Burt Reynolds (1936-2018) was an Oscar®-nominated American actor, director and producer. According to Quigley Publishing, from 1978 to 1982 Burt Reynolds was the number one movie star working. Reynolds’ 5 year run tied Bing Crosby (1944-1948) for the longest stay at the top spot when it comes to money making stars. I am not sure how many young people realize just how popular Burt Reynolds was back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Pretty much everything he touched turned into box office gold back then. This movie page comes from a request from my mother.
Burt Reynolds’ IMDb page shows 187 acting credits from 1958-2019. This page will rank Burt Reynolds movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His television roles, cameos, shorts, and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings. Burt Reynolds in 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit….easily his biggest box office hit
Burt Reynolds Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Burt Reynolds Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
Sort by Burt Reynolds’ co-stars of his movies.
Sort Burt Reynolds movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
Sort Burt Reynolds movies by yearly domestic box office rank
Sort Burt Reynolds movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Burt Reynolds movie received.
Sort Burt Reynolds movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
1. Burton Leon “Burt” Reynolds Jr. was born February 11th, 1936 in Waycross, Georgia. 2. Burt Reynolds path to stardom…Cliff Notes style. Reynolds appeared in a college play called Outward Bound. His performance in that play helped him win a scholarship that got him into the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York. Here he met Joanne Woodward who helped him find an agent. While in a production of Mister Roberts he was spotted and signed to a television contract for the television show Gunsmoke for three years. From here he did the Clint Eastwood….”go overseas and star in low budget movies”. In 1969 he had his first box office success with 1969’s 100 Rifles. 3 years later he became a superstar with his performance in 1972’s Deliverance. 3. Burt Reynolds earned a football scholarship to Florida State. His college career ended after suffering a knee injury. He played halfback…which explains why he looked so comfortable in his The Longest Yard role. 4. Burt Reynolds was a Quigley Publishing Top Ten Box Office Star from 1973 through 1984. That consecutive 12 year run is one of the longest streaks ever in the 80 plus years that Quigley Publishing has released their annual list. 5. Burt Reynolds has been married two times. He was married to Judy Carne from 1963-1965. He was married to Loni Anderson from 1988-1994. Reynolds and Anderson have one child together…Quenton Anderson Reynolds. 6. Burt Reynolds’ Smokey and the Bandit (1977) is the 67th biggest box office hit of all time when looking at adjusted box office grosses. 7. Burt Reynolds has been nominated for one acting Oscar®….Best Supporting Actor in 1997’s Boogie Nights. He has been nominated for three movie acting Golden Globes®….Best Actor in 1974’s The Longest Yard, Best Actor in 1979’s Starting Over and he won the Golden Globe® for Best Supporting Actor in 1997’s Boogie Nights. 8. Roles turned down by Burt Reynolds or he was seriously considered for: Rosemary’s Baby (John Cassevetes part) Soapdish (Kevin Kline part), Terms of Endearment (Jack Nicholson part), Die Hard (Bruce Willis part), Star Wars (Harrison Ford part), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Jack Nicholson part) and Taxi Driver (Robert DeNiro part). On the flip side of this….Reynolds got his star making role in Deliverance only after Henry Fonda, James Stewart and Marlon Brando. 9. Burt Reynolds the singer? Yep. He hit number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1980 with the song “Let’s Do Something Cheap and Superficial” from Smokey and the Bandit II.
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80 thoughts on “Burt Reynolds Movies”
Hey Bob and Steve
1. Good fun conversation between the two of you.
2. When I first noticed Burt was on the trending page….my first thought….”Oh no…Burt has passed”…..I am so glad that was not the case….and that it was Steve’s latest video that was getting Burt some traffic here.
3. Good stories on Brando on Reynolds.
4. I think Burt could have pulled off James Bond…at least for a couple of movies.
5. I actually just bought a copy of Deliverance a couple of days ago….it has a director commentary that I want to check out.
