My Life [Hardcover]

Burt Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994

One of America's 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. $150,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Reynolds has commented that the hardest thing about writing this book was cutting out all the bad stuff he wanted to say about former wife Loni Anderson. Thus this becomes a tell-somewhat, rather than a tell-all, but a bonanza for Reynolds' fans nonetheless. A good ol' Florida boy, Reynolds spent his younger years in the shadow of his formidable father, the chief of police. His promising football career was stopped short by a shattered knee, but Burt stumbled into acting. Despite his movie and television triumphs, Reynolds seems best known for his private life--his affairs with Sally Field and Dinah Shore, his marriage to Loni, and even after all these years, his decision to be a Cosmopolitan centerfold. Fortunately, Burt doesn't take himself too seriously, even when taking on such serious subjects as his bout with an illness that everyone assumed was AIDS. (It was a jaw problem that left him unable to eat and in horrible pain.) He also has some great Hollywood stories to tell, so even those who are immune to Reynolds' charms will find something to like here. Ilene Cooper

Review

This came in just under the wire and we're pleased to announce an excellent abridgement of Reynolds' autobiography, spiced by a strong narrative style of the author and subject himself. This fine abridgement touches upon all the highlights of Reynolds' book and life, following his Broadway and Hollywood careers and revealing his personal loves and career struggles in the process. An excellent, revealing account! -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books; 1st edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786861304
• ISBN-13: 978-0786861309
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fire and desire, March 1, 2002

By 

J. L LaRegina "Jim LaRegina" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Life (Hardcover)

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!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BURT, July 26, 2007

By 

Danny Matthews (Lake City Sc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Life (Hardcover)

This book was pretty good but I gave it 4 stars because Burt did not talk about his relationship with Tammy Wynette I read in Tammy's book about it and wanted to hear Burt's side.
He does tell us a lot about the women that have passed through his life it was pretty interesting. I never would have thought Sally was so petty.
and Loni was after money. I think the only woman who really loved Burt was Dinah Shore. I think maybe that was the only woman Burt really loved too.
He tells us the age difference got in the way.
He let other people put doubts in his head about Dinah he should of not listened to others but followed his heart.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!!, October 23, 1999

By 

Ary Luiz Dalazen Jr. - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life (Hardcover)

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!!".