Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds' rugged good looks helped propel him into a successful acting career, but young Buddy (as he was known to family and friends) had other ambitions in high school and college. Raised in South Florida, Buddy was a 'wild kid', frequently disciplined by his father Burton Reynolds Sr. - a war hero and cop.
Buddy and his friends got into fights; took dangerous joyrides on a homemade zipline; misbehaved in school; regularly dove fifty feet into the Boynton Beach inlet; went out on airboats to harass deer (which the author admits was cruel and stupid); swam in the vicinity of gators; and more. Buddy also channeled his energy into sports - playing football, baseball, and basketball through high school.
Burt Reynolds in high school
Buddy went to Florida State University on a football scholarship, hoping to join the pros. However a football injury and car accident dashed Buddy's sports dreams and he wound up at Palm Beach Junior College. There an English professor named Watson Duncan pushed Buddy into acting - and the rest is history.
Burt Reynolds played football in college
Burt Reynolds isn't shy about his youthful antics, which included dating lots and lots of girls (and a few 'older women') who apparently found him irresistible. 🙂 In fact much of Burt's life was driven by his eye for the ladies, and he admits that he often did movies because of the leading lady rather than the script. Burt admits this left him with a less than stellar oeuvre, but he has few regrets and says "Nobody had more fun than I did."
'But Enough About Me' is structured by topic rather than chronologically, and Burt writes about his family; friends; career; television shows; movies; romances; Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre; Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre (which housed his acting school); and more. Burt's father didn't approve of his acting career, thinking it was a job for sissies. However Burt carried on regardless, always striving to get an attaboy from his dad. Finally, towards the end of his life, Burt Sr. said "I'm proud of you"....and that was enough.
Burt Reynolds' mother and father
Like many young actors, twenty-year-old Burt headed for New York, where he got small parts on Broadway, 'said no' to Greta Garbo, and was roommates with the actor Rip Torn.
Greta Garbo
Rip Torn
Burt then went to Hollywood, where he starred in television shows like 'Riverboat' and 'Gunsmoke' before he made it big in movies, especially thrillers, westerns, and adventure films.
Burt Reynolds on 'Riverboat' with Darren McGavin (left)
Burt Reynolds in 'Gunsmoke' with James Arness (left)
Burt's role as outdoorsman Lewis Medlock in 'Deliverance' drove his career into high gear, and the actor relates many tales about the film's production and stars. Burt was a major box office attraction during the late 1970s and 80s, and his comedies - 'Smokey and the Bandit' and 'Cannonball Run' - did very well and garnered sequels. Burt received a single Academy Award nomination, for his role as a porn-film producer in 1997's 'Boogie Nights.'
Burt Reynolds in 'Deliverance'
Burt Reynolds in 'Smokey and the Bandit'
Burt Reynolds in 'Cannonball Run' with Dom Deluise (right)
Burt Reynolds in 'Boogie Nights'
At the height of his career Burt forewent a number of good opportunities. He could have been TV's 'Batman' and was offered starring roles in 'Die Hard', 'Pretty Woman', 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', and 'Terms of Endearment.' Burt admits he was more interested in having a good time than doing the best movies, and his career had its ups and downs. The actor muses: "When you're on top, you knows there's only one way to go, but you can't prepare yourself for it, in the same way you know your mother and father are going to die but it still comes as a shock when it happens."
Burt was ill-served by carelessness with money and people who took advantage of him, and he suffered through a humiliating bankruptcy. Burt recalls "There are people who kicked me when I was down, but I don't want to get even." (He doesn't mention who these people were.)
Burt Reynolds' career had ups and downs
In the 'major romance' department, Burt was briefly married to the British actress Judy Carne, known as the "Sock-It-To-Me Girl" on 'Laugh-In.' Burt also had a long-term relationship with the singer, actress, and television personality Dinah Shore, and implies that he broke up with her because he wanted to play around. Later, Burt got involved with Sally Field, but the love affair fizzled out after five years. Burt says "I'm sorry we couldn't make it work. It's the biggest regret of my life."
Judy Carnes was Burt Reynolds' first wife
Burt Reynolds had a long relationship with Dinah Shore
Burt Reynolds had a serious romance with Sally Field
Finally, Burt married Loni Anderson and they adopted a son Quinton, who Burt cherished. Still, Burt says he 'never liked' Loni and apparently married her with very cold feet. After the inevitable divorce, Loni made Burt sell off his personal memorabilia to pay off the divorce settlement.
Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson married and adopted a son named Quinton
During his career Burt met lots of show business people and those he knew best get a brief biography and a few reminiscences. For example:
• Spencer Tracy - Tracy gave Burt valuable acting advice: "Do what you want. F**k the director" and "Acting is great profession as long as nobody catches you at it." (In other words, don't look like you're acting.)
Spencer Tracy
• Darren McGavin - Burt recalls "He was an ornery son of a bitch and he threw his weight around. He went out of his way to make me look bad on camera."
Darren McGavin
• Bette Davis - "She loved to gossip about the people she worked with and she hated Joan Crawford. Bette would call people terrible names and if a director was incompetent she'd roll right over him." Burt says "I think part of the reason that we got along was that I wasn't intimidated by her."
Bette Davis
• Frank Sinatra - Burt notes "Frank could be so charming and thoughtful, it was scary. But he could also be unbelievably cruel. You could tell pretty quickly if it was a bad day, and you left him alone."
Frank Sinatra
• Johnny Carson - Burt writes "Almost everything good that happened in my career started with Johnny Carson. After my appearances on 'The Tonight Show' my public image went from a constipated actor who never took a chance to a cocky, wisecracking character."
Johhny Carson
• Clint Eastwood - Burt opines "As a director Clint knows what he wants and how to get it. He saves the studio more money than ten directors because he's good with actors." Burt recalls "One Christmas I gave Clint a basset hound. He fell in love with it and named it Grunk. They were perfect together."
Clint Eastwood
The book has additional observations about Burt's acting and directing career as well as his regrets about posing nude for 'Cosmopolitan' and doing his own stunts - which left him hurting and damaged in the end. Burt also relates lots more stories about people he knew - most of whom he talks about with affection. For people who 'did him wrong', Burt generally has few or no words.
Burt Reynolds posed nude for 'Cosmopolitan' (I cropped the photo to avoid offending anyone, though his hand covers his privates.)
Burt Reynolds did many of his own stunts
Towards the end of the book Burt discusses his dinner theatre in Jupiter, Florida - which put on stage shows for reasonable prices, and his acting school - where he taught until the end of his life. Sadly, Burt passed away in 2018 at the age of 82. A fitting epitaph can be taken from Burt's own words: "I'm proud of my accomplishments and disappointed by my failures. I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging." And he did.
Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre
Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre
Burt Reynolds
I enjoyed the book, which is written in straightforward prose without a lot of flourishes. Burt had a story to tell, and - with the help of his co-writer Jon Winokur - he told it well. I'd recommend the book to fans of the actor and readers who like celebrity memoirs.
Rating: 3.5 stars
San Francisco attorney David Sloane - a former foster child who has no memory of his early years - has a knack for getting juries to vote his way.
The talented lawyer, plagued by bad dreams and headaches, finds himself in a dangerous situation when Joe Branick - a friend and colleague of the U. S. President - apparently commits suicide in Black Bear National Park in West Virginia.
Before his death Branick, a stranger to Sloane, left the attorney a phone message and sent him a package. Unfortunately for Sloane, someone is desperate to get the package and seems willing to do anything to achieve this goal.
Meanwhile Detective Joe Molina, a local cop who's investigating Branick's death in the national park, suspects it wasn't suicide. He's stymied though when the Justice Department takes possession of Branick's body and moves to close the case over the objections of Branick's sister.
It seems clear that people high in the administration have something to hide.
Concurrently, retired ClA operative Charles Jenkins - who many years before participated in an operation with both Branick and the future President - is pulled into the situation when an attempt is made on his life.
As the story proceeds it becomes clear that a massacre occurred in a Mexican village 30 years ago, an incident which somehow affected Sloane, who was a young child at the time.
As it turns out all three men - Sloane, Molina, and Jenkins - become involved in figuring out what happened to Branick, why the package is important, and what government officials are covering up.
There's plenty of murder and violence along the way and at one point I became annoyed with some characters who seemed like clichés found in many thriller novels. The climax of the book, however, turned out to be quite original if not totally believable.
There are a lot of interesting characters and a lot going on in the story, which is an enjoyable thriller.
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking was an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist who's considered one of the most brilliant scientists since Albert Einstein. In addition to making huge contributions to physics, Hawking strove to share his discoveries with the general public, and his book "A Brief History of Time" was a best seller. Moreover, Hawking did most of his research while battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which makes his accomplishments even more remarkable.
In 'Brief Answers to Big Questions', completed after Hawking's death (from his speeches, interviews, essays, notes and lectures), the gifted scientist responds to a number of queries that are relevant to our time.