I will be checking out Steve’s video in the very near future and sharing it on his UMR Video channel.
HI STEVE 1 I welcome this Burt Reynolds video as I have always had a strong interest in his career because I regarded him in his heyday as along with the likes of Cruise and Hanks being on a par with some of the box office Giants of the classic era. I was sad when his heyday came to an abrupt halt in the mid to late 1980s
2 He seemed to blame the sudden collapse of his top flight career on a poor choice of roles but any time I have seen or heard him discuss the matter it has been with a resigned sense of humor. Indeed as I have mentioned before when he has spoken with bitterness it has always been about how Mr Mumbles took an intense dislike to him, denied him a plumb part in Godpop and was so rude to him in public that it came to a head with Burt showing up at the Mumbles residence and challenging Mr M to come out and settle matters with fisticuffs, an invitation ole Mumbles wisely declined. Burt it seems has never gotten over those times though
3 When Mumbles for his part spoke about Reynolds in a clip that I saw it was with such anger and in such colorful language that it startled me. Mr M seemed to suggest that his obvious hatred of Burt was because the latter had at some stage or other exploited small children PROFESSIONALLY for his own career purposes. I have no evidence of that but it’s a mystery to me why Mr M should have taken it personally even if it was true.
4 Anyway when Burt’s career was at its best it was so stunning that I would have been disappointed if it hadn’t yielded some excellent posters/stills I have not been disappointed but oddly my choice of best POSTERS doesn’t come from his most famous movies but is Stick, Rough Cut, Gator, 100 Rifles, White Lightning and Sharkey’s Machine. Enjoyable STILLS are those of Burt on the bed with Goldie, with Dino and 007, with Catherine Deneuve with Sally Field and with bow in Deliverance. You and Bigfoot are agreed on just 2 of the Top 5 and are furthest apart on Hooper your No 5 and his No 16. MY Rating of this video is 96.5%.
5 Until I saw Bruce’s earlier page on Reynolds I was unaware that Burt and Russell Crowe had made a movie together [Mystery Alaska]. When your video reminded me of that it suddenly occurred to me that Russell’s experiences of Mr Mumbles were apparently the opposite of Burt’s as according to Crowe Mumbles from his death bed sent Russell a personal gift of a poetry book because Russell was according to himself Mr M’s “favourite actor”. Realisations such as the Crowe/Reynolds differing treatment from Mr Mumbles are another example of how your videos and WH’s pages complement each other . One gets a second bite at the cherry if you follow my meaning.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, comment, info, trivia, comparison and observation, much appreciated. Glad the pictorial content met with your approval.
Interesting story about Burt and Brando, didn’t know there was so much animosity between them. I’m guessing Burt was being considered for Sonny Corleone, the part that went to James Caan?
The only Reynolds films I saw at the cinema were Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper and a rerelease of The Longest Yard (1974) which was retitled The Mean Machine here. All are favorites of mine. I saw Deliverance for the first time on video in the 1980s and was impressed with both the film and Burt’s acting, no quips or laughs.
Two Burt films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Deliverance and Boogie Nights. One film topped out at 9 and that was The Longest Yard (1974).
“Sean Connery had said he wanted more money and left and Cubby Broccoli came to visit me and said, “We want you to play James Bond”. And I said, in my infinite wisdom, “An American can’t play James Bond. It just can’t be done”. Now, in the middle of the night, you hear me wake up in this cold sweat going, “Bond, James Bond!”
“For Navajo Joe they hacked up an old wig and glued it on my head. I looked like Natalie Wood.”
A legendary actor/director coming up next. Top 40 video at least.
Thanks for the interesting backchat. Its an illustration of the mark that the Brando business left on Burt because it happened about 40 years ago and Burt has brought it up in most of the interviews that I’ve seen him give recently
Cant wait for the Big 40 – will keep my eye open. Have a good up and coming weekend.
