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Actor Burt Reynolds dies at 82

By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

ATLANTA — Actor Burt Reynolds, famed for his roles in films like "Smokey and the Bandit" "Boogie Nights,” has died, according to ABC News. He was 82.

He was the star of films like "Smokey and the Bandit," "Deliverance" "Boogie Nights" and many more.

[READ: Burt Reynolds makes rare public appearance at film festival]

Reynolds' manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida. An unidentified source told US Weekly that family members were by his side.

Reynolds was born in Lansing, Michigan, on Feb. 11, 1936, although for years fans believed he had been born in Waycross, Georgia, according to the Detroit-Free Press. His family moved to Riviera Beach, Florida, in 1946.

[WATCH: Burt Reynolds Filming "the Longest Yard" at Reidsville State Prison in 1973]

"If there's any confusion about my birthplace, it's my fault," Reynolds wrote in “But Enough About Me,” an autobiography released in 2015. "I was born in Lansing, Michigan. We moved to Florida when I was five. I grew up a Southern boy who didn't want to be a Yankee."

[READ: Burt Reynolds credited with helping put Georgia's film industry in the spotlight]

He began his career in TV in the late 1950s. By the 1970s he had grown into a Hollywood sex symbol and one of the silver screen’s top talents.

"He became one of the top movie actors of the 1970s, showing his dramatic and comedic range in movies from 'Deliverance' to 'The Longest yard' to 'Sharky's Machine' to perhaps his most beloved film, 'Smokey and the Bandit,'" the Palm Beach Post reported.

[PHOTOS: Burt Reynolds through the years]

Reynolds appeared in nearly 200 film and television roles over the course of his career, earning Golden Globes in 1992 and 1998 for his performances in "Evening Shade" and "Boogie Nights" respectively. He inspired a wide range of responses over his long, erratic career: critical acclaim and critical scorn, commercial success and box office bombs. Through it all he presented a genial persona, often the first to make fun of his own conflicted image.

[WATCH: Burt Reynolds interview with WSB-TV in 1972]

"My career is not like a regular chart, mine looks like a heart attack," he told The Associated Press in 2001. "I've done over 100 films, and I'm the only actor who has been canned by all three networks. I epitomize longevity."

Reynolds once served as the Grand Marshal of WSB-TV's Salute to America parade here in Atlanta in the 1960s.

Celebrities, co-stars, friends and fans took to social media to mourn the prolific actor.

Cox Media Group

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