Biography

BURT REYNOLDS

Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Burt Reynolds has enjoyed enormous success as an actor and director in feature films, television and stage productions. In addition to receiving an Oscar nomination and winning the Golden Globe Award for "Boogie Nights," Reynolds was honored by The New York Film Critics, The Los Angeles Film Critics, The Chicago Film Critics and The National Society of Film Critics with Best Supporting Actor awards for his memorable role in that film.

His feature films include "Driven," "The Crew," "Mystery Alaska", "Striptease", "Citizen Ruth", "Bean", "Cop and a Half", "Deliverance", "Starting Over", "White Lightning", "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing", "Hustle", "Semi-Tough", "Hooper", "Stroker Ace", "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", "The Longest Yard", "Smokey and the Bandit", "Sharky's Machine", "Gator", "The End" and "The Final Hit." He also directed the latter four films.

For television, Reynolds has enjoyed an auspicious career as an actor, director and producer. Among his finest endeavors in this medium is the hit series "Evening Shade" (as star, executive producer and, more often than not, director). For this series he won his ninth People's Choice Award as Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series, the 1991 Emmy Award for Best Performance in a Comedy and the Golden Globe Award for the same category.

His additional television credits include, "Riverboat", "Gunsmoke", "Hawk", "Dan August", and "B.L. Stryker". Additionally, he hosted a series of specials titled "Burt Reynolds' Conversation With." He also starred in, directed and produced the CBS television movie "The Man from Left Field". Last year he directed and starred in Turner Network's most ambitious project yet, "Hard Time", a 6-hour movie thriller trilogy.

Reynolds made his Broadway debut in "Look, We've Come Through" with director Jose Quintero. In addition, he has directed eight productions, and starred in two, at the Jupiter Theatre, which he founded in Jupiter, Florida. He also tours the country with his one-man show titled "An Evening with Burt Reynolds".

His numerous achievements have been recognized by being named America's Favorite All Around Motion Picture Actor (People's Choice Award) for a record six consecutive years; the Most Popular Star for five years running; Star of the Year (National Association of Theatre Owners); and #1 Box Office Star for five years in a row, still an unmatched record.

Burt Reynolds commitment to his profession and devotion to education can perhaps be best exemplified by the program he created to give college students scholastic credit and wages for their work while obtaining an education at the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre (B.R.I.T) located in Tequesta, Florida. Reynolds created a chair at Florida State University by donating generous endowments as well as Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.

His autobiography "My Life" reached the New York Times Best Seller List just after publication.

He recently received the prestigious "Children at Heart Award", for his humanitarian efforts benefiting and aiding the children of Chernobyl.

Reynolds has completed the independent films "Tempted", "Snapshots", "Hotel", directed by Mike Figgis, and "Time of the Wolf." The 4-hour mini-series "Johnson County War" aired on the Hallmark Channel last year receiving huge ratings and Hallmark's "Hard Ground"