Newsroom

Burt Reynolds on hit USA Network show

By Carol Saunders
TCPalm

Actor Burt Reynolds was exhausted, but exhilarated about his recent TV acting job, his first since quintuple bypass surgery in February.

“They used me up, kid,” said Reynolds, 74, at his Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum in Jupiter. “They had me working 17-18-hour days and they just used me up. I think I lost 10 pounds!”

“Burn Notice,” created and written by Matt Nix, combines intense action-thriller elements with humor in a new breed of spy show.

It stars Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a blacklisted spy, Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona, an ex-IRA operative and Westen’s ex-girlfriend.

Also starring are Bruce Campbell as Sam, Michael’s closest buddy and a washed-up military intelligence contact, and Sharon Gless as Madeline, Michael’s hypochondriac mother.

Reynolds, 74, plays Paul Anderson, a once legendary ex-CIA operative who also was forced out of the agency and serves as a kind of warning and lesson for fellow spy Weston, who finds himself forced out.

Nix said things have not gone well for Anderson since he left the spy service. He’s now working as a bartender under an assumed name and he gets into trouble with some very nasty Russian crooks.

Shooting began in the last week of May in Miami and took about two weeks.

Reynolds’ episode will air9 p.m. July 22 and the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning actortalked about his experience guest starring on the hit action series.

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