Hi there, I always liked Burt Reynolds – think he is a good actor. I especially liked him in the role in Sharky;s Machine and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing – a love story. I have them on a VCR tape and I have a VCR still – should set it up if I can remember and watch them both. Thanks for the update.
Most recently, I have been watching Gunsmoke on METV which is airing the rare 1 hour episodes of the season (seasons?) with Burt Reynolds and Dennis Weaver in them.
I remember seeing an interview (cannot remember with whom) where Burt would talk about how Arness would be very tired by the end of the day and that his limp would be quite pronounced. James Arness, for people who do not know this, lost part of his leg following being shot in military action as a foot soldier in WWII.
He was one of the first people to have their lives saved due to a new drug – penicillin.
It was on his Biography episode. Peter was proud of his brother’s service.
Peter himself was a musician who spent WWII in the orchestra which backed up Doris Day when she was entertaining the troops. That is how they originally met.
Later on, Peter and Doris starred together in a western few people know – THE BALLAD OF JOSIE.
They look exactly alike if you ask me. They sound alike too. Graves was the maiden name of their grandmother on their mother’s side which is how his screen name was chosen.
Graves played Price in Stalag 17.
Back to Burt – I hope he is feeling well. Perhaps Silent Movie will air on TCM during their salute to slapstick.
Hey Flora…..of course…now that you mention it…..I see the resemblance…lol.
HI BRUCE:
1 Delighted with this update as Burt Reynolds is one of those modern stars in whom I am very keenly interested. If Bud and he HAD come to blows and I’d been present I would have had to stay neutral and do referee !!
2 I read that when he made City Heat with Eastwood Clint insisted on top billing and Burt pleaded with him to let Burt’s own name come first in at least the cast lists but Clint steadfastly refused even that small concession. I have often wondered if that was simply excessive vanity on Clint’s part or given that Clint ceded top billing to Kevin Costner in A Perfect World if Eastwood like Bud for some reason didn’t like Reynolds.
3 Given the massive star that Burt once was I was surprised that his box office average was so low and at one time he WAS the biggest star on the planet but was eclipsed virtually overnight. I have read various theories for his fall from grace but have you any ideas on the subject yourself? I’d be very keen to know your take on it.
4 Great coincidence you too being a Wilander fan. My wife and I love the knowledge that he brings to his career as a commentator these days. He was at the height of his tennis career in 1988 when he won three of the grand slams and replaced Lendl as World No 1. Mats did very little after that though because around that time his father died and he apparently took it very badly so that it knocked the heart out of him and he surrendered the No 1 ranking back to Lendl a mere 20 weeks later. Mats still apparently plays in the tennis seniors tournament . When he was in his heyday his nickname in the tabloids and among the commentators over here was Marvellous Matts.
Hey Bob.
1. From what I read Burt and Clint have been friends for a very longtime….so I am thinking maybe the agents were involved in the billing issues……that movie will always be there movie. I liked it when I was younger….but I have not watched it in years. I think my Blu-Ray of City Heat is sitting still unopened on my DVD rack.
2. Burt had that awesome 5 year run…..but only a few hits outside of that range….and by the mid 1980s he was no longer a draw at all….as for the reason for his fall? Like Adam Sandler he made the same movies over and over and eventually the public tuned him out. I think the triple whammy of Cannonball Run 2, Smokey 3 and Stoker Ace pushed away even his most loyal fans. I think he has done well as a supporting actor….as he has kept very busy….I think there are about 20 movies that are not included in the rankings…..granted they are straight to home entertainment movies….but he has kept working.
