What was the first movie Burt Reynolds starred in?
In 1957, Burt Reynolds was a 21-year-old acting novice who was yet to get his first chance at an on-screen performance. He was actually on the cusp of a promising career start in television, but the movie business was still where all actors aspired to be. And after a year starring in multiple productions at New York’s Neighbourhood Playhouse, he’d earned his shot at a film audition.
The film was Sayonara, a war drama set in Japan that starred Marlon Brando in the lead role. Reynolds was in line for a minor role but failed his audition for a highly unusual reason. Perhaps he should have taken it as a compliment. It was deemed the young Reynolds resembled Marlon Brando too closely, so his appearance in the movie would confuse the audience. This would be Reynolds’ last shot at big-screen acting for more than three years.
In the meantime, he managed to get several bit-part roles in TV shows, starring in one-off episodes here and there, before landing one of the main parts in the western period drama Riverboat. Reynolds played Ben Frazer, the young pilot who drove the titular steamboat Enterprise along the great rivers of the American Midwest.
His fellow lead actor was Darren McGavin, a veteran of several hit films and TV shows who played Frazer’s superior, Captain Grey Holden. The two didn’t get on, with McGavin unsupportive of Reynolds’ performance. The older actor looked down on his co-star “with contempt”, according to Reynolds. “He did everything but destroy me on camera,” he told biographer Sylvia Resnick. After one season, Reynolds was thrown off the show in disgust following reports that he lashed out on set due to McGavin’s undermining behaviour.
The young acting talent was back out in the cold without stable work. Yet, finally, his big screen debut was about to come around.
What was his debut role, then?
In 1960, Reynolds was cast as the brutish male antagonist ‘Hoke’ Adams in the religion-themed melodrama Angel Baby. It was a meaty supporting role which ought to have represented a big career break. But the film’s shambolic production was marked by delays due to the illness of its original director, Hubert Cornfield.
Angel Baby turned out to be the first of several cinematic missteps that Reynolds made throughout the 1960s, including the spaghetti western Navajo Joe, which he later described as “awful”. At the same time, these movies helped him learn the ropes of big-screen acting, setting him up for the role that would define the rest of his career.
When he played Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, ‘Hoke’ Adams and ‘Navajo’ Joe were in the distant past. At last, he was ready to mix it with the best male leads in New Hollywood.
