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 Each part was significant for the Hollywood actor.
"Deliverance" was Reynolds' breakout role, "Smokey and the
Bandit" a memorable smash hit, "Boogie Nights" earned him an
Academy Award nomination.
But the 79-year old, known for his real-life romances as well as
his work, says his greatest performance is yet to come.
"I think I have a performance in me. It's a good one," Reynolds
told Reuters. "I don't know if I'll get that script. I'm
hoping."
In an interview tied to the promotion of his memoir "But Enough
About Me", Reynolds spoke about a career, which saw him leave
Broadway for Hollywood as a young actor to take on - and turn
down - memorable roles.
The moustachioed star started off in television before making
dozens of movies - Westerns, action and sports comedies as well
as dramas - of which he says he is proud of just a few.
Dressed in black with a red pocket handkerchief and tinted
glasses, Reynolds said the 1979 comedy "Starting Over" about a
man torn between his girlfriend and ex-wife was among his
favorites.
"It was kind of like the story of my life ... It was great fun
to do," he said. "The worst? There's too many."
Having worked with the likes of Dom DeLuise, Clint Eastwood and
ex-flame Sally Field, Reynolds was the top U.S. box office draw
in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period he described as
"wild and wonderful."
"I remember (actor) Lee Marvin said 'save your money and have a
good time but remember it's not going to last'," Reynolds said.
"It was a wonderful time for me, and he was right. It doesn't
last, eventually it goes away."
LUCKY MAN
In his memoir, Reynolds talks about those who shaped his
childhood, his football-playing days, career and personal life.
He recounts receiving acting advice from Spencer Tracy, turning
down Greta Garbo's advances, playing poker with Elvis Presley
and walking to the Actors Studio with Marilyn Monroe.
It was 1972 thriller "Deliverance", in which four friends go on
a nightmare canoe trip, which turned him into a star. He was
cast after director John Boorman saw him on American
television's "The Tonight Show".
The movie was filmed along the Chattooga River in the Georgia
wilderness.
"That river was not used by adventurers in a canoe ... We ended
up breaking apart seven of them," Reynolds said.
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"Deliverance" was nominated for three Oscars including best picture
and best director. Reynolds blames himself for it not getting the
recognition he says it deserved after he posed nude on a bearskin
rug for Cosmopolitan before its release.
"I thought it was really the reason none of us were nominated
because they probably thought none of us took the film seriously,"
he said.
The photo however cemented his status as a sex symbol and he soon
stormed the box office with several hits.
"There were films offered to me that wouldn't have been offered ever
before," he said. "Really good directors suddenly were coming out of
the woodwork and asking me to work with them. I was thrilled."
Reynolds, however, turned down parts in "Star Wars" and "Pretty
Woman". His biggest regret was saying no to James Bond when Sean
Connery held out for money.
"I thought an American couldn't play (him) ... The other ones were
good ... I shouldn't have turned them down either but Bond, I was
wrong," he said. "I could have done that role and I could have done
it well."
Reynolds' got his only Oscar nomination for the role of Jack Horner
in "Boogie Nights" - a film that revived his career in the late
1990s and which he has not seen because of its pornography subject
matter.
"I thought (the director) did a wonderful job but ... it wasn't
something I wanted to look at for two hours," he said.
Asked how he would like to be remembered, Reynolds said as "a good
man" and "somebody who loved the business".
"I can't stand it when I hear certain actors talk about how horrible
their life is when they're working," he said. "I'm lucky to be doing
what I'm doing, really lucky."
(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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