Clint Eastwood Photo Opportunity #3

Here’s a great picture of Clint snapped at The 47th Cannes Film Festival which was held from 12th to 23rd May 1994. The Palme d'Or award went to the American film Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino. The festival opened with The Hudsucker Proxy, directed by Joel Coen and closed with Serial Mom, directed by John Waters. Jeanne Moreau was the mistress of ceremonies.

Clint was selected as Jury President with Catherine Deneuve serving as vice president. Also on the 1994 jury was Clint’s long time composer Lalo Schifrin.

Eastwood’s ‘The Mule’ due for a December release date

From Variety, September 27^th

Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule” will come out in time for Christmas.

The Warner Bros. thriller will open on Dec. 14 in wide release. Eastwood stars in the film and directs. “The Mule” will face off against Universal’s pricey sci-fi fantasy “Mortal Engines,” STX’s Jennifer Lopez rom-com “Second Act,” and Sony’s animated adventure “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.” The film is seen as more of a commercial effort. It’s not expected to be a major Oscar contender.

Eastwood stars in “The Mule” as Earl Stone, a man in his 80s who is broke, alone, and facing foreclosure of his business when he is offered a job as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. After being assigned a menacing handler, Stone also attracts attention from DEA agent Colin Bates. In addition to Eastwood, the cast includes Bradley Cooper, Dianne Wiest, and Michael Pena. The movie is Eastwood’s first acting role since 2012’s “Trouble with the Curve.”

In an interview with Variety last month, Warner Bros. film chief Toby Emmerich said he deferred to Eastwood about when the film would be released.

“We’re waiting for Clint to show us the movie, and the way that’s worked for 25 years is whenever and wherever Clint says,” said Emmerich.

Thanks to Jayne Smart

Clint and Maggie at Marineland of the Pacific

I’ve had this nice collection of photos for some time now, and been trying to pin down a specific time when they were taken. It’s been an incredibly hard job to even find a year. I think it is probably safe to assume they date from the Rawhide period, especially as someone thought it might be a good idea to place a toy pistol in Clint’s hand for some of the poses. I doubt very much that Clint would have been the focus of such attention simply on the strength of his (then) minor film roles or bit parts.

Nevertheless, these are a great collection featuring Clint and Maggie on a summer break to Marineland of the Pacific. Marineland was a public oceanarium and tourist attraction located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast in Los Angeles County, California. It operated from 1954 until 1987, when it was purchased by the owners of SeaWorld San Diego. When it opened in 1954, one year before Disneyland, Marineland of the Pacific was the world's largest oceanarium.

Its place in Film and TV history:

While still in operation, the park was prominently featured in several television shows, including two episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters, The Partridge Family, Hart to Hart, The Six Million Dollar Man, Emergency!, The Colbys, Wonder Woman, Sea Hunt, and later, Simon & Simon and an A Team episode a year before the park closed. Two episodes of The Chevy Show were taped there with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans featuring an "Aquarodeo" on May 1, 1960 and January 15, 1961. In an episode of the Lucy Show, Lucille Ball falls into a Marineland animal exhibit which was featured on the August 28, 1965 cover of TV Guide. In 1958, Dixieland jazz artist Red Nichols recorded a live album at Marineland. In an episode of Wonderbug, titled Fish Story, Marineland was integral to the plot. Marineland was also briefly featured in the Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic, the Elvis Presley film, Live a Little, Love a Little, and the John Carradine film "Blood of Dracula's Castle". The "Poor Little Kangaroo Rat" episode of "Route 66" starring Martin Milner and George Maharis was filmed there with guest stars Ronny Howard, Leslie Nielsen, Maggie Pierce, and Joanne Linville which was in season 3.

Since its closing, scenes for several feature films have been shot at the location, including the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, Charlie's Angels, Inspector Gadget, Fun with Dick and Jane, Pearl Harbor, The Aviator, Hidalgo, and Life as a House. For the latter, the suburban neighbourhood exterior was entirely constructed from scratch on the site, as it was for Fun with Dick and Jane. Mel Gibson's trailer was parked at the bottom of the cliff for Lethal Weapon 2.

