evening Shade, 1992
• Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Evening Shade
• People's Choice: Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Series, 1991
• Eastman Kodak Second Century: initial presentation of the award; shared honors with director Steven Spielberg, 1987
• People’s Choice: Favorite Motion Picture Actor; tied with Clint Eastwood, 1984
• People’s Choice: Favorite Motion Picture Actor, 1983
• People’s Choice: Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer, 1983
• People’s Choice: Favorite Motion Picture Actor, 1982
• People’s Choice: Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer, 1982
• NATO: Male Star of the Year, presented by the National Association of Theater Owners, 1980
• People’s Choice: Favorite Motion Picture Actor, 1980
• People’s Choice: Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer, 1979
• People’s Choice: Favorite Motion Picture Actor, 1979
• NATO: Male Star of the Year, presented by the National Association of Theater Owners, 1978