Burt Reynolds
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50 free Burt Reynolds trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Burt Reynolds was the biggest movie star in America for a stretch of the late 1970s and early 1980s: a former college halfback with a mustache, a wicked laugh and a taste for fast cars. Few careers have had as many swerves. He spent years in television Westerns and cop shows, broke through with a drama set on a wild river, ruled the box office with car-chase comedies, fell out of fashion and then came back with a role that put him in the awards race. This quiz covers the films, from Deliverance and The Longest Yard to Smokey and the Bandit and The Cannonball Run, along with his television work, his turns behind the camera, his famous romances, the parts he turned down and his life away from the set. It is written for fans who grew up on his movies and for anyone curious about one of Hollywood's great characters. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up a good story even when you miss one.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Burt Reynolds caused a sensation in 1972 by posing nude for a centrefold in which women's magazine?
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan ran the centrefold in its April 1972 issue, just before Deliverance opened. Reynolds said he posed for a kick and later regretted it.
Q 02Burt Reynolds said in 2016 that he regretted turning down which role in the original Star Wars?
Han Solo
Han Solo was a part Reynolds passed on because he didn't want that kind of role at the time. Decades later he admitted he wished he had taken it.
Q 03In Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds's Bandit runs interference for a beer truck in which black car?
Pontiac Trans Am
Pontiac Trans Am sales almost doubled within two years of the film's release. The carmaker's president promised to supply Reynolds with a new one every year.
Q 04Burt Reynolds grew his famous mustache partly so people would stop saying he looked like which actor?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando had little respect for his look-alike, and their feud became Hollywood legend. A young Reynolds was told he couldn't be in the film Sayonara because he looked too much like its star.
Q 05Burt Reynolds turned down which film role after Sean Connery, insisting an American could never play it?
James Bond
James Bond was offered to Reynolds by the series producer Albert R. Broccoli. Reynolds refused, saying the part simply couldn't be done by an American.
Q 06Which famous director is said to have counted Burt Reynolds's Smokey and the Bandit among his favourite films?
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, was an unlikely fan of a comedy about truckers hauling bootleg beer. It was the second-highest-grossing film of 1977 in the United States.
Q 07In Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds's Bandit helps haul 400 cases of which beer to Atlanta?
Coors
Coors was unavailable for sale east of Texas in 1977, which is why trucking it to Atlanta counted as bootlegging. The run had to be finished in 28 hours to win the bet.
Q 08Which actress, his co-star in four films, did Burt Reynolds describe in 2016 as the love of his life?
Sally Field
Sally Field and Reynolds were a couple from 1976 to 1980, then on and off until 1982. They never married, and she was among the mourners at his memorial service in 2018.
Q 09Which comedian took over Burt Reynolds's old quarterback role in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?
Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler played Paul Crewe while Reynolds came back in a new part, the veteran coach Nate Scarborough. The 1974 original had earned Reynolds a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 10Burt Reynolds reportedly fired whom for recommending the 1997 film that brought his only Oscar nomination?
His agent
His agent was reportedly dismissed after Reynolds saw a rough cut and disliked it. He had not got along with the film's young writer-director during the shoot.
Q 11Burt Reynolds's second marriage, which ended in a tabloid divorce, was to which WKRP in Cincinnati star?
Loni Anderson
Loni Anderson, who played the sitcom's receptionist Jennifer Marlowe, was married to Reynolds from 1988 to 1994. The couple adopted a son, Quinton.
Q 12Which comedian played Sheriff Buford T. Justice, who chases Burt Reynolds across the South in Smokey and the Bandit?
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was given free rein to ad-lib his dialogue and make suggestions as the furious Texas lawman. Having the sheriff's son Junior ride beside him throughout was his idea.
Q 13Burt Reynolds played a small-town sheriff opposite which country star in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas?
Dolly Parton
Q 21In The Longest Yard (1974), Burt Reynolds's disgraced quarterback leads a team of convicts against whom?
The prison guards
The prison guards play as a semi-pro team run by a football-mad warden. Reynolds's character, Paul Crewe, had been thrown out of the NFL for point shaving.
Q 22Which country singer played trucker Cledus "Snowman" Snow beside Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit?
