Burt Reynolds was voted the number one box office star from 1978 through 1982, and he was consistently in the top ten from 1973 to 1984. The poll of theater owners ran for roughly a century, but shrinking theatrical windows and the advent of streaming (where there's no box office and we don't really know how many people are watching) have left such things to history.

But we're here to celebrate Reynolds, not decry the state of the movie business, so let's get into what made the man so darn appealing for so long. Far from an overnight sensation, Reynolds kicked off his screen career in the late 1950s with numerous appearances on television shows and in small films, but it was 1972's "Deliverance" that finally made him a household name. Charming, difficult, cocky, goofy — he took to action

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