Burt Reynolds Looks ‘Frail,’ Uses Cane During Interviews To Promote Memoir, Talks Sally Field Romance

Burt Reynolds conducted a series of interviews on Tuesday to promote his upcoming memoir, But Enough About Me. And while he revealed a number of interesting tidbits about his career during these exchanges, images of the 79-year-old actor showed him looking frail, while he now needs a cane to move around.

Clearly though, Reynolds’ mind is still as active as ever, because the Boogie Nights and Smokey & The Bandit actor recalled a number of stories from his past, touching about the roles that he’s turned down as well as discussing his romance with Sally Field — who he recently revealed was the lost love of his life.

Reynolds, who underwent a quintuple heart bypass in February 2010, did just that during his appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, while he also conducted interviews with Entertainment Tonight, too.

During these exchanges though, Reynolds spark had substantially dwindled, and the actor was showing his age.

Happy Book Birthday to Burt Reynolds, BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME pubs today! Watch him discuss it on @GoodMorningAmerica: https://t.co/phOZ3sJCFn

— Folio Literary (@FolioLiterary) November 17, 2015

EXCLUSIVE: Burt Reynolds Reveals His Biggest Regret About Ex Sally Field https://t.co/K0i3odcgbn https://t.co/57Ebt9P5Qi

— GossipHappens! (@Gossipering) November 17, 2015

To promote his autobiography, Burt Reynolds spoke at length about events from his past, revealing that he didn’t mean to break Sally Field’s heart.

Reynolds and Field originally met while filming Smokey & The Bandit in 1977. The pair soon started dating, and they even starred together in four films. However, after five years, they eventually separated. But Reynolds has now admitted that he still adores the actress.

Reynolds explained, “I really adored her. It was real. She’s very, very special.” Reynolds even admitted that Field’s mother had some rather prescient advice for him regarding Field, declaring, “I know you’re going to break her heart, but please be gentle.”

Reynolds continued, “I said, ‘I don’t know how you could break somebody’s heart and be gentle, but I don’t intend to break her heart.’ You never intend to.”

Burt Reynolds also revealed that he’d turned down a number of iconic roles during his career, admitting that he was offered the opportunity to play both James Bond, instead of Roger Moore, and Star Wars’ Han Solo. Reynolds explained about turning down the latter, “Yeah, I was busy. But, no, I wasn’t so busy I couldn’t have done it.”

Speaking to Good Morning America, via Daily Mail, Burt Reynolds believes that he would have been the wrong choice for Bond, revealing that he told producers, “An American can’t play James Bond. It has to be an Englishman. ‘Bond, James Bond.'”

Meanwhile, in his memoir, via People, Burt Reynolds talks about how one of the lowest moments of his life came after rumors started to swirl that he as “dying of AIDS.” These began after he lost a huge amount of weight. But that was due to his addiction to prescription pain killers.

Speaking about how he tried to dispel this speculation, Reynolds recalled, “I just kept working. I thought the only way to make these rumors go away is to keep working… it really was an awful period.”

Another story that Reynolds revealed, via the Mirror, was about how during his youth his father would routinely arrest him and his friends after they’d been caught getting into shenanigans.

Reynolds’ father was actually a police chief, but this didn’t mean that he treated his son any differently or punished him leniently.

Reynolds explained, “He arrested me and threw me in jail and I was in there for three days and every drunk he arrested he threw on top of me.” Reynolds admitted that his friends’ parents would eventually come and collect their offspring. But Reynolds’ dad would just leave him there.

[Image via AP/invision]