You’ve seen the mustache. You’ve heard the laugh—that unmistakable, wheezing cackle that usually followed a high-speed car chase or a snappy comeback directed at Jackie Gleason. Burt Reynolds was the undisputed king of the 1970s box office, a man who basically defined "cool" for an entire generation. But for a guy who felt as Southern as a glass of sweet tea, there was always a bit of a mystery surrounding his origins.
Honestly, if you asked a fan in 1978, they’d probably tell you he was a Georgia boy through and through. The reality is a little more "Yankee" than he liked to admit during his peak fame.
What year was Burt Reynolds born?
Let’s get the hard facts out of the way first. Burt Reynolds was born on February 11, 1936. He wasn't born in the deep South, though. Despite the cowboy hats and the "good ol' boy" persona he perfected in films like Smokey and the Bandit, Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. actually entered the world in Lansing, Michigan.
For decades, there was a weird amount of confusion about this. Many fans (and even some official biographies for a while) claimed he was born in Waycross, Georgia. Burt didn't exactly rush to correct them. In his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me, he finally came clean. He admitted that he let the Georgia rumor slide because he wanted to be seen as a Southern boy. He moved to Riviera Beach, Florida, when he was around ten years old, and that’s where his heart stayed.
He didn't want to be a Yankee. Simple as that.
🔗 Read more: Celebrities Born on September 24: Why This Specific Birthday Breeds Creative Giants
A life of "almosts" and lucky breaks
Born in 1936, Burt grew up in a strict household. His dad was a World War II veteran who eventually became the Police Chief of Riviera Beach. That relationship was... complicated. Burt spent a lot of his life trying to earn his father's approval, which often meant leaning into a "tough guy" image.
Before he was an actor, he was a legit athlete. He went to Florida State University on a football scholarship. He was a halfback with dreams of going pro. But 1954 and 1955 were rough years. A bad knee injury in a game, followed by a brutal car accident that resulted in a lost spleen, ended his football dreams forever.
If he hadn't crashed that car, we might never have seen Deliverance.
From Gunsmoke to Superstardom
After football failed, a teacher named Watson B. Duncan III pushed him toward acting at Palm Beach Junior College. Burt was a natural. He eventually headed to New York, did some theater, and then landed in Hollywood.
💡 You might also like: Brooks Nader Naked: What Really Happened with That Sheer Dress Controversy
He spent years in the trenches. You can find him in old episodes of Gunsmoke playing Quint Asper, the half-Cherokee blacksmith. He did Hawk. He did Dan August. But he didn't really "explode" until 1972. That was the year of Deliverance and, famously, that nude centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine.
He later said the Cosmo photo was a mistake because it made people stop taking him seriously as an actor. Maybe. But it also made him the biggest star on the planet. From 1978 to 1982, he was the #1 box office draw in the world. Nobody else even came close.
The movies that defined an era
If you're looking to understand why Burt mattered, you have to look at the run he had.
- The Longest Yard (1974): The definitive football movie.
- Smokey and the Bandit (1977): A movie that shouldn't have worked but became a cultural phenomenon.
- The Cannonball Run (1981): Pure, chaotic fun with a bunch of his famous friends.
- Boogie Nights (1997): The late-career masterpiece that earned him an Oscar nomination.
He turned down some massive roles, too. He famously said no to playing Han Solo in Star Wars and turned down the role of James Bond. He even passed on the lead in Terms of Endearment, which won Jack Nicholson an Oscar. Burt had regrets, sure. Who wouldn't?
📖 Related: Brooklyn and Bailey Nose Job: What Really Happened with Those Plastic Surgery Rumors
Why his birth year matters to his legacy
Knowing he was born in 1936 gives you a sense of the Hollywood he entered. He was part of that bridge between the old-school studio system and the "New Hollywood" of the 70s. He had the ruggedness of a 1940s leading man but the self-aware, winking humor of a modern star.
He died on September 6, 2018, at the age of 82. He was still working right up until the end, proving that the charm he discovered back in a Florida junior college never really faded.
Ready to dive deeper into the Bandit's world?
Check out his final memoir, But Enough About Me. It’s where he finally sets the record straight on the Lansing vs. Georgia debate and offers some genuinely hilarious (and heartbreaking) stories about Sally Field, Dinah Shore, and the golden age of Hollywood stunts. If you've never seen Deliverance, watch it this weekend—it’s the best evidence we have that beneath the mustache and the car chases, Burt Reynolds was a world-class actor.