JUPITER, Fla. – "Smokey and the Bandit" star and South Florida resident Burt Reynolds is dead at the age of 82, his agent told ABC News.
Reynolds, who grew up in Palm Beach County and made it a point to introduce other A-list stars to his home state, died Thursday at Jupiter Medical Center, not far from his Tequesta home.
In addition to his iconic role as the smooth-talking, Coors smuggling Trans Am driver Bo "Bandit" Darville in 1977's "Smokey and the Bandit," Reynolds starred in the Oscar-winning film "Deliverance" in 1972 and received a best supporting actor nomination for his role in the 1997 film "Boogie Nights."
Once Hollywood's No. 1 box-office draw, Reynolds spent five years (1978 to 1982) attracting the world's most audiences to the movie theaters, a feat unmatched since. He used his star power to stay close to home, routinely making movies south of the Mason-Dixon Line and attracting other celebrities to the Sunshine State during the height of his success.
Before he was an actor, Burt Reynolds was a running back for the Florida State University football team.
Among the movies Reynolds made in his home state were "Smokey and the Bandit II" (1980), "Cop and a Half" (1993) and "Striptease" (1996). He chose Palm Beach as the setting for his short-lived ABC series "B.L. Stryker" (1989-90), on which he also served as executive producer.
Born in Lansing, Michigan on Feb. 11, 1936, Reynolds moved to South Florida in 1946, when his father became police chief in Riviera Beach.
After graduating from Palm Beach High School in West Palm Beach, Reynolds received a football scholarship to attend Florida State University, where he befriended teammate and roommate Lee Corso, now a college football analyst for ESPN. But a knee injury, followed by a car crash that cost him his spleen, ended Reynolds' dreams of becoming a football star, and he eventually made his way to Hollywood.
Undeniably FSU's most famous alumnus, Reynolds went on to become a champion of his alma mater, helping to establish the nationally recognized film school and frequently appearing on former head football coach Bobby Bowden's weekly television show, introducing great moments in FSU football history. An off-campus dormitory is named for Reynolds.
"The entire Florida State University family is saddened to learn we have lost our good friend Burt Reynolds," FSU President John Thrasher said Thursday in a statement. "His lifelong passion for FSU began when he came to this university to play football in the 1950s. Although he was sidelined by injuries, he went on to become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood. But he never forgot his alma mater. ... We will miss him dearly."
Corso also lamented the death of his "lifelong friend" in a statement Thursday.
"We have always stayed in touch, through the good and the bad times of our lives, talking about once a month for as long as I remember," Corso said. "It was just two weeks ago that we were talking about the upcoming college football season and the 'Noles. Burt, better known as 'Buddy' to his friends, loved FSU football, and no matter how big a star he became, he never forgot his friends from the FSU football family. I will forever remember our conversations and the true friend that he was."
Because of his dark features, Reynolds was frequently cast as an Indian early in his career, including the title role in the 1967 spaghetti western "Navajo Joe." He also played Iroquois Indian detective John Hawk in the short-lived 1966 TV series "Hawk."
In the 1960s he made dozens of guest-star appearances on such TV shows as "Bonanza," "The Twilight Zone" and "Perry Mason." His first film role came in 1961's "Angel Baby," and he followed it with numerous other mediocre movies, the kind, he liked to joke, that were shown in airplanes and prisons.
He did become famous enough to make frequent appearances on "The Tonight Show," leading to his most cherished film role and to his greatest folly.
In the early 1970s, director John Boorman was impressed by how confidently Reynolds handled himself when subbing for Carson as host of "The Tonight Show." Boorman thought he might be right for a film adaptation of James Dickey's novel "Deliverance."
Reynolds starred as Lewis Medlock, the intrepid leader of an ill-fated whitewater canoe trip. When he and three other Atlanta businessmen are ambushed by violent backwoodsmen, Reynolds must guide the group to safety.
"Deliverance" was an Oscar nominee for best picture and no film made him prouder. In his 2015 memoir "But Enough About Me," he wrote that "Deliverance" would be his choice could he put one of his movies in a time capsule.
"It proved I could act," he wrote.
But soon after filming was completed, he made a decision he never stopped regretting. While appearing on "The Tonight Show" with Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, he agreed to her invitation, offered during a commercial break, to be the first male centerfold for her magazine.
"I was flattered and intrigued," Reynolds wrote in his memoir.
The April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan quickly sold more than 1 million copies, but turned his life into a "carnival." The centerfold would appear on T-shirts, panties and other merchandise and Reynolds began receiving obscene fan mail. Reynolds' performance in "Deliverance" was snubbed at the Oscars.