3. Yep poor Mats got to the top of the mountain….and then decided it was not worth trying to stay there….I think his total titles after that US Open win was like 1 or 2…..not sure how he is done on the Seniors tour…I used to like Borg and Mats filled in nicely when Borg retired. When I was younger I was a decent tennis player….one year….I was 57-1 (yes…surprise… I wrote down all the matches and set scores I played in)….I was rolling along….when I played a guy from Spain….and he easily ended my winning streak. I remember at the end of the match….we shook hands and he said….”I like playing with you…cause you made me hustle”. I actually played pretty well in that match ….but his skill level was so superior to mine…..that I realized I was not nearly as good as I thought I was…..a nice case of eating humble pie for me. Sorry got off on a tennis rant.
Thanks for the comment.
(1) BURT REYNOLDS. Thanks for your assessment of Burt’s career decline and I agree that he probably pushed out the boat too often with the same format, It’s sad but he seems to have retained a sense of humour through it all as in the interviews that I saw him give he was very funny – except when he talked about Bud !! Didn’t know about the Reynolds/Eastwood friendship though so that’s one I owe You.
(2) COMEDY DUOS Laurel & Hardy might be a difficult page to do as whilst they made around 27 feature films their short films greatly exceeded that number and there might not be accurate enough records kept in those days about all of those shorts. Also it is difficult to place in an overall context the box office and artistic careers of performers. whose movie input was for the larger part from rather repetitive short movies. A typical L & H short lasted around 20 mins.
(3) One has the same problem with Chaplin and whilst you have done sterling work on the stats for his feature films those numerous silent custard pie short films make his box office career impossible to closely compare with that of say the Duke or Gable; though judging by reports of the salaries they paid Charlie in those silent movie days his audiences must have been enormous. Chaplin made 72 of those shorts between 1914 and 1923 and analysis of a broad sample of them suggests that the running time for most of them was between 11 and 34 minutes and the only one that I could find was The Kid (1921) which lasted 68 mins.
(4) TENNIS 57/1 is great at ANY level. When I read that it reminded me of one of the Sherlock Holmes stories where Holmes who was of course renowned for the results of his mental efforts suddenly reveals to an astonished Dr W that he had proficient skills as a competitive amateur boxer !
(5) Certainly this is not the tennis era in which to compete if you want a lot of trophies. From 2003 up until Wimbledon this year 53 grand slam tournaments were held over the four venues and on the men’s side 43 of them were won by the same 3 players. It is rare in sport to get 3 All Time Greats in the one era but Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are certainly the likes of the Gable, Duke and Grant of the current tennis world. That trio of tennis greats are 3 of only 8 male players to win grand slam titles in double figures in the entire history of tennis
Hey Bob.
1. There is a great story about when they were young and struggling….”One day two young actors had an appointment with a major producer in Hollywood. The two young actors were named Burt Reynolds and clint Eastwood.
They met with the producer, gave their resumes, chatted for a while, and then the producer smiled politely, and gave them his honest opinion about their chances in Hollywood.
“You, Mr. Reynolds, unfortunately, can’t act. I’m sorry to say that you will never be able to make it in this town.”
Mr. Reynolds didn’t say anything.
“And you, Mr. Eastwood, you will never make it in Hollywood because your Adam’s apple is too protruding.”
And the two actors were dismissed.
On the street, Burt turned to Clint and grinned. “I can learn to act, but you’re out of luck.”
2. I did not even try to look for L & H’s shorts….but I can only find one box office number for their full length movies.
3. The same thing went for the Chaplin shorts…though the massive success of his full length movies was prett easy to find.
4. I like the Holmes comparison to tennis. When in college between classes I would head to the tennis courts and find somebody to play…many times it was a stranger….the Spaniard easily beat me…but in an epic (to me) match with a Russian student I prevailed…ah…my glory days…lol.
?
1 I loved the Burt/Clint story and it will be filed away in my celebrity jokes cabinet for retelling elsewhere when the occasion arises. It does show that even in adversity Burt Reynolds maintained a sense of humour and confirms that he was one funny guy as he had demonstrated in those TV interviews that I saw.
