Burt Reynolds named the funniest actors he ever worked with
They don’t make ‘em like Burt Reynolds anymore.
There was always an old school glow about Reynolds, marking his golden peak across the 1970s and early 1980s without ever fully feeling a part of the method wave that dominated the new Hollywood era. Much like Harrison Ford, Reynolds eschewed idiosyncratic character constructs or deep probing of the role’s psychological motives in favour of effortless charisma, oozing authority, and a God-given face for the camera.
He could do macho when necessary, flexing high-machismo roles in backwaters thriller Deliverance and corralling a team of convicts to play American Football in The Longest Yard. But Reynolds’ easy-going nature and sharp comic timing would see him star in many a light-hearted vehicle, most famously as the bootlegging Bo Darville in 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit, and even a sperm switchboard chief in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), among countless other comedies.
To TV viewers, Reynolds was already a household name as Quint Asper, the blacksmith in CBS’ long-running western drama Gunsmoke. Although only featuring in three of its 20-year run, Reynolds would stand as one of the series’ best-remembered characters, and still managed to forge a close friendship with the actor behind the main protagonist, Marshal Matt Dillon. Such good pals, Reynolds even penned the foreword to the TV acting stalwart’s 2001 autobiography, revealing just how much fun he was on set.
“The biggest surprise for everyone who had the good fortune to work on a few episodes of Gunsmoke in those days was Jim Arness,” Reynolds revealed. “He was funny. I mean get-the-giggles, wrap-up-for-the-cast-and-crew, “time-out”-and-get-it-together funny”.
It turns out that the hardened, imposing marshal of the tough old American frontier was in fact so funny that the director routinely had to yell “cut” and await the laughs to die down. Reynolds reeled off a further string of big characters that could trigger big funnies, however. “I’ve known professional funnymen. It’s no surprise to people that Dom DeLuise could (as I have done in return to him) practically put me in a coma laughing. Yes, David Niven was the best storyteller (raconteur if you will) I ever worked with. Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor could always put me away”.
But Reynolds ultimately doffed his Stetson in honour of Arness’ gift for unexpected humour, owing to the added hilarity of such mirth leaping from seemingly out of nowhere. “But for sheer surprise (’Where did that come from?’) no one could top Matt Dillon. First of all, he was a very large, imposing, strong man. Your first thought always was, ‘damn, he’s bigger than I thought he would be.’ He had that wonderful ability to surprise you, make you laugh at yourself or the situation that actors often find themselves in”.
Arness would saddle up as the law-enforcing Dillon for the entire 20 years of Gunsmoke’s run, as well as return for five TV movies across the 1980s and 1990s, passing away in 2011. On-set eruptions of mass snickering were further attested by stunt double Ben Bates, recalling that Arness’ “from his toes to the top of his head” laughter would force many a suspended shoot.
