BURT REYNOLDS

Burt Reynolds left us recently at 82. He was still charming and still working. He was a genuine football star at Florida State and some of his movies have a football motif. He was first famous (notorious?) for posing for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in 1972. It was quite a cause celebre at the time, and that issue of Cosmo quickly sold out. Reynolds greatly regretted doing this. But he had quite an interesting movie resume’ mostly in the 1970's.
Reynolds’ break-out part was the role of Lewis Medlock in the haunting Deliverance (1972). He and three friends, played by Ned Beatty, Jon Voight and Ronny Cox, decide to take a canoe trip through the northern Georgia wilderness. Things go horribly wrong, and the Beatty character is savagely raped by local hillbilly thugs. There is then murderous retribution, and a scary and fateful encounter with the river’s rapids. The lives of all the participants are forever changed (one fatally) and the fun outdoor adventure of the four city boys has become a nightmare.
In The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) Reynolds plays Jay Grobart, widowed husband of Cat Dancing. He sets out to avenge her murder and has many adventures along the way. This includes saving Sarah Miles from her abusive husband and joining forces with Jack Warden and Lee J. Cobb to rob a train. Then it gets complicated.
Burt Reynolds plays Paul “Wrecking” Crewe, a disgraced and imprisoned NFL quarterback in the unlikely but enjoyable The Longest Yard (1974). The sadistic warden (is there any other kind in the movies?) gets up a football game between the prisoners and the guards. He orders Crewe to throw the game and the guards go ahead by 24 points. But hey, this is a Hollywood movie and the final score won’t really surprise you. There are several pallid remakes of this movie, some foreign, some domestic, none much good. 
Another Reynolds football film is 1977's Semi-Tough, based on Dan Jenkins’ hilarious novel and featuring Burt and Kris Kristofferson as teammates on a fictional Miami pro team. There is a love triangle between those two and Jill Clayburgh, and a lot of satirical stuff about the self-help movement. The book is more about football and far better than the film (so what else is new?).
The Smokey And The Bandit “franchise” was custom-made for Burt Reynolds, and he played the Bandit (Bo Darville) with a wink and a grin. I’m not a big fan of these films, but I guess the best one is the first one if you like that sort of thing. 
Burt Reynolds was actually nominated for an Oscar for his part in Boogie Nights (1997) a fairly rough film about the porn industry. I guess it’s good of its kind but be advised it is very graphic. 
Reynolds has a cameo as himself in Mel Brooks’ very funny Silent Movie (1976). He also has a good turn in Starting Over (1979) with Jill Clayburgh.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults.