Ned Beatty Trippe in "Deliverance" (1972), starring Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds, and set in northern Georgia. Beatty's character is forced to strip at gunpoint by two mountain men who humiliate and rape him, a scene so unprecedented, horrifying and shocking that it is still referenced as a screen milestone. In 1972, he also appeared in "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean", a western with Paul Newman. In 1973, Beatty made "The Thief Who Came to Dinner", "The Last American Hero" and "White Lightning". The latter film reunited Beatty with his "Deliverance" co-star, Burt Reynolds. He also appeared in an
Burt Reynolds to be Hamlet. I would just like to be the best Burt Reynolds around. James L. Brooks offered Reynolds the role of astronaut Garrett Breedlove in "Terms of Endearment" (1983) but he turned it down to do "Stroker Ace" (1983), another car chase comedy directed by Needham. The "Endearment" role went to Jack Nicholson, who went on to win an Academy Award. Reynolds said he made this decision because "I felt I owed Hal more than I owed Jim" but "Stroker Ace" flopped. Reynolds felt this was a turning point in his career from which he never recovered. "That's where