Directed by Hal Needham, Smokey and the Bandit is an action-comedy about a truck driver named Bo "Bandit" Darville (played by Burt Reynolds) who is hired to smuggle beer across state lines . Five years later, she was among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. A native of Vinton, Virginia, Huddleston studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, (as per TCM) and launched his acting career soon after graduating, first on stage, then in films. Gleason earned five Emmy nominations for his various shows between 1953-1956, but sadly no wins. Robin Williams' turn in "Good Will Hunting. He also made several guest appearances on the Reynolds sitcom "Evening Shade. The first film from stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham, it was a car chase comedy starring Burt Reynolds then Hollywood's number one box office draw as Bo "Bandit" Darville, a bootlegger transporting 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta. Field received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014. While he wasn't the most famous member of the cast of Smokey and the Bandit, former football star Mike Henry had already accomplished much. The updated version of the film features sound inaccurate for what would be produced by the Trans Am or the numerous other Pontiac vehicles in the film. That same year, Field entered a new phase of her career with the television movie Sybil. He is an actor, known for The Cannonball Run (1981), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Legends of the Superheroes (1979). He's produced television themes, such as The Love Boat, and movie soundtracks, such as A Star is Born. He's perhaps best remembered for playing "California Charlie," the used car salesman who sells Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) a new vehicle in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." She would win that award again for her turn in 1984's Places in the Heart, and by the mid-'80s Field had given some of her best performances. Wealthy Texan Big Enos Burdette and his son Little Enos have sponsored a racer in Atlanta's Southern Classic and want to celebrate in style when he wins, so they are seeking a trucker willing to bootleg Coors Beer to Atlanta for their refreshment. An entertainment pioneer of the stage and screen, Gleason's career got a second wind thanks to his starring role in the "Smokey and the Bandit" franchise, playing the titular Smokey. [5] Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on legal pads. Today, Mike Henry might be best known now for his role asJunior, the dimwitted son of Buford T. Justice, but before his" Smokey and the Bandit" fame he was a legitimate football star. While the Snowman drives the truck carrying the beer, the Bandit drives a Pontiac Trans Am to distract law enforcement (called blocking) and keep the attention off the Snowman. ", Other notable big screen credits include the blaxploitation action film "Cleopatra Jones" and the urban comedy "Uptown Saturday Night." Alfie Wise was born on 17 November 1943 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA. RELATED: Every Major Award Won By 80 For Brady's Main Cast. Field didn't want to take the part, but her stepfather insisted, telling her, "If you turn down this part, you may never work again.". [29] The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Like many professional athletes, Mike Henry found a second life in Hollywood after retiring from sports. Smokey And The Bandit Cast: Where They Are Now - Screen Rant [4] Just two days before production was to begin, Universal sent a "hatchet man" to Atlanta to inform Needham that the budget was being trimmed by $1 million. Due to his financial difficulties in 2014, Reynolds put his vast collection of artwork and memorabilia up for auction, including the Trans Am. Besides sporadic TV spots as himself on various talk shows, Gleason appeared in one of the best Richard Pryor movies when he co-starred in the 1982 comedy film The Toy. Mike Henry, a USC and NFL linebacker and later an actor in Tarzan movies of the 1960s and the Smokey and the Bandit films, has died. Bradshaw had a memorable cameo in the Reynolds stuntman comedy "Hooper," where he and Reynolds get into a knock-down, drag-out bar brawl, and he played himself in "Smokey and the Bandit II," and "The Cannonball Run." Reynolds being the country's biggest box office star at the time, Reed had little choice but to take the secondary role of Snowman, who drives the truckload of Coors beer while the Bandit speeds ahead in his black Pontiac Trans Am. (as Mark Mansbridge) Set Decoration by After the film, he starred in the Smokey and the Bandit TV series, and later had a fairly successful music career in the \"mood music\" genre.Mike Henry, who played Junior Justice, actually started as a linebacker in the NFL. She has been out of the spotlight for decades.Sally Field played Carrie, or Frog, which is one of dozens of roles she has taken on throughout her career. The show resonated with Field's own values, as she told The Saturday Evening Post it was "all about a dysfunctional family whose members deeply love each other and are bonded together. The real life friends appeared in multiple films together, including the "Cannonball Run" series and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." Upon showing it to his friend, Reynolds told Needham that it was the worst script he had ever read, but that he would still make the movie. Born on February 26, 1916, Gleason worked his way up through comedy clubs before landing bit parts in movies. They find local legend Bo "Bandit" Darville at a rodeo at Lakewood Fairgrounds and offer him $80,000 to haul 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana (the closest place it could be legally sold at that time) to Atlanta in 28 hours. Then/Now: The Cast of 'Gunsmoke' - Fox News At 6 foot 7 inches and 250 pounds, Pat McCormick was certainly an imposing presence, and with a bushy mustache plastered across his face, a distinctive one as well. This same restaurant was used for a scene in the 1983 Stephen King Movie Christine, which was ultimately cut in the final film (it can be viewed as a deleted scene on the DVD release of the film). The most noted change made for network broadcast was the replacing of Buford's often-spoken phrase "sumbitch" (a contraction of "son of a bitch"; usually in reference to the Bandit) with the phrase "scum bum". It became Reed's signature song and is on multiple albums, including Country Legends and his live album Jerry Reed "Live!" But it was "Smokey and the Bandit" that cemented Reynolds' status as an A-list actor, and a sex symbol for women all over the world. In the film, Field played a ruthless journalist. But it was as Big Enos Burdette, a wealthy Texas conman who enlists the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) to bootleg some Coors beer from Atlanta, that he became a household name. The Michigan native, whose easy . A heavy smoker throughout his life, Reed put out a PSA in the 1990s called "Jerry Reed Another Puff," about his desire to quit the habit. Reed retired from acting with 1998's "The Waterboy," where he played the ornery Coach Red Beaulieu. Because of the popularity of the film and the sales success of the Trans Am, the president of Pontiac Alex Mair promised to supply Reynolds with a Trans Am each year. Its lead, Burt Reynolds, was already a household name for his work in other notable redneck-exploitation films, but his turn as the Bandit elevated him to the level of superstardom. Frog (aka Carrie) is a character in the 1977 feature film Smokey and the Bandit and its sequel Smokey and the Bandit II. The Snowman is the one who drives the truck full of beer fromTexarkana to Atlanta. Although his career experienced many ups and downs, Burt Reynolds remained a star for over 50 years, starring in many iconic films. 13 Fast Facts About Smokey and the Bandit - Mental Floss He obtained the attention of studios and aimed the film at a more mainstream release after his friend Reynolds read the script and agreed to portray the Bandit, with Reed now portraying the Bandit's friend the Snowman. See The Release Time, Plot And Other Details. She found great success with the family drama Brothers & Sisters, playing the matriarch of the Walker family. Yet Yeager apparently didn't try to launch a serious acting career, mainly content with fun cameos that added footnotes to his life. Smokey and the Bandit Released: 1977 Director: Hal Needham IMDb Rating: 6.7 The Bandit is hired on to run a tractor trailer full of beer over county lines in hot pursuit by a pesky sheriff.