This is one of the tough ones.
Celebrity deaths happen all the time – and so many celebrities of my youth have already passed. And yet… sometimes, sometimes the passing of one particular celebrity means more. A lot more. For me Patrick McGoohan was such a celebrity. As was Leonard Nimoy. And Roger Moore.
And now, Burt Reynolds.
Why? Why do some deaths, of people you only watched and never met, provoke a deep reaction, while others… don’t?
Because reasons. Emotional, deep, complex reasons. Because in everyone’s life there are some people – some performances – who hit you RIGHT. THERE. Performances – moments – that you will carry with you until the end of your own days.
Burt gave me this:
That is Burt Reynolds, negotiating with God, deciding that he wants to live. It’s a potent piece of acting and VO work, and is the finale of one of his great films The End (which I cover here). It is an astonishing film, made when he could have done anything. He decided to make a dark comedy about suicide.
Burt Reynolds died today, and when I heard I though of this scene. I couldn’t help it, because it is hard-wired into who I am, as is so many other great moments he gave me. And the world.
“I WANT TO LIVE.”
And he did – Burt lived life to the fullest. He also was one of the most self-deprecating celebrities ever – a man who mocked himself more than the critics ever did. He know how ludicrous the whole Hollywood Business was, and just did the work and played the part as well as he could. No pretentious “Method Acting”, just… acting. He was good at it.
“I WANT TO LIVE.”
Anyone who is interested in his life – read his autobiography, But Enough About Me , which is an incredibly personal work – it is the opposite of self-glorification. Burt beats himself up on seemingly every other page. Regrets, he had a few – and he wrote about them. But at the end it is a very funny book, with the sense of humor he so often displayed on guest appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
“I WANT TO LIVE.”
He did. Life, to it’s fullest. And now, we only have the performances. That will have to be enough.
Goodbye, Bandit. See ya past the Texarkana line.