Burt Reynolds
Burt was born to Burton Reynolds, of half-Cherokee Indian descent, and Fern, who was of Italian descent.
When Burt Junior was a child, the family moved to Florida. Burt thought he was in paradise. He had access to the Everglades to the west, the shore of the Lake Worth Lagoon to the east, and further east, across the Blue Heron Boulevard bridge to Singer Island, the Atlantic Ocean. He was fascinated by the Conch fishermen and their families who made up most of the population of Riviera Beach.
After two years Burt Senior’s contractor job ended, and the Reynolds bought a lunch counter and sundry store next to the bridge to Singer Island. As the business was close to a large dock and some fish and shrimp packing houses, business was good. Soon after, Burt Senior was recruited as a police officer for Riviera Beach. When the police chief died a few years later, Burt Senior became the chief.
As the Reynolds family home was at the north edge of Riviera Beach, Burt Junior attended school in Lake Park, just to the north of Riviera Beach. While Burt Junior was in seventh grade, the Palm Beach County School Board decided that there were too few seventh grade students in the school to justify a teacher’s salary, and Burt was transferred to Central Junior High School (now Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts) in West Palm Beach. Burt felt lost at the big school, and started hanging out with greasers and skipping school. He also began showing off with dangerous stunts, such as diving off the top of a raised drawbridge, and jumping from an airboat onto the back of a running deer.
When Burt Junior was twelve he became friends with Jimmy Hooks. After learning that Jimmy was being physically abused in his home, Burt Junior took Jimmy home with him and told his parents he wanted Jimmy to be his brother. The Reynolds took Jimmy in. The Reynolds officially adopted Jimmy Hooks years later, when he was in his twenties.
When Burt Junior was fourteen he tried out for football team at Central Junior High. He had never played organized sports, but worked hard at practice, earned his letterman’s sweater, and was named to the county all-star team. The next year, when Burt Junior entered high school, he made the varsity team, but did not have much opportunity to play. In his junior year Reynolds had more opportunity to play. Seeing his ability, and foreseeing that he was likely to receive scholarship offers, one of Reynolds coaches persuaded him to take the courses necessary to enter a college. In his senior year Reynolds was named First Team All State and All Southern as a fullback, and received multiple scholarship offers.
After graduating from Palm Beach High School in West Palm Beach, Florida, Reynolds attended Florida State University on a college football scholarship, becoming an all-star halfback. While at Florida State, Reynolds joined the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, the football team’s fraternity of choice. He was anticipating a very good season his second year, with expectations of being named to All American teams, and an eventual career in professional football. In the first game of the season Reynolds tore the cartilage in his knee. He made the injury worse by trying to play again later in the game, and then again in a couple of games late in the season. On Christmas break that year, Reynolds ran his father’s car up under a flatbed trailer that was sitting across a dark street. The car was wedged under the trailer, and it took rescuers seven and a half hours to remove Reynolds from the wreckage. He had multiple injuries, including his knee, shoulder, some broken ribs, and a ruptured spleen, the last of which was removed in emergency surgery.
With his college football career ended, Reynolds considered becoming a police officer, but his father suggested that he finish college and become a parole officer. In order to keep up with his studies he began taking classes at Palm Beach Junior College (PBJC) in neighboring Lake Park. In his first term at PBJC Reynolds was in a class taught by Watson B. Duncan III. Duncan pushed Reynolds into trying out for a play he was producing, Outward Bound. He cast Reynolds in the lead, based on his impressions from listening to Reynolds read Shakespeare in class. Reynolds won the 1956 Florida State Drama Award for his performance in Outward Bound. Reynolds calls Duncan his mentor and the most-influential person in his life.
Read All : Wikipedia
Technorati Tags: Celebrities, Famous, Childhood Photos, Early Year Pics, Actor, Burt Reynolds