2 Your story naturally reminds one of the fabled reports of the twits who initially attempted to exclude the King from movies because “his ears are too big” and Astaire because he was “balding and has no talent” . It’s ironic to think that the studios are supposed to pay big bucks for talent spotting !
3 Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas were renowned for laying do the law to the likes of directors and scriptwriters who worked on their films and at a press conference on one occasion Kirk was forced to defend those practices and he said “Of course Burt and I shoot our mouths off from time to time but everybody accepts that because they know that we know what we’re shooting our mouths off about.”‘
4 It always struck me that someone should have told him that perhaps people stood for it it because of the Lancaster and Duglas POWER and not necessarily because of the pearls of wisdom that they were imparting. Therefore it occurs to me that if the producer who dismissed Clint had become involved with Eastwood in his heyday he might well have told Clint that one of his selling points was that the ladies found his Adam’s apple very sexy !!
5 Thanks for providing the further link to a Steve video.
Best wishes BOB
Hey Bob
1. Glad you like that Clint/Bob story….it has been one of my (and Burt’s) favorites for years.
2. I agree…..Gable and Astaire overcame those obstacles just like Burt and Clint…..I love that the guy that described Astaire…..did mention….”he can dance a little”.
3. Burt and Kirk on set would have been fun to see.
4. You are 100% correct.
5. Got a new Steve link for you….another of your favorites…Mr. Alan Ladd… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQiKwzYHmhk
🙂
Hey Bob and Steve
1. Good fun conversation between the two of you.
2. When I first noticed Burt was on the trending page….my first thought….”Oh no…Burt has passed”…..I am so glad that was not the case….and that it was Steve’s latest video that was getting Burt some traffic here.
3. Good stories on Brando on Reynolds.
4. I think Burt could have pulled off James Bond…at least for a couple of movies.
5. I actually just bought a copy of Deliverance a couple of days ago….it has a director commentary that I want to check out.
I will be checking out Steve’s video in the very near future and sharing it on his UMR Video channel.
HI STEVE 1 I welcome this Burt Reynolds video as I have always had a strong interest in his career because I regarded him in his heyday as along with the likes of Cruise and Hanks being on a par with some of the box office Giants of the classic era. I was sad when his heyday came to an abrupt halt in the mid to late 1980s
2 He seemed to blame the sudden collapse of his top flight career on a poor choice of roles but any time I have seen or heard him discuss the matter it has been with a resigned sense of humor. Indeed as I have mentioned before when he has spoken with bitterness it has always been about how Mr Mumbles took an intense dislike to him, denied him a plumb part in Godpop and was so rude to him in public that it came to a head with Burt showing up at the Mumbles residence and challenging Mr M to come out and settle matters with fisticuffs, an invitation ole Mumbles wisely declined. Burt it seems has never gotten over those times though
3 When Mumbles for his part spoke about Reynolds in a clip that I saw it was with such anger and in such colorful language that it startled me. Mr M seemed to suggest that his obvious hatred of Burt was because the latter had at some stage or other exploited small children PROFESSIONALLY for his own career purposes. I have no evidence of that but it’s a mystery to me why Mr M should have taken it personally even if it was true.
4 Anyway when Burt’s career was at its best it was so stunning that I would have been disappointed if it hadn’t yielded some excellent posters/stills I have not been disappointed but oddly my choice of best POSTERS doesn’t come from his most famous movies but is Stick, Rough Cut, Gator, 100 Rifles, White Lightning and Sharkey’s Machine. Enjoyable STILLS are those of Burt on the bed with Goldie, with Dino and 007, with Catherine Deneuve with Sally Field and with bow in Deliverance. You and Bigfoot are agreed on just 2 of the Top 5 and are furthest apart on Hooper your No 5 and his No 16. MY Rating of this video is 96.5%.
