Our Buddy- Burt Reynolds, Born Feb. 11, 1936

Whether playing the victor or the victim, actor Burt Reynolds has always had a safe harbor: his family and friends and Palm Beach County.
Reynolds has hit legendary highs - from being the world’s No. 1 box-office draw in the ’70s to an Academy Award nomination for Boogie Nights in 1997 and an Emmy win for Evening Shade in ‘91 - and legendary lows - his divorce from Loni Anderson and his bankruptcy.
But throughout his four-decade career on the world’s stage, Reynolds has always returned home, to the place where his old pals call him “Buddy.”
Reynolds moved to Palm Beach County as a fourth-grader. His father, Burt Sr., became police chief of Riviera Beach, and Buddy became a football star at Palm Beach High. When a shattered knee ended his football dreams at Florida State University, Reynolds came home again, to Palm Beach Junior College. There, a wonderful teacher - Watson B. Duncan III - introduced him to the stage and a new life.
At the 45th reunion of the Class of ‘54 this fall, Reynolds fell right back in with Mo Mustaine and his old gang. Sure, he’s the most famous guy from Palm Beach County, they said, but he’s still the same old Buddy.
Burt Reynolds on Palm Beach County, in his own words:
“THE FIRST TIME I ACTUALLY SAW THE OCEAN was on Highway A1A in Jupiter. It was so green and beautiful. Little did I know what a big part of my life the little town of Jupiter would become someday. In those days, it was a truck stop.
“As advertised, Riviera Beach was right on the water, too . . .When we arrived, the small town had a few thousand residents and two trailer courts: The Sea Breeze and Star Camp. With few belongings, we bought an old trailer and moved into - you guessed it - Star Camp.”
“Most people believed paradise was actually seven miles south and over the bridge - the exclusive island of Palm Beach. . . None of that interested me as much as the swampy wilderness to the west. You could’ve offered me the largest mansion in Palm Beach, and I would’ve turned it down in favor of the mysterious woods that ran all along the northern shore of Riviera and the Everglades to the west. . .
“It’s never a picnic being the police chief’s son. Yet, in my eyes, no man was greater than my dad. Nobody stood taller or stronger. He was my real-life John Wayne. He defined the rules of manhood. It was like trying to replace Babe Ruth - an impossible task. I suspect this is why I’ve spent my whole life thinking that no amount of success would make me as much of a man as my father.
“I’ve never lacked for confidence, but I still wrestle with the constant need to prove myself. I can stIll hear my dad say, ‘Son, if you’re gonna be in a fight, you hit first, and as hard as you can - and always be the one standing when it’s over.’
“I was the first among my age to sneak into the drive-in. I dove off the big bridge when it was raised when none of my older friends would. I amazed them by accepting a dare to dive off an airboat onto the back of a deer in the Everglades, which could be dangerous and a stupid stunt. After leaping from the cruising boat, you grabbed hold of the deer’s soft neck, prayed the animal didn’t cut you to ribbons with the razor-sharp of its hooves, and then rode it for a few yards into the swamp and hoped you didn’t land on a gator. By age 12, I didn’t have a best friend, but, boy, I had a reputation.”
“. . . I REMEMBER THAT SUMMER between my junior and senior years was when I finally entered the enormous estates in Palm Beach.
“. . . In the summer, the island was deserted. These titans of money and status took their backgammon sets, Geritol and martinis to Kennebunkport or Newport or wherever else they summered, and unknowingly left their boarded-up homes to us. During the day, we camped on their fabulous private beaches. Later, under the cover of darkness, we snuck inside and, behind the hurricane-shuttered windows, lit candles, played our little radios and danced up a storm.”
“. . . I ENROLLED at Palm Beach Junior College. Most of the easy classes, to which I naturally gravitated, were already full. So I signed up for the unlikeliest of choices, art appreciation and English literature. On the first day, I arrived late - thank you, Dr. Freud - and only one seat was available: front row center, under the watchful eye of Professor Watson B. Duncan III, the best teacher I ever had.”
“After being on stage, something clicked. As was the pattern in my life, I gravitated toward the challenge of participating in drama class. It was no different than football, which I played to prove myself worthy of recognition. Whether sports or drama, I wanted to be good, to try for the triple, not just swing back and forth.
“Yet no one was more shocked than I at the end of the year when my performance in Outward Bound won the 1956 Florida State Drama Award. I gladly accepted the first-prize scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse in upstate New York. Even though I didn’t anticipate acting being anything more than an extracurricular activity, I wouldn’t have to spend the summer chopping sugar cane or working on a fishing boat.”
- FROM BURT REYNOLDS’ 1994 AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MY LIFE

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