However it's Hawking's QUESTIONS about relativity and quantum mechanics that will resonate going forward. In the introduction to this book, American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Kip Thorne writes: "Newton gave us answers, Hawking gave us questions. And Hawking's questions themselves keep on giving, generating breakthroughs decades later. When ultimately we master the quantum gravity laws and comprehend fully the birth of our universe it may largely be by standing on the shoulders of Hawking."
Kip Thorne is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics.
One of Hawking's most important contributions to science was his discovery of 'Hawking Radiation', composed of particles emitted from black holes. It was once thought that NOTHING could escape from a black hole, but this isn't the case. The idea goes as follows: Quantum mechanics implies that space is filled with particles and anti-particles - which are constantly appearing in pairs, separating, them coming together again and annihilating each other. In the presence of a black hole one member of the pair may fall into the black hole, leaving the other member without a partner to engage in mutual annihilation. This particle (or anti-particle) may escape as 'radiation' from the black hole.
Sketches depicting Hawking Radiation
Scientists speculate that, unless a black hole gains mass (by engulfing other objects), it will eventually vanish.
*****
In this book Hawking answers questions he's been asked over the years. I'll give a brief synopsis of his responses, and leave you to read the book if you want more information.
- Is there a God?
No. Everything can be explained by the laws of nature. Matter and energy and space were spontaneously created by the Big Bang.
- What came before the Big Bang?
This is a meaningless question because there was no 'before' the Big Bang. Time (actually spacetime) was created BY the Big Bang. It's like asking 'what is south of the South Pole?'
Spacetime (which is warped by the presence of solid matter) was formed by the Big Bang
There's no 'south' of the South Pole
- Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
We don't know (yet) but Hawking likes to think there are other forms of intelligent life out there. They just haven't contacted Earth....perhaps because they're too far away.
In any case, meeting an advanced civilization would be unadvisable (for us). Remember European settlers and American Indians? If aliens came here it would be like the film 'Independence Day.'
- Can we predict the future?
No. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle dictates that we can't know both the position and momentum of a particle at the same instant. Thus we can't predict what will happen to a particle (or things made of particles) at a future time. Hawking observes: “No matter how powerful a computer you have, if you put lousy data in you will get lousy predictions out.”
- What is inside a black hole?
A black hole - which is single point of infinite density - is a star that's exhausted its nuclear fuel and collapsed.....but no one REALLY knows what's inside.
- Is time travel possible?
Theoretically yes. If spacetime was warped enough to form a loop, time travel would be possible. However, it time travel WAS possible, someone from the future would probably have come back to visit us already.
In 2009, Hawking held a party for time travelers in his college at Cambridge, for a film about time travel. No one came.😊
- Will we survive on Earth?
Not forever. Nuclear war is a dire threat and there will be a meteorite strike at some point. Moreover, global warming is likely to make Earth uninhabitable, since our climate could become like that of Venus - boiling hot and raining sulfuric acid."
Hawking notes: "One way or another, I regard it as almost inevitable that either a nuclear confrontation or environmental catastrophe will cripple the Earth at some point in the next 1,000 years which, as geological time goes, is the mere blink of an eye. By then I hope and believe that our ingenious race will have found a way to slip the surly bonds of Earth and will, therefore, survive the disaster. The same of course may not be possible for the millions of other species that inhabit the Earth, and that will be on our conscience as a race."
- Should we colonize space?
Yes. In order to survive long term, humans need to colonize other planets. This won't be cheap. Hawking helped initiate a research and engineering project called 'Breakthrough Starshot", which strives to develop spacecraft capable of reaching the star system Alpha Centauri - which is 4.37 light-years (about 26 trillion miles) away.
Hawking believes that in the next hundred years humans will be able to travel to the inner planets of the solar system and in 500 years we will have visited the nearest stars.
Breakthrough Starshot
- What are the prospects that scientists will unite Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum theory to achieve a complete theory of the laws of the universe?
This will happen within the next millennium.
- Will human genetic engineering occur?
Yes. If scientists learn how to do something, SOMEONE will do it.....even if it's illegal.
- Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
Yes. Computers are likely to overtake human intelligence in the next 100 years. Thus we need to ensure that computers have goals in line with ours. Just to be safe, robotic designs should always incorporate a 'kill switch.'
- What world changing idea would you like to see implemented by humanity?
The development of fusion power to give an unlimited supply of clean energy. It would be an inexhaustible supply of energy without pollution or global warming.
*****
Despite everything, Hawking was an optimistic soul. He advocates that we should: “Be brave, be curious, be determined, overcome the odds. It can be done."
I found the book interesting and informative and would recommend it to people interested in Hawking's view of the 'big questions.'
