Burt Reynolds Insisted This Former Co-Star Lost An Oscar Because Of A Director's Bad Decision

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The Hollywood scene in the 1970s bottled a unique kind of magic, emboldened by a combination of emerging talent and classic industry giants from the post-war era. "Smokey and the Bandit" actor Burt Reynolds may have started his acting career in the late '50s, but his breakout role came in 1972, when "Deliverance" made him one of the hottest actors on the scene. With his extensive history in the industry, he certainly wasn't shy about sharing his opinion.

This was true even when it came to defending actors with arguably better industry connections, such as "The Wizard of Oz" actor Judy Garland's daughter, Liza Minnelli. Reynolds and the "Arrested Development" actor starred together in the 1975 film "Lucky Lady," forming a much better relationship on set than Minnelli did with their other co-star, Gene Hackman. In Reynolds' memoir, "But Enough About Me," he even recalled how Hackman's fits of rage towards Minnelli halted filming on set. Needless to say, after "Lucky Lady" director Stanley Donen was left unhappy with the original ending of the film, Minnelli wasn't eager to clear her schedule for proposed reshoots.

The eventual botched epilogue of the film wasn't the main reason the film bombed at the box office, but a 1975 article from Time reviewing a screening of the film wrote that Reynolds had declared in front of the press that "Liza has been cheated out of an Academy Award by the new ending to this movie." This wasn't Minnelli's only Oscar-related drama in her career, and it wasn't Reynolds', either.

While Burt Reynolds was quick to rush to Liza Minnelli's defense after Stanley Donen's "Lucky Lady" rewrite didn't do her performance justice, the actor had a bit of a complex relationship with the Academy Awards.

During his Oscars opening speech the year prior to the film, Reynolds' monologue included a dedicated call-out to those who were mocking the event around the country, attributing it to the fact that "they haven't been nominated, they haven't been invited, or they're just too chic to be here." When he joked that "there are a lot of people who won't show up to get what's coming to them," he had no idea that, a few years later, he'd be involved in some Oscars friction. In Dave Karger's 2024 book "50 Oscar Nights,"s," the entertainment journalist detailed Reynolds' jealousy over his then-girlfriend Sally Field's Oscar nomination for "1979's Norma Rae" — even attributing it as one of the main reasons the couple broke up in 1982. 

Field revealed (via People) that he didn't think much of her chance of winning awards for her role in "Norma Rae." Once Field was nominated (and eventually won) for Best Actress at the 1980 Oscars (where she gave a famous and often misquoted speech), she said Reynolds "really was not a nice guy around me then and was not going to go with me." While jealousy wasn't one of the reasons he picked on those absent from the 1974 ceremony, Reynolds certainly had a rather inconsistent streak when it came to the actors he supported.