The two of them met on Smokey and the Bandit set in 1977.
Reynolds fell head over heels in love with Field, and he would later reveal that he was the one who took the fight to get Field onboard for Smokey and the Bandit. The filmmakers, however, weren’t convinced and didn’t think that the actress was “sexy enough”. But Burt stood up for the actress, and Fields eventually landed the role.
“gave me a feeling that I was sexy, and I wanted to be everything he ever wanted.”
The high-profile couple seemed like a match made in heaven and continued to co-star movies, including 1978’s” Hooper and The End.” For a while, Fields was very happy with Burt. She said that she wanted to be everything he ”ever wanted” and that he gave her ”a feeling that I was sexy”.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 16: Sally Field attends the Television Academy’s 27th Annual Hall of Fame Ceremony at JW Marriott LA Live on August 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage)
The press followed each step the couple took as Burt and Sally dated on and off for almost five years. But in 1980, they decided to go separate ways. Sadly, the fairytale relationship didn’t work out, and it was much more complicated than many believed it to be.
In her memoirs, Sally revealed how much the charismatic star award-winning actor controlled his girlfriend.
“By the time we met, the weight of his stardom had become a way for Burt to control everyone around him, and from the moment I walked through the door, it was a way to control me. We were a perfect match of flaws,” Sally Fields wrote in her memoir, In Pieces, and added:
”Blindly I fell into a rut that had long ago formed in my road, a pre-programmed behavior as if in some past I had pledged a soul-binding commitment to this man.”
What could have been the beginning of something beautiful and a love story for the history books developed into a nightmare for Sally.
“What happened is that I stopped existing. I dressed for him, looked for him, walked for him. He asked me to marry him many times, [but] I knew his heart wasn’t in it,” she said. “We’d have ended up just feeling terrible.”
After the split, both actors moved on and started dating other people. But Burt never forgot Sally Fields and admitted the fallout was probably due to him.
“I miss her terribly,” he said. “Even now, it’s hard on me. I don’t know why I was so stupid. Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up.”