5 Until I saw Bruce’s earlier page on Reynolds I was unaware that Burt and Russell Crowe had made a movie together [Mystery Alaska]. When your video reminded me of that it suddenly occurred to me that Russell’s experiences of Mr Mumbles were apparently the opposite of Burt’s as according to Crowe Mumbles from his death bed sent Russell a personal gift of a poetry book because Russell was according to himself Mr M’s “favourite actor”. Realisations such as the Crowe/Reynolds differing treatment from Mr Mumbles are another example of how your videos and WH’s pages complement each other . One gets a second bite at the cherry if you follow my meaning.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, comment, info, trivia, comparison and observation, much appreciated. Glad the pictorial content met with your approval.
Interesting story about Burt and Brando, didn’t know there was so much animosity between them. I’m guessing Burt was being considered for Sonny Corleone, the part that went to James Caan?
The only Reynolds films I saw at the cinema were Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper and a rerelease of The Longest Yard (1974) which was retitled The Mean Machine here. All are favorites of mine. I saw Deliverance for the first time on video in the 1980s and was impressed with both the film and Burt’s acting, no quips or laughs.
Two Burt films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Deliverance and Boogie Nights. One film topped out at 9 and that was The Longest Yard (1974).
“Sean Connery had said he wanted more money and left and Cubby Broccoli came to visit me and said, “We want you to play James Bond”. And I said, in my infinite wisdom, “An American can’t play James Bond. It just can’t be done”. Now, in the middle of the night, you hear me wake up in this cold sweat going, “Bond, James Bond!”
“For Navajo Joe they hacked up an old wig and glued it on my head. I looked like Natalie Wood.”
A legendary actor/director coming up next. Top 40 video at least.
HI STEVE
Thanks for the interesting backchat. Its an illustration of the mark that the Brando business left on Burt because it happened about 40 years ago and Burt has brought it up in most of the interviews that I’ve seen him give recently
Cant wait for the Big 40 – will keep my eye open. Have a good up and coming weekend.
Hi there, I always liked Burt Reynolds – think he is a good actor. I especially liked him in the role in Sharky;s Machine and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing – a love story. I have them on a VCR tape and I have a VCR still – should set it up if I can remember and watch them both. Thanks for the update.
Hey BERN1960….staying true to the VHS and VCR…..now that is being loyal. Glad you found our updated page.
Great to see Burt’s page updated, Bruce.
Most recently, I have been watching Gunsmoke on METV which is airing the rare 1 hour episodes of the season (seasons?) with Burt Reynolds and Dennis Weaver in them.
I remember seeing an interview (cannot remember with whom) where Burt would talk about how Arness would be very tired by the end of the day and that his limp would be quite pronounced. James Arness, for people who do not know this, lost part of his leg following being shot in military action as a foot soldier in WWII.
He was one of the first people to have their lives saved due to a new drug – penicillin.
Hey Flora…wow…I have never read that James Arness…very interesting trivia. Thanks for sharing it.
It was on his Biography episode. Peter was proud of his brother’s service.
Peter himself was a musician who spent WWII in the orchestra which backed up Doris Day when she was entertaining the troops. That is how they originally met.
Later on, Peter and Doris starred together in a western few people know – THE BALLAD OF JOSIE.
That is Peter Graves aka Peter Arness of Mission Impossible fame. Peter was 6’4 and James was 6’7.
WOW.
I am a fan of both, but with Biography on A&E there was a lot of Peter.
Ditto….see my last Burt comment to you.
Hey Flora….thanks for listing the source for your information. I am not sure I even knew that they brothers. Thanks for enlighting me.
They look exactly alike if you ask me. They sound alike too. Graves was the maiden name of their grandmother on their mother’s side which is how his screen name was chosen.
Graves played Price in Stalag 17.
Back to Burt – I hope he is feeling well. Perhaps Silent Movie will air on TCM during their salute to slapstick.
Hey Flora…..of course…now that you mention it…..I see the resemblance…lol.