Clint Eastwood Photo Opportunity #2

Here's a very rare photo of Clint and Sondra Locke taken with Joe Patti. Clint and Sondra were eating at Mr Patti's Italian Family Restaurant in Beverly Hills, La Famiglia. The photo was taken August 22nd 1983. Joe Patti was owner and host of the establishment between December 1973 – August 1994.  

Clint Eastwood Photo Opportunity #1

There is one problem that happens here on the Archive - perhaps more than any other, the 'lone photo syndrome' as I like to call it. I have a great deal of photos that are sometimes hard to use within a certain post - they are somewhat isolated in their context and therefore become harder to find a permanent home, and run the risk of never being used at all.

Therefore, I have started a new series of posts called 'Clint Eastwood Photo Opportunity' - I will number each one of these and post them randomly from time to time. I will also add any information that I have on the specific photos. This exercise should prove useful in utilising a great deal of photos that I often put aside for future use. 

This first shot features Clint, Doug McClure and Ryan O'Neal at a celebrity baseball game in Los Angeles, February 1967.  

Rare picture of Clint and Burt on the set of City Heat 1984

Here's something rather special, a wonderful shot of two friends playing it up for the cameras on the set of City Heat in 1984. I only discovered this today and know I've certainly never seen it before. 

Clint Eastwood's Prop Guns

Last month I spotted a couple of prop guns that were being auctioned off on an internet site. I grabbed the information and some images for saving. Unfortunately, I did not returned to see what the final finishing price was - I thought it might be a little too painful!

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - Clint Eastwood's Prop Stunt Revolver

Description:

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - Clint Eastwood's Prop Stunt Revolver.

Here’s an original stunt revolver from the production of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), the Western movie where, a Missouri farmer joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.

Black rubber stunt pistol with gold painted trigger guard and brown painted hand grips, cast from a Italian made replica Colt Walker used as the hero gun by Eastwood. Gun exhibits serial #954 which is a matching number to the hero gun. Further the prop cast with the letter “E” signifying property of Ellis props. It was acquired from the liquidation sale of Ellis Prop House, original supplier to the production. Email from NRA Senior Curator Mr. Phil Schreier verified serial #954 was used during production is included. Prop is in good condition exhibiting minor wear.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western DeLuxe Color and Panavision film set during and after the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood (as the eponymous Josey Wales), with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams. The film tells the story of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Union militants during the Civil War. Driven to revenge, Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla band and fights in the Civil War. After the war, all the fighters in Wales' group except for Wales surrender to Union officers, but they end up being massacred. Wales becomes an outlaw and is pursued by bounty hunters and Union soldiers. The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman from author Forrest Carter's 1972 novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (republished, as shown in the movie's opening credits, as Gone to Texas).The film was a commercial success, earning $31.8 million against a $3.7 million budget. In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

Kelly's Heroes (1970) - Prop Machine Gun

Description:

Kelly's Heroes (1970) - Prop Machine Gun.

Original prop machine gun used in the production of Kelly's Heroes (1970), the war comedy film where, a group of U.S. soldiers sneak across enemy lines to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure. This Prop gun is made of metal and signed by Clint Eastwood.

Kelly's Heroes is a 1970 American war comedy film, directed by Brian G. Hutton, about a group of World War II American soldiers who go AWOL to rob a bank behind enemy lines. The film stars Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor, and Donald Sutherland, with secondary roles played by Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod, and Stuart Margolin. The screenplay was written by British film and television writer Troy Kennedy Martin. The film was a US-Yugoslav co-production, filmed mainly in the Croat village of Vižinada on the Istria peninsula.

2018 Honorary Oscar Award for composer Lalo Schifrin

The selection process is very straightforward. Members of the board of governors put forth suggestions, with each of the top choices then voted on individually. Honourees must receive support from at least half of those on the board. The usual limit is three honourees. For a fourth to be named, he or she needs to garner two-thirds of the votes. Since the academy shifted the honorary kudos from the telecast to a separate non-televised ceremony nine years ago, they have celebrated 34 people.

