The man, the myth, the mustache: We GIF thanks for Burt Reynolds' famous facial hair

Dearly beloved, let us observe a moment of silence for Burt Reynolds' mustache.

Although the hairy Hollywood icon went bare-lipped in his early hits like 1972's "Deliverance" and the original 1974 version of "The Longest Yard," that cookie-duster was his co-pilot from "Smokey and the Bandit" onward – though he did flirt with facial hair fashion over the years, trading the lamb chop sideburns of the late '70s for a goatee and beard in his last two decades.

Here's a bit of Hollywood history for younger readers who only grow or see mustaches during Movember. You see, during Reynolds' heyday in the late 1970s and '80s, only Tom Selleck could hold a mustache comb to that caterpillar when it came to male sex-symbol status.

But not even Magnum, P.I. was as married to his mustache as Reynolds. During the mid-1990s when 'staches were out of style, Selleck briefly shaved his off for his guest role on "Friends."

Reynolds, whose death at age 82 was confirmed by his agent Thursday, remained resolutely hirsute from the time of his 1972 nude "Cosmopolitan" centerfold well into the age of manscaping.

Reynolds never would have submitted to that chest-waxing scene in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."

And was there anyone better than Burt Reynolds to play porn producer Jack Horner in "Boogie Nights," set in the 1970s, the golden age of dirty movies? The Film Academy didn't think so, handing him the only Oscar nomination of his career for a role he and his hair were born to play.

Now, to be honest, it's a bit funny that someone as vehemently anti-mustache as me is writing an ode to this particular bit of facial foliage. I've never dated anyone with a mustache. When my dad grew one about 10 or 15 years ago, I mocked him endlessly and refused any fatherly kisses until he got rid of it. (I still love you, Dad.)

But you know what? I will make an exception to my no-mustache rule for Burt Reynolds and Old Bullet Proof. Some things just belong together.

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