Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit year of trans m
He then lost his spleen and injured his other knee in a car accident. Reynolds graduated from Palm Beach High School and attended Florida State University on a football scholarship, but learned to act after he injured his knee during his sophomore season. “His dad was actually the Sheriff of Riviera Beach.” “He was called Jupiter's Favorite Son,” Sites said in the video. Jupiter resident Richard Sites published a tribute to Reynolds on his YouTube channel two days after the actor died in September 2018 of a heart attack. “He had been here over the years, even before me,” Kennedy said. Petersburg condo in the 1970s and was part owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits football team in the 80s. “They were from Michigan, him and his family, but his dad moved to Riviera Beach, Florida back in the 50s. “He's always been a Florida boy,” Kennedy said.
#Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit year of trans m movie#
In 2016, Reynolds spend several weeks filming the movie Apple of My Eye at Southeast Guide Dogs in Palmetto. Reynolds had a lifelong connection to Florida and visited the Sarasota and Manatee region many times in his later years through his connection to Kennedy.
I think that's what sparked that friendship.” Florida and the Bandit He could not believe somebody would take that time to help him. “I took like a 30-man team, and we did a one-day home makeover. “He had roofing issues, air conditioning issues, several things at his house in Jupiter,” Kennedy said. He was there for an autograph, but instead, he made a friend. In a December 1993 interview on the Des O'Connor Tonight talk show, Reynolds said Trans Am sales went up by 600% after the movie.Ī car buff himself, Kennedy – who owns the Kennedy Construction Group in Palmetto – met Reynolds in 2013 at a car show in Jupiter, where he learned that even the Bandit, who was then in his mid-70s, needed a helping hand at his home.
The first car he ever owned was a beat-up 1978 Trans Am, and repairing it helped him find love for car-building. Kennedy's dad, Arthur, owned the 1977 model, a red one. Many fans bought cars just like the ones their box office heroes drove on screen. He and Cledus “Snowman” Snow, played by Jerry Reed, portrayed two bootleggers who illegally transport 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta in 28 hours while evading pesky Sheriff Buford T. Westerns once dominated the box office with tough-guy heroes and horseback action, but the rise of car films in the 1970s brought moviegoers new heroes to idolize.īo “Bandit” Darville, played by Reynolds at the height of his career, drove his way into the hearts of audiences behind the wheel of the black and gold Trans Am.