My Life

by Burt Reynolds

Book Overview

One of Americas most famous celebrities, a movie and television star, offers an honest and revealing portrait of his life and career, reviewing his many loves, his many successes, and his many heartaches.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786861304
• ISBN13: 9780786861309
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Hyperion Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

The real stuff!

Reynolds is no different in his book and no nonsense about the facts. He tells it like it is and we know he means it. If you wonder anything about him he will set the record straight. His book is like a long talk with a cherished friend. You will love this!

Exciting read

Burt's tough guy image is real! He needs to go to clean action hero school with Bruce Willis! I found the book hard to put down and read it cover to cover. He starts out talking about his dad, a veteran/construction worker/police chief who made a mobster that tried to bribe him eat dollar bills. He also lost his virginity to a woman in her forties and nearly died after a car crash when his heart stopped. In some ways his troubled marriages and partnerships defy belief. He asks for the divorce first. Yet he knew what was wrong before the marriage, so why did he say "I do"? The long relationship with Dinah Shore ended because he wanted children and Dinah was too old. But the first thing Loni Anderson says when she meets him is "I want to have your baby." When they marry, she can't seen to have children and he is not infertile. If they are not infertile then why did his son, Quentin, have to be adopted? There must have been three possible reasons: Contraceptives, cheating or menopause. Her overspending and infidelity would have caused any man to ask for a divorce. But the mystery remains. Why did he marry her when he knew this could happen? Why couldn't they have children? The gripping story of breaking his jaw and becoming addicted to pain relievers also stands out.

Hard to believe

I really liked this book, but some of it was hard to believe. Case in point, Chapter 56, Burt says that as late as 1994 he was on the short list to be be archbishop for the Rochester, NY archdiose. Is he even Catholic? Further Burt says in the 70s he was in separate fistfights with former president Jimmy Carter and TV superstar Nell Carter ... and that he broke his nose and her clavicle. That can't be true, can it? And this is the one I had the most diffcult time swallowing -- Burt refuses to recognize Guam as a Commonwealth of the United States all because in a review a newspaper critic in Agana called "Evening Shade" -- "awful."

Fire and desire

MY LIFE, the autobiography of actor Burt Reynolds, was published just a year or two too soon. The book came out shortly after Reynolds' public battle with former wife Loni Anderson, when people were talking more about his love life than his movies. Had Reynolds published this after his work in the film BOOGIE NIGHTS put him back on top, it would have been a more satisfying conclusion to the story.When illness and gossip threatened an end to Burt Reynolds' acting career, he recalled the words of his former girlfriend Dinah Shore, who had assured him that sooner or later his talent would win back what he had lost. As BOOGIE NIGHTS earned Reynolds an Oscar nomination, how right the late Ms. Shore proved to be. (As I write this, 3/1/02, it would have been Dinah's 85th birthday.)If you like movies, Burt Reynolds, or both, you can't miss with MY LIFE. The fire in the man's soul and his desire for life's finer things (including the finest women) have made for some incredible ups and downs. And when you're Burt Reynolds, you have a thousand tales of the fantasy life to tell.Other MY LIFE reviews question the actor's willingness to take a swing at those who upset him. In Reynolds' defense, he never ran from a fight even when he knew he was outmatched. That's the difference between a coward and a man's man: the will to fight with no guarantee you will win. While Reynolds admits passing on man-handling an ex-football player who was in a group of acting students he was throwing out of a class, he also tells about the time he took on Tony "Two Ton" Galento with no hope of winning. That's a tough guy.Read MY LIFE - or Burt'll come after you!

Outstanding!!

Burt Reynolds' biography is a truly joyride!I've read this book, because I always admired Burt Reynolds, definitively one of the last real movie stars around in the business, and by reading My Life, I discovered that his life was more exciting, outrageous and worth-of-living than I thought. In the book, Burt talks about his childhood, about his family and specially about his father, who was a honest, tough and brilliant man. There is a chapter in which Reynolds talks about him that really impressed me: in one ocasion, one gangster from New York came to his father's office and offered money in order to the police let the gangsters work in their illegal operations. Burt Sr. grabbed the man and forced him to eat every bill. Now I understand how Burt Reynolds went so far in his life and career, he had the example and the strengh of an extraordinary man.And then there are the movies and a behind-the-scenes look into Hollywood's golden era, the time of real stars such as Steve McQueen, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and so many others. Reynolds talks about how he made some terrible mistakes (like turning down 007's role, or Jack Nicholson's role in Terms of Endertainment, and also the part Kevin Kline played in Soapdish), and how he regreet the fact that he did not marry the most important woman in his life, the woman who taught him a lot about life in short time, Dinah Shore.My Life is an adventure that careens from Broadway to Warner Brothers studios, so exciting as a moonshine running away from the cops!written with kindness and love, Burt Reynolds' My Life is the best book I read in a lot of years. And I must use a line of the book, because that's it is all about: "Like his movies, this book delivers one helluva good time!!".

Great fun to read! What a life he is having.

I was lucky enough to be able to produce the audio book edition of Burt's autobiography (which is no longer available) and so I was very familiar with this book. It is one good read! If you like movies, especially if you've liked Burt's, you will love to read his story. One thing I like best, he holds nothing back...so you get to read all about his life and his women....