In a press release on Tuesday, September 4^th, The Academy stated:

Born and raised in Argentina, Schifrin studied classical music and jazz in France before beginning to compose for film in Buenos Aires in the mid-1950s.  He has written scores for more than 100 films, including “The Cincinnati Kid,” “Bullitt,” “Dirty Harry,” “Enter the Dragon” and “Rush Hour.”  His memorable theme for the television series “Mission: Impossible” has been a hallmark of the recent film series.  He has received six Oscar® nominations, for the original scores for “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “The Fox” (1968), “Voyage of the Damned” (1976) and “The Amityville Horror” (1979), the original song “People Alone” from “The Competition” (1980) and the adaptation score for “The Sting II” (1983).

For fans of Schifrin this all makes for wonderful news. However, in a cruel turn of events, Schifrin’s long standing music publicist, the lovely Beth Krakower this week sadly succumb to her brave battle against cancer. She died just the following day of the announcement at the age of just 46. 

Beth will be sadly missed by everyone in the soundtrack business. 

The Passing of Burt Reynolds

Several messages made their way to me this evening, and whilst I wished they were nothing more than fake news, sadly they all proved to be true. I am of course referring to the death of a hero and the quite unique Burt Reynolds. Burt died of a heart attack – he was 82.

I have gathered together a couple of reports in order to collate this post and added some great shots, each of which holds a very special memory.

Burt Reynolds, Star of ‘Deliverance’, ‘Smokey and the Bandit,’ Dies at 82

By RICHARD NATALE, Variety

In his colourful career Reynolds secured more than his share of both good and bad press. He could be affable with the media but at times downright hostile. Despite his many high-profile roles, the ones he is said to have turned down were even bigger: He was offered the roles of James Bond, Han Solo, the Richard Gere role in “Pretty Woman” and the Jack Nicholson role in “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

In the early 1970s, Reynolds was a veteran of TV and film who spurred the curiosity of Hollywood producers through his amusing appearances on late-night talk shows, as well as the hyped publicity stunt of appearing as the first celebrity male-nude centrefold in a 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan.

He was thus cast in his first A-title role, in John Boorman’s “Deliverance,” one of the most popular and well received films of 1972 (several major actors, including Marlon Brando, had turned the role down before it was offered to Reynolds). The same year Woody Allen cast him in a small comedic role in his film “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.”

He solidified his position as a rising film star with 1974 prison football drama “The Longest Yard.” In 1977 he starred with Sally Field and Jackie Gleason in the comedy programmer “Smokey and the Bandit,” which proved to be his most successful undertaking ever and was followed by the inevitable sequels. That same year he was again on the gridiron in the hit comedy “Semi-Tough.”

Reynolds made his directing debut with 1976 action film “Gator” and 1978’s black comedy “The End.”

Such was his popularity in box office polls during this period that he managed to weather high-profile disasters like the musical “At Long Last Love,” “Lucky Lady” and “Nickelodeon.” Other films during the 1970s included “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings,” “Fuzz,” “Shamus,” “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,” “White Lightning,” “Hustle” and “Silent Movie.”

He brought the decade to a successful close with the action film “Hooper” and the urbane comedy “Starting Over” and began the ’80s with a popular sequel to “Smokey.” Over the next few years, there were hits like “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Best Friends” and “City Heat,” as well as audience-friendly fare like “Rough Cut,” “Sharky’s Machine” (which he also directed) and “Cannonball Run.” Blake Edwards cast him in the lead of the American remake of “The Man Who Loved Women” in 1983.

But the poorly received films like “Stroker Ace,” “Cannonball Run II,” “Rent-a-Cop” and “Heat” took his career in a downward direction. Along the way he turned down such potentially career-making roles as the ex-astronaut in “Terms of Endearment,” for which Jack Nicholson won an Oscar. Reynolds retreated to his adopted home of Florida and opened the Jupiter Theatre, a popular spot with local audiences where he directed several productions and appeared in a couple as well. He endorsed the Florida Citrus Commission and Quaker State Oil, then returned to television in a dozen TV movies playing B.L. Stryker. After marrying television actress Loni Anderson, Reynolds decided to produce and star in the sitcom “Evening Shade,” which ran on CBS from 1990-94. Along the way he picked up an Emmy as best actor in a comedy series.

Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was born in Waycross, Ga., and attended Florida State U. for two years on a football scholarship. But his promising career as a running back was cut short by a knee injury suffered in a car accident. Reynolds turned his attention to acting, moving to New York, where he struggled for several years until he landed a role in a revival of “Mr. Roberts” starring Charlton Heston in 1956. 

