Patrick Reynolds — Acting | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Since 1975, Patrick Reynolds has acted in TV and films, including the lead role in the feature Eliminators in 1986. He performed parts in films like Nashville and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, both for director Robert Altman; Airplane; Hair for Milos Forman; and Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton-John.

Although Reynolds is a grandson of the tobacco company founder RJ Reynolds, makers of Camel and Winston cigarettes, in 1986 Mr. Reynolds spoke out publicly against Big Tobacco in Congress after his father died from smoking. His testimony was reported by news media around the world, and Patrick campaigned for a smoke-free society in the three decades that followed. In 2015 President Obama presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He's a frequent speaker at universities, middle schools, high schools, and health conferences.

"The live talks I give these days, especially to kids, amount to giving a 45-minute actor's monologue," Reynolds points out. "Every word has to sound spontaneous and be emotionally on point, in front of large audiences at schools. So I am fully tuned up and ready to act. I'd be pleased to play character roles and am a chameleon, capable of flawless European and US accents."

Patrick's TV appearances include two critically acclaimed short stories for PBS: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Bernice Bobs Her Hair, starring Shelley Duvall, and William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, with Angelica Hustared in other TV series, including Operation Petticoat, Civil Wars, Santa Barbara and more. In The Biggest Battle, he played John Huston’s on in the lead. For the Tony Randall Show Reynolds created Bullet Head, an odd-voiced bald character. He also appeaide. Following his lead in Eliminators, he was almost cast as Captain Picard on Star Trek, but the role went to Patrick Stewart. Patrick Reynolds' stage appearances include lead roles in two Gilbert and Sullivan operettas: Ko Ko in The Mikado and Sir Joseph in Pinnafore. He performed in YMCA, an ensemble, off-Broadway show by Rado and Ragny, creators of Hair; and also played Earnest in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Before he began acting, at age 20 in 1969 Reynolds directed a documentary titled "Berkeley," which won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970. After that he made several short films and then attended film school at UCLA. He then studied at USC in the Department of Cinema 1973 -74. When Patrick added acting to his goals in 1974, he studied with Lee Strasberg personally in his Master Class at The Strasberg Institute. Patrick also studied with Justin Smith, and studied voice and singing with Arthur Joseph, who also coached the Eagles. Around that time Patrick recorded three singles written by Randy Newman. During this period Patrick also studied for three years in Bill Sorrells' class at Milton Katselas, where classmates included Michelle Pfeiffer and Patrick Swayze. He studied for two years at both the Charles Conrad Studio, and Peggy Feury, where Jeff Goldblum was a classmate. Mr. Reynolds co-authored a colorful family biography about the RJ Reynolds tobacco family, which he is developing for TV. The Gilded Leaf was published to critical acclaim by Little Brown in 1989 and became a bestseller. See https://www.Tobaccofree.org/book/.

In 2007, Patrick married Alexandra Olympios. They live in Los Angeles and have a son born in 2009.