HI BRUCE:
1 Delighted with this update as Burt Reynolds is one of those modern stars in whom I am very keenly interested. If Bud and he HAD come to blows and I’d been present I would have had to stay neutral and do referee !!
2 I read that when he made City Heat with Eastwood Clint insisted on top billing and Burt pleaded with him to let Burt’s own name come first in at least the cast lists but Clint steadfastly refused even that small concession. I have often wondered if that was simply excessive vanity on Clint’s part or given that Clint ceded top billing to Kevin Costner in A Perfect World if Eastwood like Bud for some reason didn’t like Reynolds.
3 Given the massive star that Burt once was I was surprised that his box office average was so low and at one time he WAS the biggest star on the planet but was eclipsed virtually overnight. I have read various theories for his fall from grace but have you any ideas on the subject yourself? I’d be very keen to know your take on it.
4 Great coincidence you too being a Wilander fan. My wife and I love the knowledge that he brings to his career as a commentator these days. He was at the height of his tennis career in 1988 when he won three of the grand slams and replaced Lendl as World No 1. Mats did very little after that though because around that time his father died and he apparently took it very badly so that it knocked the heart out of him and he surrendered the No 1 ranking back to Lendl a mere 20 weeks later. Mats still apparently plays in the tennis seniors tournament . When he was in his heyday his nickname in the tabloids and among the commentators over here was Marvellous Matts.
BOB
Hey Bob.
1. From what I read Burt and Clint have been friends for a very longtime….so I am thinking maybe the agents were involved in the billing issues……that movie will always be there movie. I liked it when I was younger….but I have not watched it in years. I think my Blu-Ray of City Heat is sitting still unopened on my DVD rack.
2. Burt had that awesome 5 year run…..but only a few hits outside of that range….and by the mid 1980s he was no longer a draw at all….as for the reason for his fall? Like Adam Sandler he made the same movies over and over and eventually the public tuned him out. I think the triple whammy of Cannonball Run 2, Smokey 3 and Stoker Ace pushed away even his most loyal fans. I think he has done well as a supporting actor….as he has kept very busy….I think there are about 20 movies that are not included in the rankings…..granted they are straight to home entertainment movies….but he has kept working.
3. Yep poor Mats got to the top of the mountain….and then decided it was not worth trying to stay there….I think his total titles after that US Open win was like 1 or 2…..not sure how he is done on the Seniors tour…I used to like Borg and Mats filled in nicely when Borg retired. When I was younger I was a decent tennis player….one year….I was 57-1 (yes…surprise… I wrote down all the matches and set scores I played in)….I was rolling along….when I played a guy from Spain….and he easily ended my winning streak. I remember at the end of the match….we shook hands and he said….”I like playing with you…cause you made me hustle”. I actually played pretty well in that match ….but his skill level was so superior to mine…..that I realized I was not nearly as good as I thought I was…..a nice case of eating humble pie for me. Sorry got off on a tennis rant.
Thanks for the comment.
MISCELLANEOUS
(1) BURT REYNOLDS. Thanks for your assessment of Burt’s career decline and I agree that he probably pushed out the boat too often with the same format, It’s sad but he seems to have retained a sense of humour through it all as in the interviews that I saw him give he was very funny – except when he talked about Bud !! Didn’t know about the Reynolds/Eastwood friendship though so that’s one I owe You.
(2) COMEDY DUOS Laurel & Hardy might be a difficult page to do as whilst they made around 27 feature films their short films greatly exceeded that number and there might not be accurate enough records kept in those days about all of those shorts. Also it is difficult to place in an overall context the box office and artistic careers of performers. whose movie input was for the larger part from rather repetitive short movies. A typical L & H short lasted around 20 mins.