He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived “Look We’ve Come Through” and began accumulating guest shots on television in programs such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Zane Grey Theater,” “Route 66,” “Perry Mason” and “The Twilight Zone.”

Reynolds landed several series starring roles, mostly in Westerns, starting with “Riverboat” in 1959. He appeared for three seasons as a Native American on the long-running “Gunsmoke” in the mid-’60s, then moved over to the cop/detective genre as the lead in “Hawk” (1966) and “Dan August” (1970-71). He was simultaneously making movies, starting with “Armored Command” and “Angel Baby” in 1961. But his ’60s output, which included “Navajo Joe,” “100 Rifles” and “Sam Whiskey,” did little to further his feature film aspirations.

Reynolds’ assured performance in the controversial and violent “Deliverance” started him on a decade or more of enormous success.

But after riding the wave of popularity, a messy, high-profile divorce from and custody battle with Anderson in the early 1990s and a tell-almost-all autobiography, “My Life,” in 1994 cast him in a negative light, not helped by his understandable, but often irritable attitude toward the press, which was always keenly interested in his love life.

Comeback attempts in movies including “Switching Channels,” “Cop and a Half,” “The Man from Left Field” (which he also directed) and “Striptease” were failures. By the mid-’90s the former $1 million-plus player’s services could be had for as little as $100,000 (which he received for “Striptease”).

Toward the end of the decade he received critical kudos for his performance as a self-deluded porno director in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” which brought him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor. Though he was highly favored to win, Reynolds undercut himself by firing his agent for casting him in the part and shunning publicity for the popular role.

After losing the Oscar he continued to work regularly in indifferent projects like “The Crew,” “Mystery, Alaska” and “Universal Soldier III.” He was second billed in Renny Harlin’s racecar actioner “Driven,” starring Sylvester Stallone; played the coach in the comedic 2005 remake of “The Longest Yard” that starred Adam Sandler; and played Boss Hogg in the feature adaptation of “The Dukes of Hazzard,” also in 2005, but other film work was mostly in lower-profile material.

The actor also kept busy on television, with guest appearances in “The X-Files,” “Ed,” “My Name Is Earl” and “Burn Notice” and voice work on “Robot Chicken,” “Duck Dodgers,” “American Dad” and “Archer.”

In September 2015 Reynolds was honoured by the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures with the organization’s Richard “Diamond” Farnsworth Award. Reynolds was married and divorced twice, first in the 1960s to “Laugh-In” comedienne Judy Carne and then to Anderson.

He is survived by adopted son Quinton from his second marriage.

Film and television fans alike have taken to social media to remember Burt.

Former governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the first to tweet his remembrance of the star. “Burt Reynolds was one of my heroes. He was a trailblazer. He showed the way to transition from being an athlete to being the highest paid actor, and he always inspired me. He also had a great sense of humor – check out his Tonight Show clips. My thoughts are with his family,” he said.

Mark Wahlberg paid tribute to the star with a photo of his time working with him on the movie “Boogie Nights.” “Rest in peace to a legend and a friend,” Wahlberg tweeted.

Burt Reynolds, Movie Star Who Played It for Grins, Dies at 82

By Mike Barnes, Hollywood Reporter

The ex-jock from Florida starred in 'Deliverance' and 'Boogie Nights' but preferred making such populist, fun fare as 'Smokey and the Bandit,' 'The Cannonball Run' and 'Starting Over.' Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of such films as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit who set out to have as much fun as possible on and off the screen — and wildly succeeded — has died. He was 82. Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter. 

The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Always with a wink, Reynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in such romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews.

Though beloved by audiences for his brand of frivolous, good-ol'-boy fare, the playful Reynolds rarely was embraced by the critics. The first time he saw himself in Boogie Nights, he was so unhappy he fired his agent. (He went on to win a Golden Globe but lost out in the Oscar supporting actor race to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, a bitter disappointment for him.)

"I didn't open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn't interested in challenging myself as an actor. I was interested in having a good time," Reynolds recalled in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me. "As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance."

Still, Reynolds had nothing to apologise for. He was Hollywood's top-grossing star every year from 1978 through 1982, equalling the longest stretch the business had seen since the days of Bing Crosby in the 1940s. In 1978, he had four movies playing in theatres at the same time.

