How Burt Reynolds Spent His Final Night Alive

Burt Reynolds died happy, according to Quentin Tarantino, who cast the legendary actor in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Reynolds was supposed to play the part eventually filled by Bruce Dern, but Reynolds died just before Tarantino was set to film his scenes. Reynolds died from a heart attack in Jupiter, Florida in September 2018 at age 82.

In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning to promote his new novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino said he never had a chance to film Reynolds. However, he did have an opportunity to rehearse with the Smokey and the Bandit star. “I’m officially the last role he played because he came to the script reading. So, that was his last acting,” Tarantino told CBS News‘ Tracy Smith. “In fact, not only that, the night he died, what he was doing before he passed on, is he was running lines with his assistant. That’s, like, sad and beautiful at the same time.”

Reynolds was “so happy” about being cast in the movie, Tarantino said. “I can honestly say he died happy,” the two-time Oscar-winner added. “I’m not saying he died happy because of me. But he was happy. He was definitely happy when he passed on.”

Reynolds was set to play a small part in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as George Spahn, the 80-year-old blind man who rented his ranch to Charles Manson. If Reynolds lived to shoot the movie, he would have shared a scene with Brad Pitt, who played stuntman Cliff Booth in the movie. Dern, who previously starred in Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, played the part instead.

Tarantino has been on a wild publicity tour the past few weeks to promote the novelization of his latest movie. It is his first novel and expands upon the events in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Although Tarantino is experienced in the art of movie writing, as the Oscars for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained prove, writing a novel was a different experience. As he told Smith, he was happy to be done with the project once he finished writing. When you finish writing a movie, you then have to go through the process of making it.

“It’s like this whole process. You know, it’s a fun process. And it’s a wonderful way to live a life,” Tarantino explained. “I’m not making it sound like it’s a bad thing. I’m very fortunate to have the situation to do that. But the idea of putting your heart and soul into a piece of writing, and then when you’re done, you’re done? That’s, that’s amazing.”

Reynolds did finish two movies that were released after his death. He appeared in An Innocent Kiss (2019) and Defining Moments (2020). In an interview published hours before his death, Reynolds said he was “really proud” of the films he was making in his last days. “You have to be given the parts before you can take the chances,” Reynolds told the Fort Myers Florida Weekly. “I’m being given the parts now.”