(3) One has the same problem with Chaplin and whilst you have done sterling work on the stats for his feature films those numerous silent custard pie short films make his box office career impossible to closely compare with that of say the Duke or Gable; though judging by reports of the salaries they paid Charlie in those silent movie days his audiences must have been enormous. Chaplin made 72 of those shorts between 1914 and 1923 and analysis of a broad sample of them suggests that the running time for most of them was between 11 and 34 minutes and the only one that I could find was The Kid (1921) which lasted 68 mins.
(4) TENNIS 57/1 is great at ANY level. When I read that it reminded me of one of the Sherlock Holmes stories where Holmes who was of course renowned for the results of his mental efforts suddenly reveals to an astonished Dr W that he had proficient skills as a competitive amateur boxer !
(5) Certainly this is not the tennis era in which to compete if you want a lot of trophies. From 2003 up until Wimbledon this year 53 grand slam tournaments were held over the four venues and on the men’s side 43 of them were won by the same 3 players. It is rare in sport to get 3 All Time Greats in the one era but Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are certainly the likes of the Gable, Duke and Grant of the current tennis world. That trio of tennis greats are 3 of only 8 male players to win grand slam titles in double figures in the entire history of tennis
As always thanks for the chit-chat. BOB
Hey Bob.
1. There is a great story about when they were young and struggling….”One day two young actors had an appointment with a major producer in Hollywood. The two young actors were named Burt Reynolds and clint Eastwood.
They met with the producer, gave their resumes, chatted for a while, and then the producer smiled politely, and gave them his honest opinion about their chances in Hollywood.
“You, Mr. Reynolds, unfortunately, can’t act. I’m sorry to say that you will never be able to make it in this town.”
Mr. Reynolds didn’t say anything.
“And you, Mr. Eastwood, you will never make it in Hollywood because your Adam’s apple is too protruding.”
And the two actors were dismissed.
On the street, Burt turned to Clint and grinned. “I can learn to act, but you’re out of luck.”
2. I did not even try to look for L & H’s shorts….but I can only find one box office number for their full length movies.
3. The same thing went for the Chaplin shorts…though the massive success of his full length movies was prett easy to find.
4. I like the Holmes comparison to tennis. When in college between classes I would head to the tennis courts and find somebody to play…many times it was a stranger….the Spaniard easily beat me…but in an epic (to me) match with a Russian student I prevailed…ah…my glory days…lol.
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BRUCE
1 I loved the Burt/Clint story and it will be filed away in my celebrity jokes cabinet for retelling elsewhere when the occasion arises. It does show that even in adversity Burt Reynolds maintained a sense of humour and confirms that he was one funny guy as he had demonstrated in those TV interviews that I saw.
2 Your story naturally reminds one of the fabled reports of the twits who initially attempted to exclude the King from movies because “his ears are too big” and Astaire because he was “balding and has no talent” . It’s ironic to think that the studios are supposed to pay big bucks for talent spotting !
3 Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas were renowned for laying do the law to the likes of directors and scriptwriters who worked on their films and at a press conference on one occasion Kirk was forced to defend those practices and he said “Of course Burt and I shoot our mouths off from time to time but everybody accepts that because they know that we know what we’re shooting our mouths off about.”‘
4 It always struck me that someone should have told him that perhaps people stood for it it because of the Lancaster and Duglas POWER and not necessarily because of the pearls of wisdom that they were imparting. Therefore it occurs to me that if the producer who dismissed Clint had become involved with Eastwood in his heyday he might well have told Clint that one of his selling points was that the ladies found his Adam’s apple very sexy !!
5 Thanks for providing the further link to a Steve video.
Best wishes BOB
Hey Bob
1. Glad you like that Clint/Bob story….it has been one of my (and Burt’s) favorites for years.
2. I agree…..Gable and Astaire overcame those obstacles just like Burt and Clint…..I love that the guy that described Astaire…..did mention….”he can dance a little”.
3. Burt and Kirk on set would have been fun to see.
4. You are 100% correct.
5. Got a new Steve link for you….another of your favorites…Mr. Alan Ladd… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQiKwzYHmhk
🙂