Reynolds' career also is marked by the movies he didn't make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively. He often said that passing on James L. Brooks' Endearment was one of his worst career mistakes. (Nicholson won an Oscar for playing Breedlove.)

Reynolds also indicated he was Milos Forman's first choice to play R.P. McMurphy (another Nicholson Oscar-winning turn) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "backed away" from playing Batman on TV in the 1960s and declined the part made famous by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

In John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), based on a book by James Dickey, Reynolds starred as macho survivalist Lewis Medlock, one of four guys from Atlanta who head to the wilderness for the weekend. Filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond along the Chattooga River near the Georgia-South Carolina border, it was an arduous production that Boorman shot in sequence.

"When I asked John why, he said, 'In case one of you drowns,'" Reynolds wrote.

He had good reason. When Reynolds saw test footage of a dummy in a canoe going over the falls in one scene, he told Boorman the scene looked fake. He climbed into the canoe, was sent crashing into the rocks and ended up in the hospital. "I asked [Boorman] how [the new footage] looked, and he said, 'Like a dummy going over the falls,'" Reynolds wrote.

Deliverance, infamous for its uncut 10-minute hillbilly male rape scene ("squeal like a pig"), was nominated for three Academy Awards but came away empty. It lost out to The Godfather in the best picture battle.

"If I had to put only one of my movies in a time capsule, it would be Deliverance," Reynolds wrote. "I don't know if it's the best acting I've done, but it's the best movie I've ever been in. It proved I could act, not only to the public but me."

Three months before the movie opened, Reynolds — once described by journalist Scott Tobias as the "standard of hirsute masculinity" — showed off his moustache and other assets when he posed nude on a bearskin rug for a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. (Seven years later, he would become the rare man to grace the cover of Playboy.)

The Cosmo issue sold an outlandish 1.5 million copies. "It's been called one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made," he wrote, "and I'm convinced it cost Deliverance the recognition it deserved."

A running back in high school and college who talked with legendary coach Bear Bryant about attending Alabama, Reynolds put his gridiron skills to use in Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard (1974), playing Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, who leads his rag-tag team of prison inmates in a game against the guards. He later starred in Semi-Tough (1977), another football film.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977), written and directed by his pal, the legendary stuntman Hal Needham, grossed $126 million (that's $508 million today, and only Star Wars took in more that year). Reynolds, who stars as Bo "Bandit" Darville, hired to transport 400 cases of Coors from Texas to Atlanta in 28 hours, noted that, unbelievable as it sounds, Smokey was Alfred Hitchcock's favourite movie.

Reynolds drives a sleek Pontiac Trans-Am in the film, and after the picture opened, sales of the model soared. (His black car is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch," and the Tampa Bay Bandits, a U.S. Football League team in which he had an ownership stake, were named for the movie.)

Smokey spawned two sequels, and Reynolds went on to work again with Needham in The Cannonball Run (1981), another fun-filled action film that spawned another franchise. His other high-octane films included Sharky's Machine (1981) and two movies as ex-con Gator McClusky. In Smokey, Reynolds starred alongside Sally Field, and the two were an item for some time. He also had relationships with the likes of Dinah Shore (20 years his senior), Inger Stevens, Chris Evert, Hawn and Farrah Fawcett in his book.

"There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later," Field said in a statement. "My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy."

Reynolds was married to British actress Judy Carne (famous for NBC's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) from 1963-66 and then to Loni Anderson, the voluptuous blonde best known for the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, from 1988-93. Both marriages were tempestuous, and his divorce with Anderson was particularly messy. After a string of big-screen failures and the cancellation of his ABC private detective series B.L. Stryker, Reynolds rejuvenated his career by starring in the 1990-94 CBS sitcom Evening Shade, created by Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

He won an Emmy Award in 1991 for best actor in a comedy series for playing Woodrow "Wood" Newton, a former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback who returns to his small-town home in Arkansas to coach a woeful high school team. 

"My dad was my hero, but he never acknowledged any of my achievements," he wrote in his memoir. "I always felt that no amount of success would make me a man in his eyes."

