‘M*A*S*H*’: Burt Reynolds and one of Hollywood’s great missed opportunities:
There’s something charming about the ability Burt Reynolds had to miss out on the chance to be in future all-time classics.
He remains one of the defining stars of both the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. Few actors could match Reynolds’ charisma at his peak. In fact, he was so compelling on screen that audiences often forgave his questionable career choices, even though Reynolds himself frequently regretted appearing in films that turned out badly.
Reynolds was infamously blocked from playing Michael Corleone in The Godfather because Marlon Brando had a feud with him, and wasn’t interested in playing Han Solo in Star Wars. He also missed out on the role of Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment, which would go to Jack Nicholson in a performance that earned him the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. Reynolds even passed up on the opportunity to be the first American James Bond when MGM sought out a replacement for Sean Connery.
It was when Reynolds was just launching his career as a film actor, though, after spending many years as a cast member on the CBS western series Gunsmoke, that he was offered an opportunity to be part of the ensemble of M*A*S*H*, the legendary Korean War comedy directed by Robert Altman. Altman was already proving himself to be one of the industry’s best directors, but Reynolds had to turn down the opportunity because he had already agreed to appear in the adventure film Skullduggery.
Even the biggest Reynolds fans may not have even heard of Skullduggery, and it’s not hard to imagine why. Reynolds plays a fortune-seeker who looks for phosphorus deposits in New Guinea, only to come across evidence of a group of tribal people who provide an evolutionary link between apes and humans.
While the premise initially sounds like it would be an exciting, old-fashioned adventure flick in the vein of what Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone would end up being, Skullduggery ended up turning into a fairly dull courtroom drama that didn’t feature any standout moments for Reynolds.
Reynolds certainly regretted the decision at the time; Skullduggery was widely panned, and M*A*S*H* was one of the year’s biggest hits, and picked up several Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Picture’.
The leading man had been offered the role of Trapper, which would eventually go to Elliott Gould. M*A*S*H*, meanwhile, ended up initiating a fruitful collaborative relationship between Gould and Altman, who would go on to work with one another again on the detective comedy The Long Goodbye and the gambling drama California Split.
Although Reynolds may have been embarrassed by his decision to make Skullduggery, it’s not clear if his casting in M*A*S*H* would have been the right choice – Reynolds is a star who tends to soak up all the energy, and Altman’s film succeeded because he emphasised the importance of an ensemble, it’s part of the reason it was turned into one of the biggest television shows of all time.
Thankfully, Reynolds didn’t have to wait too long to get his big break, as he would prove himself as a bankable star shortly thereafter with Deliverance and The Longest Yard.
