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.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
I always thought Burt Reynolds was a good actor. I have Sharkey’s Machine and I enjoyed The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing – would love to see lots of his movies running on TCM soon. So many of his movies were very good and entertaining. Rest In Peace Mr. Reynolds.
Hey BERN1960. I remember you watching Sharkey’s Machine on a regular basis back in the VHS days. At the time I did not realize it had taken much of the plot from Laura. I have not seen The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing in a very long time. I hope TCM does that too. Rest in Peace Mr. Burt Reynolds.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Reynolds. Loved your performance in Boogie Nights and I’m old enough to remember the media coverage you got when letting it (almost) all hang loose for Cosmopolitan in 1972 ? Sadly, another legend gone that has always been there during my lifetime…up to now.
Hey Lupino….thanks for sharing some Burt Reynolds memories. I can image that Cosmo cover created lots of publicity for Burt and Cosmopolitan. I read that he blamed the fact that nobody got any acting nominations for Deliverance is because of that photo. Eddie Murphy thinks he did not win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Dreamgirls because Norbit came out. I agree it is sad that yet another legend is no longer here. RIP Mr. Reynolds.
“If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance,” Reynolds wrote. “I don’t know if it’s the best acting I’ve done, but it’s the best movie I’ve ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me.”
Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the “standard of hirsute masculinity” — showed off his mustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)
The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. “It’s been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made,” he wrote, “and I’m convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved.”
Hey Steve….excellent comment. Since his passing..I have gone out and bought 3 of his movies….Deliverance (has a DVD commentary), The Last Movie Star (a movie that needs to be watched) and Breaking In (a movie that got good reviews with no box office). I agree with him on Deliverance’s lasting impact….others think Boogie Nights….but it has to be Deliverance. As for this Cosmo issue…..easily the most famous Burt photo of all-time….even Deadpool has copied it.
All this week, MeTV is airing Burt Reynolds episodes of Gunsmoke in the show’s regular time slot of 1pm/12central.
Hey Flora…thanks for sharing this information. Glad MeTV is giving Burt some love. RIP Mr. Reynolds.
I always thought Burt Reynolds was a good actor. I have Sharkey’s Machine and I enjoyed The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing – would love to see lots of his movies running on TCM soon. So many of his movies were very good and entertaining. Rest In Peace Mr. Reynolds.
Hey BERN1960. I remember you watching Sharkey’s Machine on a regular basis back in the VHS days. At the time I did not realize it had taken much of the plot from Laura. I have not seen The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing in a very long time. I hope TCM does that too. Rest in Peace Mr. Burt Reynolds.
One of my all-time favorite actors.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Reynolds.
Hey Søren. Thanks for stopping by sharing some good thoughts on Mr. Reynolds. Still down about his passing.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Reynolds. Loved your performance in Boogie Nights and I’m old enough to remember the media coverage you got when letting it (almost) all hang loose for Cosmopolitan in 1972 ? Sadly, another legend gone that has always been there during my lifetime…up to now.
Hey Lupino….thanks for sharing some Burt Reynolds memories. I can image that Cosmo cover created lots of publicity for Burt and Cosmopolitan. I read that he blamed the fact that nobody got any acting nominations for Deliverance is because of that photo. Eddie Murphy thinks he did not win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Dreamgirls because Norbit came out. I agree it is sad that yet another legend is no longer here. RIP Mr. Reynolds.
“If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance,” Reynolds wrote. “I don’t know if it’s the best acting I’ve done, but it’s the best movie I’ve ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me.”
Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the “standard of hirsute masculinity” — showed off his mustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)
The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. “It’s been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made,” he wrote, “and I’m convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved.”
Hey Steve….excellent comment. Since his passing..I have gone out and bought 3 of his movies….Deliverance (has a DVD commentary), The Last Movie Star (a movie that needs to be watched) and Breaking In (a movie that got good reviews with no box office). I agree with him on Deliverance’s lasting impact….others think Boogie Nights….but it has to be Deliverance. As for this Cosmo issue…..easily the most famous Burt photo of all-time….even Deadpool has copied it.