Burt Reynolds Finally Sells Home He's Lived In (and Rarely Changed) Since 1980
The target of foreclosure proceedings, the mansion had been on the market for almost a decade -- asking as much as $15 million but selling for $3.3 million.
By Sid Lipsey
Throughout his movie career, Burt Reynolds has dodged a fast-driving sheriff in "Smokey and the Bandit," a pair of violent hillbillies in "Deliverance," and a changing porn industry in "Boogie Nights."
Now the legendary star has finally prevailed in perhaps his longest fight yet: the effort to unload his Florida mansion.
Reynolds got $3.3 million for his Mediterranean-style Hobe Sound home, according to Variety, which cites a Florida gossip site's original report based on real estate records. The sale ends a nearly 10-year effort to sell the home, during which the price rose as high as $15 million. The most recent asking price was $4.9 million.
Built in 1975, the 12,500-square-foot home has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and it is decorated in the late-'70s/early-'80s style of Reynolds' heyday. It includes such flourishes as a 20-seat theater, a billiard room and multiple rooms filled with movie memorabilia.
(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow.)
Also on the 3.39-acre waterfront property: a pool, a separate two-bedroom guesthouse, a helicopter landing pad and a dock.
Reynolds bought the property for $700,000 in 1980, when he was one of Hollywood's most reliably bankable stars. That same year, he starred in "Smokey and the Bandit II," the sequel to one of his biggest hits.
He lived in the house with his second wife, sitcom star Loni Anderson, whom he married in 1988 and divorced in 1993.
That split touched off a round of financial problems for Reynolds. The divorce, some bad investments and the cooling off of his movie career led to debts as high as $10 million. Reynolds declared Chapter 11 in 1996.
(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow.)
He emerged from the bankruptcy reorganization in 1998, the same year he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Boogie Nights." Thanks to Florida's generous homestead exemption rules, Reynolds was able to keep his mansion under the reorganization.
But that wasn't the end of Reynolds' money problems. He put his house on the market in 2006, asking as much as $15 million, but eventually lack of interest forced him to slash the price repeatedly. In 2011, Merrill Lynch Credit Corp. (which has since merged with Bank of America) issued a foreclosure summons, claiming Reynolds hadn't made a mortgage payment in over a year and owed the bank almost $1.2 million. Reynolds reportedly had at least two additional mortgages on the home.
In 2014, Reynolds auctioned off $2.5 million worth of movie memorabilia he'd kept in the home, including his Golden Globe Award for "Boogie Nights," his helmet from the football movie "The Longest Yard," and various notes and autographed pictures from his famous friends.
(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow.)
At the time, Reynolds said the sale wasn't because of money problems.
"I want everyone to know that contrary to what all the news outlets are saying, I am not broke," Reynolds said at the time.
Instead, he said, he wanted to do some housecleaning of stuff for which he had neither use nor room. He told Entertainment Tonight, "Quite frankly, I am sick of so many pictures of myself in my own home."
Despite that cash infusion from the auction, the foreclosure process continued, as did his efforts to sell the home.
Now it appears that long real estate nightmare is over. Reynolds officially sold the place over Labor Day weekend to local businessman Charles Modica, according to Jose Lambiet's Gossip Extra.
Reynolds can continue to live in the house as long as he remains current on the rent, Lambiet reports.
Despite the sale and the presumed end to foreclosure proceedings, Reynolds reportedly owes more money to his creditors. But he still has his house and he's still Burt Reynolds. Just like in his movies, Reynolds wins again.
Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of Burt Reynolds' Florida mansion.
Also on Yahoo Homes:
• '70s star David Cassidy's mansion sells at bankruptcy auction for $1.8 million (38 photos)
• Cate Blanchett's Aussie eco-mansion sells in just three weeks for record-breaking price (27 photos)
• Worst house in Australia sells for half a million bucks, owners 'blown away' (16 photos)
In related news, Burt Reynolds isn't the only 1970s star who's facing financial problems -- in Florida, no less. Here's David Cassidy talking awkwardly about his woes, also reported on Yahoo Homes:
