MICHAEL CHIKLIS - CHIKLIS CREDITS REYNOLDS FOR SAVING HIS CAREER

Actor MICHAEL CHIKLIS will always be grateful to BURT REYNOLDS - for saving his career at a time when Hollywood had all but blacklisted him. Chiklis found himself out of work following his disastrous movie debut as John Belushi in 1987's Wired, a biopic of the late comedian. But the 43-year-old will never forget Reynolds for casting him in TV show B.L. Stryker. He tells American magazine Maxim, "I've been up and down and out. It was a tough time, but then Burt Reynolds stepped up when nobody else would and gave me a job on a show called B.L. Stryker. "That was a godsend, because the television world opened up for me again, ultimately leading to The Commish and The Shield. "I never fought any of the things that were happening to me at the time. I put my nose down and let the work speak for itself." Thanks to his TV success, Chiklis landed the role of Ben Grimm/The Thing in the Fantastic Four movies.