Alas, here is my overdue obituary for Burt who was really the king of Action and Comedy-Action movies for my generation’s childhood. He still had quite a career in the decades following but the Seventies were when Burt was in his prime: Smokey and the Bandit, Gator, White Lightning, Starting Over (a huge departure for him), The End (one of his best in my opinion), The Longest Yard, Nickelodeon and Deliverance. However, Burt was equally frustrating due to his propensity to make dreck: Stroker Ace, Rough Cut, The Man Who Love Women, Smokey and the Bandit II and Part 3, Paternity, Rent-a-Cop, The Longest Yard remake with (not funny) Adam Sandler and The Dukes of Hazard movie. Hooper and Cannonball Run were vanity projects yet they have their charms thanks to the legendary stunt director Hal Needham. This pattern of bad decisions continued even after Boogie Nights gave him a Tarantino-eseque boost.
Another thing I will always remember well about Burt was his ability to be a fantastic guest star in numerous TV shows and a few films. He was able shed his ego because no one laughed harder about himself than Burt, his guffaws were a trademark; Johnny Carson did a joke about that. Key appearances he made in my mental library as himself: The Larry Sanders Show, Archer (Archer couldn’t handle him dating his mother), Silent Movie (the shower bit remains one of his funniest scenes of his career), Dinner for Five (he had an incredibly compelling story about Robert Mitchum) and Robot Chicken. Others in which he had a small role as a character: Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask (hilarious as the switchboard operator), King of the Hill, Duckman, American Dad!, Duck Dodgers, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (video game) The X-Files and long ago, he was on The Twilight Zone as a Marlon Brando type who offended a time traveling Shakespeare.
In closing I want to bring up a little something special involving Burt if you’re ever in Milwaukee. At the SafeHouse, a combo restaurant and bar with a spy theme, the women’s room has a large print of Burt’s famous semi-nude photo he did for Cosmopolitan with a star covering up a key area. Whenever a female touches the star, the whole place hears an alert and usually everybody gets a good laugh. I have no idea if Burt ever found out let alone visited the SafeHouse but I’m confident he approved.
Thanks Burt. I’m confident your legend will live on through your gigantic body of work.