Sheriff Buford T. Justice
The Texas sheriff who chased the Bandit across three states — Jackie Gleason's gray chevron, a cowboy hat, and a patrol car that gets progressively shorter.
- Actor
- Jackie Gleason
- Film
- Smokey and the Bandit
- Year
- 1977
- Medium
- Movie
- Style
- Chevron
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
Why Sheriff Buford T. Justice's Mustache Matters
Every great mustache needs a rival, and in Smokey and the Bandit (1977) Burt Reynolds's Bandit got one of the best. Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Texas, played by Jackie Gleason, pursues the Bandit from Texarkana to Atlanta with a dim-witted son named Junior, a wrecked patrol car, and a gray chevron mustache that bristles under a white cowboy hat.
Gleason, already a television legend from The Honeymooners, improvised much of his dialogue, and the mustache gives the performance its shape — it is the lip of a man who is absolutely certain he is right and is being proven wrong at eighty miles an hour.
The Bandit's mustache is the cool one. Buford's is the funny one. Both are in the Hall, and they have not spoken since 1977.
- *Smokey and the Bandit* (1977) was the second-highest-grossing film of its year in the United States, behind *Star Wars*.
- Jackie Gleason (1916–1987) reportedly improvised many of Buford's lines.
- Gleason returned as Buford T. Justice in *Smokey and the Bandit II* (1980) and *Smokey and the Bandit Part 3* (1983).
How to Grow the Chevron
The Tom Selleck. Thick, wide, and confident. The default setting for a man who means business.
✂ Read the Style Guide
