Burt Reynolds Passes Away At 82

It really sucks to start off the day with a story like this but I am sad to report that Burt Reynolds has passed away today at the age of 82.

For the younger readers and followers of this site, you may not know too much about Reynolds but for 80s kids like myself (and those who are older) Burt was an icon of what it meant to be “cool”.

He also was the star of several classic car movies including the classic film Smokey And The Bandit which is the film that single handedly made the Pontiac Trans-Am famous and The Cannonball Run which gave birth to real life events like the Gumball Rally.

While most people today will be looking back on Burt’s days as “The Bandit”, I will proudly admit that one of my personal favorite Burt Reynolds roles was that of “Carl Henry”; A grizzled and shrewd former open wheel racer turned Champ Car team owner confined to a wheel chair due to an accident.

Most hardcore racing fans absolutely hate the film Driven, mostly due to small mountain of technical inaccuracies. However, I always accepted the fact that it was a movie and not a documentary so it wasn’t difficult for me to be pulled in by the performances; Especially that of Reynolds.

No matter what role you prefer, the bottom line is Burt Reynolds was the epitome of cool and I, along with millions of other fans are going to miss him very much.