Burt Reynolds, wise-cracking star of 'Smokey and the Bandit' and 'Deliverance,' dies at 82
LOS ANGELES - Burt Reynolds, who reigned as Hollywood's wise-cracking, good ol' boy box-office champ in the late 1970s and early '80s in movies such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Cannonball Run" and made pop-culture history as Cosmopolitan magazine's first nude male centerfold, has died. He was 82. The Associated Press confirmed his death Thursday with Reynolds' agent.
For five years in a row - 1978 through 1982 - Reynolds was the No. 1 box-office star, a time in which he starred in movies such as "Hooper," "Starting Over," "The End," "Sharky's Machine" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
But his more than 50-year career was well-known for its peaks and valleys, as Reynolds was the first to concede.
"My career is not like a regular chart. ... Mine looks like a heart attack," he cracked in a 2001 interview with Canada's The Globe and Mail. "I counsel scores of young actors because they know I've
