Bye Bye Bandit

 

I struggled while trying to come up with the title to this post.  Nothing unusual about that.  I do it a lot.  This time, though, was a little different.  I had just heard about the passing of a beloved American actor and wanted to pay tribute.  His name is so well known that, well, everyone would know who I was talking about.  But more than that, there was one role the actor was so inextricably tied to that I just felt I had to include it in the title.

So I settled on the title: Bye Bye Bandit.

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Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was born on February 11, 1936 to Fern and Burton Milo Reynolds.  Although many think he started life in Florida, he was actually born in Lansing, Michigan.  The family moved to Riviera Beach, Florida (adjacent to West Palm Beach) when Burt was 10.  The youngster took root and soon blossomed in that sunny state.

A talented football player, Reynolds was First Team All-State and All-Southern as a fullback his high school sophomore year and went on to receive multiple scholarship offers.  He chose to attend Florida State University on a football scholarship and played halfback, hoping to make a career in professional football.

But that was not to be.

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The first game of his college sophomore year one of Burt’s knees was seriously hurt.  Later that same year he was involved in a car accident that damaged his other knee and cost him his spleen.  These injuries hampered his abilities on the field and, after being beaten in coverage for the game-winning touchdown in a 7-0 loss to North Carolina State on October 12, 1957, he decided to give up football.

With the end of his athletic career Burt transferred to Palm Beach Junior College where his English professor encouraged him to try out for a play the teacher was producing.  Reynolds did and went on to win the 1956 Florida State Drama Award for his performance.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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I first noticed Burt when he played the halfbreed blacksmith Quint Asper on the series Gunsmoke.  One could see flashes of what would become the quintessential Burt in the role, and more in his lead roles in Hawk and Dan August, the two short-lived TV shows he followed-up with.  That tough guy, win at all cost, persona led him to his breakout role as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance in 1972.

Deliverance is one of those “must-see” movies for holders of a man-card despite having parts – well ONE part – that is pretty painful for many of us to watch.  That man’s-man character grew with The Longest Yard in ’74 where he played a down-on-his-luck football star sent to prison, where he was coerced into building a team of inmates who would play against the prison’s guards.  He was promised his release with the stipulation that he had to “throw” the game – let the guards win.  He agreed only to finally realize that he could not let down his fellow prisoners, who had become his friends…who had put their trusted in him.

But Burt Reynolds the man became Burt Reynolds the American icon when he played the black Trans Am driving, CB radio talking, wise-cracking, devil-may-care, good-ol’-boy, Bo “Bandit” Darville, in the wildly popular movie, Smokey and the Bandit.  Playing opposite Sally Field, who portrayed a runaway bride the Bandit picked up on the side of the road.  Reynolds and Field, backed up by classic television comedian Jackie Gleason and country singer/comedian Jerry Reed, created a movie that would become a popular favorite, and Burt rode that tidal wave of popularity.

He made several other movies playing a role similar to the Bandit, most of which were met with a positive viewer reaction but personal problems and poor choices took him down a self-destructive path, just as they have so many in Hollywood.

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Tough guy Burt was able to battle back from hard times and took on some “out of character” roles later in his career, one of which I think gave many of us a better idea of the acting he was capable of.  When Reynolds played Judge Walter Burns in the movie Mystery Alaska he showed a depth not seen in many of his other, more popular roles.  It showed movie fans a bit of what could have been.

I’m re-watching it, and loving it, right now, as I write this.

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Do I regret that Burt didn’t play more roles like that?  Maybe, a little.  The problem is that, in Hollywood as in life, sometimes you have to bloom where you’re planted.  Sometimes you have to take the roles offered until you get a chance to play others that can show your real talent.

Sometimes you never get that chance.

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I don’t know if Burt will make it into heaven.  It’s not my decision to make.  But if he does, I can see him right now, with that Burt Reynolds mustache,  laughing that Burt Reynolds laugh, driving that shiny, black Bandit Trans Am as he slides through the pearly gates.

And Jerry Reed will be waiting there, singing, “East Bound and Down” or maybe, just maybe, he’ll be voicing the words, “Oh they call him the Ban-dit.”

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God bless you Burt.  You will be missed.

Better yet, bye bye Bandit.

 

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(above) A segment I put together to pay tribute to Burt and his best-known role.

(below) A clip I found that tells a little more about Burt.

 

(above) A clip I got off Youtube from Burt’s time with Gunsmoke.  Man he could throw a punch!

(below) I swear I found this cartoon after I wrote the post for my blog.  But it sure is appropriate.