Sad news out of Hollywood today, as a bonafide screen legend is no longer with us.
Several media outlets are now reporting that Burt Reynolds died at his home in Florida on Thursday.
The actor was 82 years old.
Sources say Reynolds was surrounded by loved ones at the time of his passing.
His death was confirmed moments ago by his agent, Todd Eisner.
“No comment, just heartbreaking,” Eisner said in a press release.
Known for such iconic films as The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit, Deliverance, and Boogie Nights, Reynolds amassed more than 200 film and television credits over the course of his 60-year career.
A committed craftsman to the very end, Reynolds was in the process of filming Quentin Tarantino’s forthcoming Once Upon a Time In Hollywood at the time of his death.
He recently wrapped filming on Defining Moments, which is set for release in December.
Though the commercial peak of Reynolds’ career came in the 1970s, when he starred in a string of blockbusters, he enjoyed a renaissance later in life.
It was his work in the latter half of his career – culminating in an Oscar nomination for Boogie Nights in 1998 – that earned him the lasting respect of the acting world.
Of course, any discussion of Reynolds’ career would be incomplete without acknowledging what might have been.
Among the jobs he famously turned down:
Han Solo in Star Wars, John McClane in Die Hard, R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment were some of the many roles Reynolds passed on at the peak of his career.
“I was interested in having a good time,” Reynolds wrote in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me.
“I didn’t open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn’t interested in challenging myself as an actor.
“As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance.”
But even without those now-iconic roles on his resume, the highlights of Reynolds’ career are staggeringly impressive.
The number one box office draw each year from 1978-1982, the Michigan native had four films in theaters at once in ’78.
Throughout the history of the film industry, only a handful of actors have enjoyed such popular success for so long as Burt Reynolds.
And today millions of fans are mourning the loss of a true film legend.