"It was a total fiasco," he wrote. "I thought people would be able to separate the fun-loving side of me from the serious actor, but I was wrong."
Reynolds also directed a few of the films in which he starred, including "Gator," "Sharky's Machine" and "Stick."
His public appearances were more limited in recent years, often seen coming and going with the help of a cane. Last November, Reynolds appeared at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood for the premiere of one of his last movies, then known as "Dog Years." The name was changed to "The Last Movie Star" before its DirecTV on-demand release.
Reynolds was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. He became the first two-time recipient of the award, having previously been honored in 1991.
"I've lived about four or five lives and I'm thrilled to have another one from here, because this is my home and always has been and always will be," Reynolds told Local10.com at the time.
Even when he moved west to California, Reynolds was never far removed from his Florida roots.
The now-shuttered Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum was based in Jupiter, which was also where the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre operated from 1979 to 1989. It was on the stage now known as the Maltz Jupiter Theatre that Reynolds invited his famous friends -- Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Charles Durning, Carol Burnett and fellow FSU alumnus Robert Urich among them -- to perform.
Reynolds continued to give back to aspiring thespians in South Florida up until his death, teaching acting classes at his Burt Reynolds Institute for Film & Theatre in North Palm Beach.
His well-documented love affairs with Hollywood's leading ladies, including Field and "WKRP in Cincinnati" actress Loni Anderson, were the subject of many headlines.
Reynolds' romance with actress Dinah Shore, 20 years his senior, brought intense media scrutiny. The two met when Reynolds made a surprise appearance on her talk show, bursting out of a closet on the set.
In the 1980s, his career was nearly destroyed when false rumors surfaced that he was infected with the AIDS virus, in the height of hysteria over the disease. He had injured his jaw making the 1984 comedy "City Heat" with Clint Eastwood. Barely able to eat, he lost 50 pounds and suddenly looked ill and emaciated.
"For two years I couldn't get a job," he told The Associated Press in 1990. "I had to take five physicals to get a job. I had to take the pictures that were offered to me. I did action pictures because I was trying to prove that I was well."
He eventually regained his health and married Anderson in a lavish wedding on his horse ranch near Jupiter in 1988. The actress had met him on a talk show.
The couple divorced in 1995, and their breakup was an embarrassing public spectacle, with the pair exchanging insults in print interviews and on television shows. Reynolds finally paid her a $2 million settlement and a vacation home to settle the divorce.
He rebounded once again, this time with the role of porn movie impresario Jack Horner in "Boogie Nights," which brought him some of his best reviews even though he felt ambivalent about his character and felt limited rapport with the director.
He won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor and received an Oscar nomination. Convinced he would win, he was devastated when the Oscar went to Robin Williams for "Good Will Hunting."
"I once said that I'd rather have a Heisman Trophy than an Oscar," he wrote in his memoir. "I lied."
Reynolds had previously won a Golden Globe in 1992 for "Evening Shade," in which he played Wood Newton, a former professional football player who returns to his Arkansas hometown to coach the high school team. He also received an Emmy for the role in 1991.
His love for football was ever present in his work, most notably in 1974's "The Longest Yard," in which Reynolds starred as an incarcerated former NFL player who has to assemble a group of prisoners to play football against their guards. Several former NFL players appeared in the film, including Green Bay Packers legend Ray Nitschke.
By then a well-established star, Reynolds was a frequent visitor to Tallahassee as Bowden's Seminoles grew into a national power, getting the rare honor of planting the burning spear at midfield -- a tradition typically reserved for FSU's mascot Chief Osceola and his Appaloosa horse Renegade.
Reynolds once recruited Bowden to appear on an episode of "Evening Shade." He also became part-owner of the failed USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits in the 1980s.
Throughout his career, Reynolds always advocated that Florida should have a place at the table in the movie and television industry, even as the state seemed to discourage filmmakers from choosing it as an alternative to Hollywood.
"More films should be shot here," Reynolds told Local10.com during a March 2017 appearance at the Florida Music Awards kickoff party in Fort Lauderdale.
As Florida's tax incentive program was cut from the state budget, many productions fled. HBO's Miami-based "Ballers" moved to California and the popular Netflix series "Bloodline," which was set in the Florida Keys, ended after just three seasons.
In 2017, Miami native and FSU film school graduate Barry Jenkins took home the best picture Oscar for "Moonlight." Reynolds was thrilled to see another FSU grad receive the highest recognition in cinema.
"That was great," Reynolds said last year. "It was long overdue."