Burt Reynolds counted models and actresses among his exes, and had a love life defined by tumultuous relationships with some of the world's most famous women... as well as the older lovers he could never forget
HE was the mustachioed heartthrob known for packing heat in Westerns and playing a porn director in Boogie Nights... but Burt Reynolds' real-life exploits in the bedroom were wilder than anything he ever did on screen.
The 70s sex symbol - who died aged 82 on Wednesday - lived an incredible life, punctuated by roller coaster relationships with A-list stars.
Posing in the buff for Cosmo in 1972 made Burt one of the most lusted-after men in Hollywood, and he spent years at the height of his fame bed-hopping with stunning women.
He also had two tumultuous marriages, and dated a bevy of A-list stunners along the way. But, as the actor revealed in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me, it was an unquenchable attraction to older women which defined much of his love life.
The older woman who took his virginity at 15
He was born in Michigan in 1936, but Burt grew up in Florida, where his dad worked as a police officer.
It was here where a 15-year-old Burt had his very first sexual encounter - with a woman in her 40s who ran an antique shop in Palm Beach.
He writes in his tell-all book that he used to go to her house once a week. "We’d have dinner, tell stories and make love. This went on for several months, until the night she said it was time to call it quits.
"I protested, almost pleaded, but she just smiled. And that was it. She left me bewildered and frustrated, but she’d also made me very, very happy. Not a week goes by that I don’t think about her."
After Florida, Burt moved to New York in the 1950s to pursue a career as an actor, landing several minor stage and TV roles before making his big-screen debut in 1961.
While he was at a showbiz party shortly after, he was propositioned by legendary actress Greta Garbo, who was 31 years older than him.
Despite spending all night talking to her, and staring at her "beautiful breasts", he didn't realise who had had turned down until the following day.
Burt had half-joked in the years since that he had regretted it ever since.
The first wife who loved kinky sex
Reynolds married his first wife, English actress Judy Carne, in 1963.
They had only been dating for six months before they got married, and their relationship wasn't always a happy one.
Many of the problems stemmed from her wild lifestyle - she was a bisexual party girl without an off button, and Burt writes that her days revolved around "hard drugs and kinky sex".
Their marriage came to an end after just two years, and Judy later became something of a sensation. Then, when her career began to wane, she started selling stories about her famous ex.
"Her substance abuse got worse, and she made a lot of money talking about me," Burt writes.
"She claimed I hit her, which wasn’t true. That broke my heart."
The affair with another older lover
Reynolds also had an affair with actress Dinah Shore for a number of years in the early 70s.
Once again, he had fallen for the experience of an older woman - he was 35 and she was 54 - and he found himself completely smitten.
They met on her daytime show, Dinah's Place, in 1971, and sparks flew from the first moment.
And for Burt, the perks of having an older, more mature lover were clear - sophisticated Dinah took delight in teaching Burt about music, art, wine ... and sex.
"Making love became a new experience," he writes. "For the first time, I was sharing intimacy with my heart full of genuine, unconditional love."
By Burt's own admission, they were "soulmates". But his acting career had taken-off big time, and he admitted that his ego was out of control.
There was something else, too: Burt longed to become a dad, and that was the one arena where the age difference did matter.
"Breaking up with Dinah was the hardest thing I’d ever done," he said. "I missed her the minute I walked out the door. I could barely function for weeks. She’s the most wonderful person I’ve ever known."
Filthy letters from adoring fans
Then, when the hairy heartthrob posed naked for Cosmopolitan - becoming the mag's first ever nude male centre-fold - the interest from women picked up even more.
The shoot would make him a figurehead of the sexual revolution, and turned him into a hairy-chested sex symbol.
Women started sending him "the filthiest letters he's ever seen" and sexy photos of themselves. One superfan even started posting him regular shipments of her own pubic hair.
He had become such an icon that he was even offered to play the part of James Bond after Sean Connery gave up the role in the early 70s.
But it was all too much for Burt. He regretted doing the shoot for the rest of his life, and it turned out to be a constant source of embarrassment which followed him wherever he went.
Burt's brush with Marilyn
Burt once struck up a friendship with one of the few people more lusted after than him: Marilyn Monroe.
He was just a young up-and-comer at the time, and took an acting class with her in the late 1950s.
Burt remembers that she would be mobbed by fans as they walked to the studio together, and he found himself captivated by her spell just like everyone else.
However, he admitted that he was too scared to ever make a move on her.
"I didn’t want to be rejected – and I’m sure she was an expert at that,” he told the Mirror.
'Sexual tension was bouncing off the walls'
He then had a five-year fling with Forrest Gump star Sally Field, who appeared alongside Burt in 1977 action-comedy Smokey And The Bandit.
Burt had requested to work with her specifically, and he writes in his book that the "sexual tension was bouncing off the walls" from the moment they started shooting.
Talk of marriage cropped up sporadically throughout their relationship, but they never tied the knot.
Then, after they broke it off, rumours started swirling that Burt had contracted Aids.
When she was asked about this in an interview for Playboy, Sally broke Burt's heart by claiming that there's "always been something going on around Burt."
The comments snuffed out the chance of reconciliation, although Burt still claimed that she was always the love of his life.
But this week, decades after they first got together, Sally was among the stars to pay tribute when news broke of Burt's death.
"There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away," she said. "They stay alive, even forty years later.
"My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy."
The big-spending second wife
Burt's second wife was American actress Loni Anderson.
"The most striking-looking woman I've ever seen," was how he described Loni in his memoir.
When they first met an awards Gala, she sidled up to him, asked him to dance and whispered in his ear: "I want to have your baby."
They never had a biological child together, but Burt did later adopt a son, Quinton, with her - finally fulfilling his dreams of parenthood.
Loni was gorgeous, although Burt always thought she wore too much make-up and confessed that he "never did like her".
That didn't stop the pair from getting married, though. In 1988 Burt bowed to her "constant pressure" and they tied the knot, with reluctance on his part.
Right up to the day of the wedding, Burt wanted to bail. Even his mother shook her head at him as he entered the chapel, but he couldn't bring himself to pull the plug on his glamorous fiance.
Married life proved to be expensive, and lavish.
Loni would buy designer gowns for £7,000 a pop and only wear them once, and she once maxed out his credit card's £30,000 limit in half an hour of shopping.
Eventually, her spending plunged Burt into death, and they split after five years of marriage.
The media storm which swirled around the divorce was so intense that Princess Diana sent Burt a note saying thanks for keeping her off the cover of People Magazine.
They may have split, but Loni, like everyone else in Burt's life, was devastated to hear of his death this week.
"Quinton and I are extremely touched by the tremendous outpouring of love and support from friends and family throughout the world," Anderson said in a statement.
But Loni will know as well as anyone that Burt's life was one lived to the full - from the incredible acting roles, the celebrity lifestyle and, of course, the women which came with it.