Burt Reynolds, Smokey and the bandit star, died at 82

Newsroom 07/09/2018 | 09:20

Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of films such as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit, has died at 82 years old.

Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida.

The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest.

BurtReynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews.

An iconic Hollywood sex symbol in front of the camera, Reynolds also tried his directorial hand behind it, and later earned a reputation for philanthropy after founding the Burt Reynolds Institute for Film & Theatre in his home state of Florida.