His mother was his father's second wife Marianne O'Brien, an actress who appeared in films in the 1940s such as
The Very Thought of You and was contracted to
Jack L. Warner. leaving a will that disinherited Patrick, his brother, and four half-brothers. Reynolds, however, received $500,000 from his father's fourth wife after agreeing not to contest the will. After attending
The Hotchkiss School, Reynolds studied filmmaking at the
University of California and the
University of Southern California. He ventured into acting in 1975 during a visit to the set of the film
Nashville. His live-in girlfriend, actress
Shelley Duvall, had invited him to the set, and director
Robert Altman cast him in a small non-speaking role. Reynolds subsequently studied acting at several Los Angeles schools; with
Milton Katselas, and classmates included
Michelle Pfeiffer and
Patrick Swayze. At the urging of his voice coach, he recorded three unreleased pop singles in 1982. He married his first wife Regina Wahl in Ofterschwang, West Germany, in July 1983, quit acting and briefly began working for
her father's international bus company. He returned to acting after being offered a lead role in
Eliminators. His mother died in 1985. In 1986, he spoke out publicly for the first time against the tobacco industry. He remarried in 2007, and lives in
Los Angeles with his wife Alexandra and their son, born in October 2009. ==Partial filmography==