Burt Reynolds (Actor)

"I feel like a grown-up now. I wish I could have been a couple years ago. I've made bad judgments in terms of people, not cherishing and loving and giving my soul to the right ones (his voice catching as he refers to Dinah Shore and Sally Field), and I regret that I do not have the dignity of Ricardo Montalban, the class of Dean Martin, or the humor of Bill Cosby. I DO have the heart of a lion." - Reynolds to Entertainment Weekly, Oct. 7, 1994

"My career has been like a heart-attack victim's. I was down at the bottom of the cellar and came back to the top." - Reynolds to Entertainment Weekly, April 29, 2005

Created $1 million endowed chair, Burt Reynolds Chair in Professional and Regional Theatre at Florida State University.

He has an official website at www.burtreynolds.com

Honored with the American Cancer Society's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

In September 2009, Reynolds entered an undisclosed treatment center to help him with an addiction to prescription drugs.

In the 1980s, Reynolda co-owned the USFL football team the Tampa Bay Bandits, as well as a NASCAR Winston Cup team.

Reynolds formerly owned the Jupiter Theater, a popular dinner theater in Jupiter, FL, which attracted crowds for shows featuring many of his Hollywood friends. The venue was later sold in the 1990s.

Unfounded AIDS rumors circulated when Reynolds was suffering from temporomandibular-joint disorder in the 1980s. In the early 90s, Reynolds spoke frankly about his severe illnesses, depression, financial troubles, and substance abuse problems during his career low point in the mid- and late 80s.

While playing college football, Reynolds tore the cartilage in his knee. He made the injury worse by trying to play again later in the game, and then again in a couple of games late in the season. On Christmas break that year, Reynolds ran his father's car up under a flatbed trailer. The car was wedged under the trailer, and it took rescuers seven and a half hours to remove Reynolds from the wreckage. He had multiple injuries, including his knee, shoulder, some broken ribs, and a ruptured spleen, the last of which was removed in emergency surgery. Both of these injuries officially ended his football career.