Burt Reynolds Turned Down a Starring Role in ‘M*A*S*H’ for a Critically Panned Flop
The 1970 war film M*A*S*H nearly had Burt Reynolds in a leading role. The actor’s star was on the rise, and the part of Trapper John McIntyre was his if he wanted it. Reynolds, to his later regret, decided to take on a role in a different film instead. While M*A*S*H was critically acclaimed and financially successful, Reynolds’ film was not.
Burt Reynolds turned down a role in ‘M*A*S*H’
In 1970, Reynolds turned down the role of chest surgeon Trapper John McIntyre in M*A*S*H. He’d been offered a role in the film Skullduggery, which he accepted instead. One-part adventure film, one-part courtroom drama, Skullduggery was about Reynolds discovering a tribe in New Guinea that could be the missing link between humans and apes.
Skullduggery was both a critical and financial failure, while M*A*S*H became the third-highest-grossing film of the year. Reynolds admitted he realized he’d made a mistake, even though he initially liked the script.
“Badly directed, kind of sloughed off,” he told Gene Siskel (per Slash Film). “Susan Clark was good; she’s a good actress. But nobody knew how to sell the picture. Any time you have Pat Suzuki dressed as a small ape, I think you’re in trouble.”
He said the Skullduggery debacle became a valuable learning experience for him: he had to be pickier about his projects. In 1970, he joked that after making a series of “wonderful, forgettable pictures … I suddenly realized I was as hot as Leo Gorcey.”
Gorcey, an actor, died shortly before that interview.
Elliot Gould was happy he got the role in ‘M*A*S*H’ instead of Burt Reynolds
The role of Trapper John went to Elliot Gould after Reynolds turned it down. The film lifted him to higher levels of fame, but he also valued it because it introduced him to co-star Donald Sutherland. Gould said he was happy to navigate new levels of stardom with Sutherland by his side.
“I don’t want to be sentimental, I don’t want to be pretentious,” he told the LA Times after Sutherland’s death. “People perhaps make intellectual justifications out of anything, but Donald and I were together, and I even believe now that he’s out of body and not here any longer other than with those of us where his spirit lives.”
The pair became close friends on set and went on to star in other films together.
He had regrets about turning down other films
M*A*S*H was far from the only film Reynolds regretted turning down. Over the years, he had the chance to take part in some of the biggest films of all time. In a move he later described as “stupid,” Reynolds turned down the part of James Bond because he didn’t think people would want an American in the role (via Variety).
Reynolds also turned down roles as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Han Solo in the Star Wars films, John McClane in Die Hard, and Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman.
“You can’t go back,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “You can’t relive that moment when you should have said, ‘I’ll take it, I’ll do it.’”
Despite his regrets, Reynolds still had a well-respected career.
