Burt Reynolds^†

A nude photo on a bearskin rug in the April 1972 Cosmopolitan made him the most talked-about man in Hollywood, which was not what he wanted. He'd just finished Deliverance, one of the most intense films of its era, and he believed the centerfold killed his Oscar chances for it. He was probably right. The issue sold over 1.5 million copies and directly inspired the launch of Playgirl magazine. Smokey and the Bandit (1977) completed the picture: a $100 million gross and five consecutive years as the #1 box office star from 1978 to 1982. He'd turned down Han Solo the same year.

Restaurant chain investments reportedly cost him around $20 million and left him personally liable, forcing a bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. Paul Thomas Anderson then cast him as a porn director in Boogie Nights (1997). He hated making the film and fired his agent for recommending the role. He won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and lost the Oscar to Robin Williams. His slow-clap reaction at the ceremony became one of Hollywood's more memorable public disappointments. He never returned to A-list prestige work after that, but the Boogie Nights performance is what the industry kept.

Football came first. He attended Florida State on a scholarship and said more than once he'd rather have played in the NFL than won an Oscar. At the other end: he reportedly spent $100,000 on toupees over his career, including a custom piece that cost $12,200, and had to remove one for an audition in 1996 in a moment the producer called humbling. The jock and the sex symbol never fully reconciled.

He was cast as George Spahn in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in May 2018 but died before filming his scenes; Bruce Dern replaced him. A private memorial was held September 20, 2018, in North Palm Beach, Florida. Sally Field's tribute was notably measured: 'There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away.' In 2024 she said he 'invented' the narrative that she was the love of his life.