Actor Burt Reynolds, who was a longtime resident at times of both Martin County and Jupiter in Palm Beach County where he had a ranch, was well known in the Treasure Coast theater community.

The Palm Beach High School graduate, who was born in Lansing, Michigan, died Thursday at age 82.

Donna Carbone, managing director at Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre in Jupiter, said Thursday a family member confirmed the actor's death.

It was at 12:47 p.m. Thursday when the Martin County Sheriff’s Communication Center in Stuart received a 911 call from Reynolds' home in the 16800 block of Southeast Federal Highway, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The caller asked for medical help for an 82-year-old man who was having difficulty breathing.

“Deputies and Fire Rescue personnel were dispatched to the home and made contact with Mr. Reynolds and his caretaker,” sheriff's officials said. “Mr. Reynolds was subsequently transported to the hospital.”

Early Thursday evening outside Reynolds’ home, which sits in the middle of vast fields of wilderness, two sets of flowers were perched near the front gate.​​​​​

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Local theater

Reynolds, the popular star of films such as "Deliverance," "The Longest Yard" and "Smokey and the Bandit," frequently appeared at The Lyric Theatre in downtown Stuart. In January 2015, he took the stage there after a showing of his 1976 film “Gator,” which was a sequel to “White Lightning” and was Reynolds’ directorial debut.

He encouraged audience members to ask him anything.

“I have fun with it when it gets crazy,” he told them.

In 2017 at the Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, Reynolds accepted the Life Worth Living Legend Award prior to the screening of his latest film, “Dog Years,” at the Vero Beach Wine & Film Festival.

He took a few questions from the crowd and was asked whether his former college, Florida State University, where he played football, was going to win the championship.

“Yes," Reynolds said smiling. "But not this year.”

Jerusha Stewart, founder and executive director of the Vero Beach Wine + Film Festival, said in a news release Thursday, “Burt Reynolds had an uncommon life filled with many moments worth living. And I’m grateful that on one special summer night he chose to share his life with us."

Andrew Kato, producing artistic director and chief executive of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, worked at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre as a waiter through high school and college from 1982–1989.

“Charles Nelson Reilly, who performed in many of the dinner theatre’s productions, affectionately referred to the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre as ‘the miracle at the truck stop,’ because there really wasn’t much here in the Jupiter at the time,” Kato said in a news release Thursday.

“Having a celebrity like Mr. Reynolds in our backyard was an enormous benefit to the community," he said. "He would bring all of his friends and it was literally the ‘who’s who’ of stars – so as a young person, just being able to be in the presence of all of these incredible performers was an amazing opportunity.”

Above all, Reynolds had a heart of gold and loved helping young people and other artists, Kato said.

“I know that many hearts are broken because he was very loved. He gave so much to others,” he said.

Kia Fontaine, the executive director at The Lyric Theatre, said she personally knew Reynolds through working at the theater and will remember Reynolds as “full of energy.”

“He made sure when he was at the theater if anybody wanted an autograph, wanted a hug, anything, he gave all of his time to all of those people,” Fontaine said.

One of the aspects of Reynolds’ personality that Fontaine said made him stand out among other people and movie stars was his generosity.

“He was certainly a true gentleman,” she said. “Even though he was the megastar that he was, when you were with him, he made you feel like you were the superstar.”

More:Actor Burt Reynolds and his many ties to Florida

Fontaine said Reynolds was “one of those characters where when you were with him, you felt like you knew him your whole life.”

“He was the funniest gentleman in the world and a fantastic storyteller,” she said. “He fully gave you all of his attention, all of his time and all of his energy when you were with him.

One of the biggest losses Fontaine said she believes will come from his passing is losing his experiences and knowledge that he enjoyed sharing with others.

“I think the world is going to miss having somebody that was so passionate and such a believer,” she said.

Singing to Burt

Recently, Christina Karabiyik, a student in a creative writing class at the Burt Reynolds Institute, celebrated her 18th birthday by singing to Reynolds and his guests at Reynolds’ by invitation-only master class, said Carbone, who moderates the writing class, in a news release.

Karabiyik wrote "SHOTS!" an in-depth look at gun violence from the perspective of those facing the possibility of death, according to the release. A few years ago, she lived directly across the street from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of a mass shooting in February.

The play will be the first offering in the Burt Reynolds Institute’s new Plays in Progress black box theater series.

Real estate

In June 1980, he bought property in Tequesta for $700,000 when he was in the middle of a string of box office hits such as “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run.”

In 2011, Reynolds faced a foreclosure lawsuit that claimed he owed about $1.2 million for a mortgage on the nearly 4-acre estate dubbed Valhalla he owned on the Intracoastal Waterway in Hobe Sound.

More:Actor Burt Reynolds had a long connection to FSU and football

The Indian Hills home included five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a 2,000-square-foot guesthouse, a cinema, a swimming pool, a wine room, an indoor waterfall, a billiard room, a boat dock and a helicopter pad.

In 2012, Reynolds' ex-wife actress Loni Anderson, a resident of California, also was named as a defendant in the lawsuit that encompassed two second mortgages, counter-complaints and resulted in Reynolds testifying during two contentious depositions.

The foreclosure lawsuit, filed by Merrill Lynch Credit Corp. against Reynolds, BankAtlantic and Great Eastern Mortgage, claimed the Emmy award-winning actor stopped paying the mortgage in September 2010.

BankAtlantic and Great Eastern Mortgage, which each held a second mortgage on Reynolds' home, also took legal action against him to collect on loans they each made to Reynolds.

BankAtlantic in 2004 issued Reynolds a $750,000 line of credit, court filings show. Great Eastern Mortgage two years later loaned him $900,000, using his 12,500-square-foot home as collateral.

The case highlighted Reynolds' years of financial troubles and his yearslong effort to sell the home.

In 2014, during a contentious deposition held in West Palm Beach, transcripts show Reynolds seemed agitated, at times incensed and often unable to understand or answer repetitive questions posed by Florida Asset attorney Richard Zaden, who pressed him on what he recalled about signing loan papers in June 2004.

At least 110 times, Reynolds said he either didn't know or couldn't remember specifics about obtaining the BankAtlantic loan.

At one point, an exasperated Zaden asked if Reynolds was on any medication that could affect his memory.

"No, I have no medication," Reynolds quipped. "I would like to have some for you, but I don't have any on me."

Reynolds sold the waterfront estate in 2015 for $3.4 million and the foreclosure action was settled just days after the sale, records show.

A 2015 news article by Jose Lambiet indicated Reynolds was renting the home from its new owner.

More:Burt Reynolds gives rare live Q&A with famed critic Jeffrey Lyons

On acting

In a March interview with USA TODAY, Reynolds said he was "very, very lucky" through ups and downs.

"When you crash and burn, you have to pick yourself up and go on and hope to make up for it," he said. "Along the way, I’ve met some wonderful people. And you always run into some jerks. But that would be the same if you were working for the Ford Motor Co."

He said acting is a tough business.

"Very tough. But I always tried to leave a good impression wherever we shot, and I didn’t leave any buildings burning or anything," he said with a smile. "And I've had a good time through it all."

This report is developing. Follow the latest updates here.

USA TODAY and TCPalm reporters Sara Marino, Melissa E. Holsman and Brightman Brock contributed to this story.