Burt Reynolds of ‘Gunsmoke’ Quint Asper, the half-breed black- smith new to Gunsmoke this season, swings from the heels is described by Burt Reynolds, the actor who plays him, as “a guy who loves physical contact, has no prej- udices, is completely independent, BY DAN JENKINS takes people at face value and would just as soon fight as eat.” Aside from the fact that he’s not part Indian, Reynolds might well be describing himself. continued

15 Burt Reynolds/ continued

Brawls in Skid Row

For the next two years Reynolds worked in“every lousy syndicated show they were making, and that’s where I finally learned to act.” Reynolds admits he has calmed down considerably since joining the Gunsmoke cast. When he first arrived in Hollywood, he says, he made a Threatened to blow up riverboat habit of taking his frustration out on the first man at any given bar who “I’ve worked with nice guys in this so much as looked at him sideways. business-guys like Jim Arness and “I’d drive down to the Skid Row Milburn Stone and Ricardo Montalban, section, walk into a bar, wait for the guys who go out of their way to help inevitable crack, belt the guy in the you all they can. I’d like to work teeth and go home feeling much with McGavin again, just once. I better.” don’t ask him to like me. I just want Born in a fishing district outside to make him respect me.” of Palm Beach, Fla., Reynolds grew At the end of his first season with up feeling he had come from the Riverboat Reynolds asked out of the wrong side of the tracks and had to series.“I wasn’t doing anything and prove himself. In grade school he did I wasn’t learning anything. I had lines it by running faster than anyone else. like, ‘Are the Indians going to at- In high school and college (Florida

14 State) he did it by becoming a star James T. Farrell and now an English halfhack and heading toward a career professor. Hopkins got Reynolds in professional football. hooked on reading books and plays, On Christmas Eve of his sophomore finally got him enrolled in the Hyde year, however, his life underwent an Park (N.Y .) Playhouse. abrupt and devastating change. He In February 1956 Reynolds re- had just been given a ticket for speed- turned to school, at Palm Beach ing (“My father was chief of police Junior College, majored in drama at the time and I used to get away -and wound up right back at Hyde with that sort of crazy thing”) and Park, this time on a scholarship. A had slowed down to a contrite and supporting role in “Mister Roberts” somewhat shaken 35. Suddenly a at the New York City Center (Charl- parked truck loomed into his head- ton Heston was the star) caught lights. Before he could stop, he had MCA’s eye, and he left the pleasant plowed into it. confines of Heston’s supply snip for One of the three men from the what turned out to be McGavin’s truck hurried over and asked if he riverboat. could help. “Please call my father,” Reynolds said, realizing he was seri- Coming into hls own ously hurt. “He’s chief of police.” This turned out to be the wrong Still husky and energetic, Reynolds thing to say because the three men likes to double in brass as a stunt- had been engaged in loading the truck man, finds it difficult to sit still for with stolen cement blocks. Electing any length of time without fidgeting to be smart rather than humanitarian, and finally just getting up and leaving. they took off. Twenty minutes later Says Gunsmoke producer Norman (“I’ve always been lucky,” Reynolds Macdonnell: “I have the feeling that comments) a police car happened if he ever got the bit in his teeth, he’d along. run away with it. He’s not afraid of The accident, which cost Reynolds man, beast or God. Yet he’s really his spleen and broke one of his knees, made an effort to fit in with us. It’s also ended his football career. Inas- not easy for a newcomer to break into much as football was his life, it was a cast that’s been working together in the nature of a deep shock. Leaving like a family all these years. school, he took off for New York with “I think he’s a good actor. Innately, nothing more in mind than to get he’s a leading man, which creates away. something of a problem for us. We can’t use him as such. But we get so Depressed and unhappy many letters saying, ‘Enjoyed the show last night with Matt, Kitty, Doc “I was depressed, I was unhappy, and the blacksmith.’ That’s damning I was drinking,” says Reynolds. “In him with faint praise, in a way, yet short, I was well on my way to it means the character has been es- becoming a bum. What saved me, I tablished. I think next season he’ll be- bumped into this guy at a bar and he gin to make a real impact.” asked me if I could read. I almost Reynolds, who treats indifference slugged him. What he meant, of course, as a mortal enemy and praise as a’ was could I read lines. He was a warm friend, best sums up both him- writer.” self and his role:“I don’t care how The writer turned out to be Conrad good or bad I am so long as I’m not Hopkins, former secretary to author dull.”

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