The crazy moment Audie Murphy pulled a gun on Burt Reynolds: “Get the hell out of here!”
In late 1959, Burt Reynolds was busy making a name for himself with his starring role in NBC’s Riverboat.
Interestingly, the young star was so full of piss and vinegar at that point in his career that he walked off the show after only 20 episodes, which put a serious spanner in the works of his burgeoning stardom. He was always the first to admit that the situation taught him an invaluable lesson (“You just don’t walk out on a network television series”). Still, before that unpleasantness occurred, he was at least able to experience some of the benefits of being a TV star – such as meeting war hero-turned-movie star Audie Murphy.
Murphy had one of the most unique paths to movie stardom in history, beginning with Life magazine naming him “America’s most decorated soldier” in a July 16th, 1945, cover story. That boast was actually true, as Murphy was bestowed with every combat award the United States Military gave out for valour, including the Medal of Honour. Amazingly, he was awarded that particular accolade for defending his position on his own for a full hour against an entire company of German soldiers in France’s Colmar Pocket.
When iconic gangster actor James Cagney read the Life story, he quickly brought Murphy out to Hollywood, setting him up at his house and organising acting lessons. Within a few years, Murphy began booking acting jobs and eventually became a leading man with a swathe of western credits to his name. By the time he met the young Reynolds in 1959 at a boxing gym, he was arguably one of the most famous men in America, and his reputation as a war hero always preceded him. Naturally, the naive Reynolds saw this as an opportunity.
You see, on that fateful day, Reynolds – who had boxed on an amateur level and won all 20 of his fights – challenged Murphy to go a few rounds with him in the ring. As soon as he did this, he could see his trainer Frankie Vann shaking his head ‘No’, but he couldn’t figure out why, so he ignored him completely. “Old Burt couldn’t pass up a chance to box the most decorated soldier in WWII!” Reynolds wrote in his autobiography My Life.
Next thing he knew, Reynolds was circling Murphy in the ring, waiting for the older man to do what most boxers did when fighting a southpaw. Left-handers like Reynolds are comparatively rare in boxing, and he knew that most fighters weren’t used to taking them on, so they tended to circle “right into your best punch” without knowing it. To Reynolds’ delight, Murphy did just that, and he hit the man with a left hook that sent him careening down to the mat.
As the young TV star laughed and extended his hand to help Murphy up, though, he realised the war hero wasn’t amused. “Get the hell out of here!” Murphy supposedly barked at Reynolds, who responded, “Why? We’re just having fun.” When Murphy stormed off into the next room, a bemused Reynolds looked at Vann, who was shaking his head in dismay, clearly miffed that Reynolds hadn’t heeded his warning.
“Not to Audie,” he said. “He takes this stuff real serious.”
What Reynolds didn’t know at the time was that Murphy was known to have a hair-trigger temper, slept with a loaded gun under his pillow, and needed sleeping pills to get through the night. These days, he would be rightly diagnosed with PTSD from his horrific experiences during the war, but back then, his issues were simply known as ‘battle fatigue’. Either way, Murphy probably wasn’t someone you wanted to laugh at after sending him sprawling to the mat, and Reynolds learned that the hard way when the irate star came barrelling back to the ring with his .45 handgun brandished for all to see.
“Let’s try my game,” Murphy allegedly growled, but Reynolds didn’t hang around to see what he meant. In fact, he practically left a Burt Reynolds-shaped hole in the wall as he sprinted out of the gym, “all the way to the Psycho set on the back lot, hiding in one of the motel rooms.”
After that, a terrified Reynolds confessed, “I steered clear of Audie and the gym for almost a year. Great guy, but very serious about not losing.”