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed also wrote the film's theme song, East Bound and Down, virtually overnight. He had originally been lined up to play the Bandit himself in a low-budget version.
Q 23Which comedian played mechanic Victor Prinzim, alias Captain Chaos, beside Burt Reynolds in The Cannonball Run?
Dom DeLuise
Dolly Parton played Miss Mona, who runs the Chicken Ranch, and earned a Golden Globe nomination. The 1982 hit was the second movie musical in which Reynolds sang.
Q 14Burt Reynolds suffered a broken jaw while filming the 1984 crime comedy City Heat opposite which fellow superstar?
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood shared top billing with him. The injury put Reynolds on a liquid diet, cost him 30 pounds and led to a dependence on painkillers that lasted several years.
Q 15Burt Reynolds turned down the astronaut role in Terms of Endearment that won an Oscar for which actor?
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson took the part of Garrett Breedlove, which had been written with Reynolds in mind. Reynolds called refusing it the decision he regretted most of all.
Q 16Burt Reynolds spent three years as blacksmith Quint Asper on which long-running TV Western?
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke picked Reynolds over 300 other actors when one of its regulars wanted to leave. He later called his time on the show the happiest period of his life.
Q 17Burt Reynolds's breakthrough film Deliverance is famous for a musical duel between a guitar and which instrument?
Banjo
Banjo picking by a country boy answers the guitar of Ronny Cox's character at a gas station early in the film. The scene became a popular-culture landmark.
Q 18In The Cannonball Run, Burt Reynolds's racer J.J. McClure tries to dodge the police by driving what?
An ambulance
An ambulance, a Dodge Tradesman van, lets J.J. and his mechanic pose as an emergency crew and ignore traffic laws. They even kidnap a passenger to act as their patient.
Q 19Burt Reynolds earned his only Oscar nomination as adult-film director Jack Horner in which 1997 drama?
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights also won Reynolds a Golden Globe. Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel and Warren Beatty were among those who declined or were passed over for the part.
Q 20Burt Reynolds won an Emmy as Wood Newton, a former player for which NFL team, in the sitcom Evening Shade?
Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers was the team Reynolds personally requested for his character because he was a fan. Wood has come home to coach a high-school side on a long losing streak.
Dom DeLuise rejoined Reynolds a year later in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, playing the moral crusader who targets the brothel.
Q 24Burt Reynolds lost his only Oscar race, for Best Supporting Actor in 1998, to which Good Will Hunting star?
Robin Williams
Robin Williams took the statuette, leaving Reynolds with a Golden Globe for the same role. It was the first and only Oscar nomination of a career that ran from 1956 to 2018.
Q 25Burt Reynolds's early-1970s romance with which singer and TV host, 20 years his senior, made headlines?
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore and Reynolds began dating in early 1971, shortly before Deliverance made him a major film star. Their well-publicised relationship added to his growing fame.
Q 26Director John Boorman cast Burt Reynolds in Deliverance after seeing him in what?
A talk-show appearance
A talk-show appearance showed off the self-mocking wit his tough-guy parts had hidden. Reynolds proved so popular as a guest that he was offered a show of his own.
Q 27Burt Reynolds played the scheming Boss Hogg in the 2005 film version of which TV series?
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Dukes of Hazzard cast him as a nod to his 1970s car-chase hits. A year earlier he had sent up his Deliverance role in the comedy Without a Paddle.
Q 28In the 1978 comedy Hooper, Burt Reynolds plays an ageing legend of which risky line of work?
Stuntman
Stuntman is the trade of his character, who is asked to jump a rocket car across a 325-foot gorge. Reynolds knew the job first-hand from stunt work early in his own career.
Q 29Burt Reynolds played halfback for which college football team before a knee injury and a car crash intervened?
Florida State
Florida State gave Reynolds his first start in 1954, and he scored a touchdown in that game. The university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1981.
Q 30In Smokey and the Bandit, what is Carrie fleeing when she jumps into the car of Burt Reynolds's Bandit?
Her own wedding
Her own wedding is what Carrie abandons, and the jilted groom's father happens to be a Texas sheriff. That is why a lawman pursues the Bandit all the way across the South.