The Funeral and Casket Details of Burt Reynolds

Introduction

For a stretch of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Burt Reynolds was the most bankable movie star in America. He was the running back who became a leading man, the one who could carry a car chase and a dramatic role in the same career, and the tributes that followed his death in September 2018 reflected all of it.

What did not follow was much information. His send-off happened in two stages, two and a half years apart. He was cremated within days of his death and mourned at a small private service in Florida, and then his grave in Los Angeles did not exist until February 2021.

The Life and Legacy of Burt Reynolds

Reynolds was an all-Southern Conference running back at Florida State University in the 1950s and looked headed for professional football until a knee injury ended those chances. Acting was the second choice. His first film role came in Angel Baby in 1961, and he spent the 1960s in guest parts and a short-lived series called Hawk. Deliverance changed that in 1972, earning praise for him and a Best Picture nomination for the film.

What followed was a decade of enormous commercial success built on the Smokey and the Bandit comedies, The Longest Yard, The Cannonball Run and Hooper. Television brought him an Emmy in 1991 for Evening Shade, in which he played a former football player coaching a high school team, and a Golden Globe for the same series the year after. In 1998 he was nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in Boogie Nights, and won a Golden Globe for it.

The News of Burt Reynolds' Passing

Reynolds died on the morning of Thursday 6 September 2018, aged 82, at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida. His agent, Todd Eisner, confirmed the death. Dispatchers in Martin County had taken a call from his home reporting difficulty breathing, and crews made contact with Reynolds and his caretaker before he was taken to hospital.

No cause of death has ever been released. The death certificate obtained by Local 10 News listed none at all, and the Associated Press reported plainly that no cause had been revealed. His agent separately told news outlets that Reynolds had suffered a heart attack, and that account has never been confirmed by the family or by a medical examiner. His niece Nancy Lee Hess issued the family statement, calling the death totally unexpected and saying, "My uncle was not just a movie icon; he was a generous, passionate and sensitive man." A cause that is never released is not the same as a cause in dispute, and the same quiet surrounded the deaths of Robert Redford and Mike Ditka.

The Funeral Arrangements for Burt Reynolds

There was no public funeral. Reynolds was cremated at the Gold Coast Crematory in Fort Lauderdale within days of his death, according to the death certificate obtained by Local 10 News and by Entertainment Tonight. Nancy Lee Hess is listed on that certificate as the informant.

The family held a private memorial in September 2018 at Quattlebaum Funeral Home in North Palm Beach, Florida. The Associated Press reported that about 80 friends and relatives attended. Nothing was broadcast, no public viewing was held, and the family asked that their privacy be respected while they grieved. For a star of his size it was a remarkably small room. Patrick Swayze and Elizabeth Taylor were each given private services too, though both were followed by a larger public memorial that Reynolds never had.

The Casket Details of Burt Reynolds

There was no casket. Because Reynolds was cremated, there was nothing to select, no maker, no model, no interior and no finish. No urn has ever been described publicly either, and his family has never said what his remains were kept in during the two and a half years before they were interred. Cremation removes the casket decision entirely and replaces it with a choice of cremation urns, which is the path Alex Trebek and Eddie Van Halen took as well.

The physical objects in his story came later, and they are markers rather than containers. A temporary headstone reading "Burt Reynolds" was placed on the grave in February 2021, and a bronze bust became the focal point in September of the same year. Our guide to celebrity casket types sets out how the usual choices differ, from caskets through to coffins, none of which applied here.

Attendees and Eulogies

Bobby Bowden, who had coached Reynolds at Florida State, opened the private memorial with a prayer and told stories from the actor's life. Loni Anderson, his former wife, spoke about their years together, and their son Quinton Anderson Reynolds was among the speakers. Anderson described their son as their greatest collaboration.

The gathering was about 80 friends and relatives rather than an industry crowd. The divorce between Reynolds and Anderson had been a famously difficult one, so her speaking warmly about their time together, and about the son they raised, carried a weight the other tributes did not. Beyond those few accounts, what was said in that room was never published.

The Impact on Fans and the Industry

Tributes arrived through 6 and 7 September 2018 from the people who had worked alongside him, Sally Field among them, who released a statement through her publicist. Nancy Lee Hess spoke for the family and asked publicly that their privacy be respected.

Fans had nowhere to go. No public memorial was announced, no procession was held, and no place was named in Florida for people to leave flowers. Diane Keaton was sent off in the same silence, and so was Eddie Van Halen, whose fans built their own memorial because no official one existed. In Reynolds's case the silence lasted two and a half years before there was anywhere at all to visit.

Legacy and Remembering Burt Reynolds

In February 2021, nearly two and a half years after his death, his cremated remains were placed in a grave at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. The ceremony was small and private, with relatives taking part remotely by video call. Loni Anderson and Quinton chose the spot, beside a lake and a palm tree, near the grave of Tyrone Power. A wreath and flowers covered it afterwards, and a lone fan left a tiny Trans Am, the car from the Smokey and the Bandit films. The Associated Press reported that it was not clear why it had taken two and a half years for the gravesite to be established, and that the family, seeking privacy, had not discussed the process publicly.

In September 2021 a bronze bust by the sculptor Caroline P.M. Jones was unveiled at the grave. Anderson and Quinton Reynolds spoke, the actresses Stefanie Powers and Ruta Lee were among several dozen guests, and a screening of the documentary I Am Burt Reynolds followed on a nearby cemetery lawn. The bust shows him with his moustache and his Smokey and the Bandit hat, made deliberately ageless rather than fixed to any one decade. Anderson asked the crowd, "Anybody else want to touch him?" and Jones answered, "Yes, he's made to be touched!"

Conclusion

Burt Reynolds was cremated within days of his death, remembered by about 80 people in a Florida funeral home, and given a grave in Los Angeles two and a half years after that. No cause of death was ever released, no casket was chosen, and no urn has ever been described.

The two and a half years between his cremation and a marked grave is what happens when nothing has been settled in advance. His family, who asked repeatedly for privacy, were left to make those decisions themselves and took until 2021 to finish them. Arrangements made ahead of time, whether a casket preplan or broader funeral planning, are settled by the person rather than left to the people grieving them, which is the difference Luke Perry made for his own family.

Sources

• CBS12, "Actor Burt Reynolds dies", 6 September 2018
• Associated Press, "Burt Reynolds, star of film, TV and tabloids, dead at 82", 6 September 2018
• Local 10 News, "'Bandit' star Burt Reynolds cremated in Fort Lauderdale", 13 September 2018
• Entertainment Tonight, "Burt Reynolds' Death Certificate Confirms Actor Was Cremated", September 2018
• CBS News, "Private memorial service held for Burt Reynolds", 21 September 2018
• Associated Press, "Burt Reynolds' remains find home at Hollywood cemetery", February 2021
• Associated Press, "Bronze bust unveiled at Burt Reynolds' Hollywood gravesite", September 2021

Image credits

Photograph of Loni Anderson and Burt Reynolds at the 43rd Annual Emmy Awards, August 1991, by Alan Light, via Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0.