Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. (born February 11, 1936) is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Paul "Wrecking" Crewe in The Longest Yard, Coach Nate Scarborough in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, J.J. McClure in The Cannonball Run, the voice of Charlie Barkin in All Dogs Go to Heaven and Jack Horner in Boogie Nights. He is one of America's most recognizable film and television personalities with more than 90 feature film and 300 television episode credits.

Early life

Reynolds' parents were Burton Reynolds, who was of a 1/4 Cherokee ancestry,; can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY3cuILM698 and his wife, Fern. Reynolds states in his autobiography that his family was living in Lansing when his father was drafted into the United States Army.Severalsources list Waycross, Georgia as Reynold's birthplace (, and ), for example, while other sources show that he was born in Lansing, Michigan (Burt Reynold's Official website), (NNBD and The Palm Beach Post, [[June 28], 2000]). Reynolds' autobiography (My Life) does not name his birthplace, although it does cover his childhood in Lansing, and fails to mention Waycross at all. For more discussion on Burt Reynolds' birthplace, see ('discussion page) Reynolds, his mother and his sister joined his father at Fort Leonard Wood, where they lived for two years. Reynolds has stated that his first memories are of playing in the Ozark woods at Fort Leonard Wood. When Reynold's father was sent to Europe, the family returned to Lansing, Michigan. After a short while, the Reynolds family moved to northern Michigan, across the road from his maternal grandparents' farm. Reynolds started attending school in Merritt, Michigan, where he felt he did not belong among the Native American, farm and backwoods children who made up most of the student body.Reynolds. Pp. 5-12