Then known as Buddy Reynolds, he played halfback at Palm Beach High School, where his teammate was future New York Yankees manager Dick Howser, then suited up at Florida State, where Lee Corso, later a college coach and ESPN analyst, played on both sides of the ball. But he suffered a knee injury as a sophomore, and that was it for football and Florida State. Reynolds enrolled at Palm Beach Junior College and appeared in a production of Outward Bound, playing the part handled by John Garfield in the 1944 film adaptation, Between Two Worlds. That led to a scholarship and a summer-stock stint at the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York. He roomed with another aspiring actor, Rip Torn, and they studied at the Actors Studio. After a few appearances on Broadway and on television, Reynolds was off to Hollywood, where he signed with Universal and manned the wheel as Ben Frazer on Riverboat, an NBC Western that starred Darren McGavin.

He met Needham on that show, and the stuntman would double for him on projects through the years. Reynolds is referenced in "The Unknown Stuntman," the theme song from the 1980s ABC series The Fall Guy, and he played an aging stuntman in Needham's second film, Hooper (1978). Reynolds joined Gunsmoke for its eighth season in 1962 as Quint Asper, a half-Comanche who becomes the Dodge City blacksmith. He played the title warrior in the 1966 spaghetti Western Navajo Joe, was an Iroquois who worked as a New York City detective in the short-lived ABC series Hawk and portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in 100 Rifles (1969). Reynolds got another shot at toplining his own ABC show, playing homicide detective Dan August in a 1970-71 Quinn Martin production, but the series was axed after a season.

Reynolds appeared often on NBC's The Tonight Show, and in 1972 he became the first non-comedian to sit in for Johnny Carson as guest host (Reynolds' first guest that night was his ex-wife, Carne; they hadn't spoken in six years, and she made a crack about his older girlfriend Shore). He and Carson once engaged in a wild and improvised whipped-cream fight during a taping, and he got to show a side of him the public never knew. 

"Before I met Johnny, I'd played a bunch of angry guys in a series of forgettable action movies, and people didn't know I had a sense of humour," he wrote. "My appearances on The Tonight Show changed that. My public image went from a constipated actor who never took a chance to a cocky, wisecracking character."

Reynolds showed that lighter side when he played a sperm in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972), and he lampooned his lavish Hollywood lifestyle in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976). He was not above making fun of himself and his toupee. In 1979, he opened the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter and in the 1980s, he developed the syndicated game show Win, Lose or Draw with host Bert Convy. The set was modelled after his living room.

With his divorce from Anderson and bad restaurant investments contributing to more than $10 million in debts, Reynolds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996 and came out of it two years later. In recent years, he sold properties in Florida, including his fabled 160-acre ranch — The Allman Brothers recorded an album there in the 1990s — and auctioned off personal belongings.

"My uncle was not just a movie icon; he was a generous, passionate and sensitive man who was dedicated to his family, friends, fans and acting students," his niece, Nancy Lee Hess, said in a statement.

"He has had health issues; however, this was totally unexpected. He was tough. Anyone who breaks their tailbone on a river and finishes the movie is tough. And that’s who he was. My uncle was looking forward to working with Quentin Tarantino [In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood] and the amazing cast that was assembled."

Survivors also include his son, Quinton; he and Anderson adopted him when he was 3 days old.

Despite the ups and downs of a Hollywood life, Reynolds seemed to have no regrets.

"I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging," he wrote in the final paragraph of his memoir. "Well, so far, so good. I know I'm old, but I feel young. And there's one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did."

Borys Kit contributed to this report.

Our thoughts are with Burt’s family and friends,

RIP Bandit

CLINT EASTWOOD ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER AD BLOCKS 2

Back in February 2009 I began a post here on the Archive which focused on these ad blocks that would appear in US TV guides and newspapers. The original page can be viewed here and contains some 111 variations. Gradually over the years, I have amassed another 39 different ads which I am placing here as a second page. These ads are great to view as many of them often contain very different artwork to that used on the original film posters. Often thrown away with the original paper or magazine, they have become rather special to look back upon and I believe are worth preserving. If you should have any of these that you have collected over the years and would like to share the image please feel free to contact me in the comment section below which will not be published, unless of course you would like to be credited.

 Below: This ad was originally over 2 pages which I have joined for this display 

 Below: Unfortunately, this looks as if it was part of a 2 page spread. This is the only page I have.