by Nathaniel R
Burt Reynolds in his iconic breakout role in "Deliverance"Burt Reynolds passed away today of a heart attack. He was 82 years old. Though he lived a long blessed life, it's always a bummer to lose a bonafide movie star. It was particularly exciting recently to learn he'd been cast in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) since Quentin Tarantino has proven so skilled in the past at reviving talent whose heyday had passed and making us think about them differently or just think about them a lot again. Sadly, from our understanding he hadn't yet begun work so though the picture is currently filming they'll have to recast his supporting role. in the picture so it will need to be recast.
Did you have any feelings about him?
I personally had to grow into Burt Reynolds. When you're a little kid you accept that whoever is a star is a massive star, even if you don't know why, their origin story being firmly in the past. When I became interested in movies (the mid 80s) he was already "over" and then when I did start seeing him I didn't get it at all, at least not at first...
I think the first Burt movie I saw in theaters was Switching Channels (1988) and I didn't understand why a star of Kathleen Turner's magnitude was working with... 'this guy? what?'
Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds in "Switching Channels" - they hated each other and it shows in the movie. 
His only Oscar nomination came from "Boogie Nights"
I've never been a "masc for masc" type of gay and his hypermasculinity - the body hair, the hairline, the blocky face, the body language, was just not for me. Some stars definitively belong to particular eras (this is not a critique, just a fact) and when that era is past, their career peaks (if there are any) afterwards are generally reflective of or reflecting on that era. So it took Boogie Nights (1997), Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece about a "family" of pornographers in the 1970s to open my eyes to his particular gift. Let's just say that Oscar nomination was richly deserved and Warren Beatty was a fool to pass on that role.
After Boogie Nights it was like a fog lifted and the star charisma was suddenly so very obvious... how had I missed it? That should have been his second nomination following his riveting star turn in Deliverance (1972). You might think it's silly -- I actually do and I'm the one confessing it -- but Archer's obsession with him also definitely boosted my affection for him and helped me see the cocky hypermasculinity as a kind of savvy commentary on itself. I learned to love him in retrospect enough to feel a bit sad about his departure.
Some favorite Burt Reynolds photographs to end with. RIP, Burt.
Burt and Jon Voight in the pool
Burt's funny sequence in "Silent Movie"
He considered Sally Field 'the one that got away' and he blamed himself.
A bit Brando'esque sans moustache