The 1970s good ol' boy heir to such dashing Old Hollywood screen idols as Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, and Cary Grant. In the era of the Brooding Method Actor--Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman--his smile, his laugh, his reckless driving, made him stand out. Reynold's own method of acting was to never venture too far outside his comfort zone, and he certainly never expected us audience members to venture outside of ours. No, all he ever asked of us as we sat there in that darkened theater, or even in the comfort of our own home (he was on Carson a lot) was to simply take in the charisma, of which he had a limitless supply. Of course, the 1970s is now as old as Old Hollywood once was (if not quite a myth-laden), and that begs the question, who today is the heir to Burt Reynolds?
Johnny Depp? Dwayne Johnson? Vin Diesel? Robert Downing Jr?
Ryan Reynolds?
You don't have to answer that if you don't want to. Instead, you can just enjoy this updating of the Robin Hood legend. I'm serious. Burt is Robin, Sally Field is Maid Marian, Jackie Gleason is the Sheriff of Nottingham, and...
...the National Highway System is Sherwood Forest.
Actor Burt Reynolds (seen here with a "cougar") was born on this day in 1936. Just last year he appeared in the feature film The Last Movie Star, with Chevy Chase and Kathleen Nolan (Richard Crenna's wife on The RealMcCoys.) I can't tell you whether this flick was good, bad, or in-between, because I didn't know of its existence until about 15 minutes ago (if you've seen it and want to give a mini-review in the comment section, feel free to do so.) Here's a clip not of the movie itself but the movie's premier at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, featuring the aforementioned Reynolds, Chase, Noland, and festival co-founder Robert De Niro:
It may be just simple nostalgia on my part (after all, I grew up in the 1970s), but even in stoop-shouldered, cane-wielding old age, Burt Reynolds is still the coolest guy in the room.
