The Naked Truth: Burt Reynolds Sells All His Stuff In Vegas

It was a media sensation that Burt was the centerfold of Cosmopolitan 40 years ago

Julien’s Auction catalogue

Burt Reynolds was once the highest paid actor in Hollywood. With hit movies including Smokey And The Bandit, Deliverance, The Cannonball Run and The Longest Yard he used to rake in millions and five years in a row he was the top box office star in the world, if you can imagine. But he’s fallen on hard times and (I’ll bet by court order) is being forced to sell off his personal effects to pay creditors.

Banks have been threatening to foreclose on his home near West Palm Beach, Florida. (Apparently, he’s made no payments since October 2010!?) He put the place up for sale – first at $14 million, then $10 million and price-chopping six times until it is now just under $5 million – but still no buyer. (Realtors report that many fake buyers come to see the place to look at his stuff and talk to Burt as he refuses to vacate for showings.) He’s made more than a few bad investments, opening a chain of restaurants and building a 450-seat dinner theatre. Both gone.

Confronted with the threat of foreclosure Reynolds says;

“I’m as surprised as everyone. I thought my career and my life could not be going better… I will do like I’ve always done – keep my head up high and continue to move on down the road.”

No one likes to see a guy down on his luck, but if you want to rummage through his things, Julien’s Auctions is inviting you to The Palms in Las Vegas, or you can look here. The stuff is just what you might imagine Burt Reynolds would own; police badges, pink cowboy boots (a mirror FRAMED in cowboy boots?) more “western themed decorative arts”, items worn in films, personal clothing, signed stuff from co-stars and friends (that were previously housed in the Burt Reynolds’ museum!? which is now closed too) plus a selection of awards including Emmys, Golden Globes and People’s Choice Awards. (I thought you weren’t allowed to sell those?)

Anyway, my faves, are always the oddities, like his Rolodex(!?) and voided AmEx Card (just green, not gold?) and the keys to thirteen different cities. (Now just ANYBODY can get into West Palm Beach?) He had “artwork” too, some by Thomas Kinkaid, his own work and also a painting by an “unconfirmed artist” that looks VERY much like 80s Madonna?) Plus his “marriage coach” from his wedding to Loni Anderson which you can use to run errands in, should you pay the $10,000-20,000 it’s estimated at. I suppose you can read all about it in his second memoir, But Enough About Me, which is out next year. The Burt Reynolds auction is in Las Vegas on December 11 and 12 at The Palms Casino Resort. You can go here to see more stuff.