‘A trailblazer’ – Tributes pour in for Burt Reynolds after Smokey and the Bandit star passes away
Entertainment

‘A trailblazer’ – Tributes pour in for Burt Reynolds after Smokey and the Bandit star passes away

LEGENDARY actor Burt Reynolds, star of movies including Smokey and the Bandit and Deliverance, has passed away at the age of 82.

Reynolds, who moved into acting after injuries curtailed a career in American football, was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in 1997 film Boogie Nights.

The star died on Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Despite a lack of critical acclaim during his career, Reynolds was the highest-grossing Hollywood star every year between 1977 and 1982.

A running back, he put his sporting experience to use on the screen in the films The Longest Yard (AKA The Mean Machine) (1974) and Semi-Tough (1977), as well as the sitcom Evening Shade.

The latter role, in which he played an ex-pro who returns to his hometown to coach the high school football team, earned him two Prime Time Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a People’s Choice Award for best actor.

However many will remember him for the iconic role of Bo Darville in Smokey and the Bandit (1977), in which he has to deliver a trailer full of beer over state lines.

Reynolds pictured in march this year (Image: Getty)

He starred in the critically acclaimed John Boorman thriller Deliverance in 1972, but it would be 25 years later before he would receive his one and only Oscar nomination for playing pornographic filmmaker Jack Horner in Boogie Nights.

Tributes flooded in for Reynolds from fans and fellow actors, as well as his co-stars.