Jerry Reed, who rose to fame as a singer/songwriter then as an actor alongside Burt Reynolds in several successful films, has passed away at the age of 71 in Nashville, Tennessee from complications with emphysema.

Reed would go on to appear in five more Reynolds movies, including all three Smokey and the Bandits, in which Reed rode shotgun, figuratively if not literally, to Reynolds’ law-evading interstate trucker. Throughout the CB-radio-celebrating trilogy, which produced films from 1977 to 1983, Reed’s handle was Snowman; Reynolds’ was Bandit.

Reed furthered Bandit’s cause by producing country-fried driving music, including “East Bound and Down,” off the original Smokey soundtrack.

Reed also acted with Reynolds in 1976′ s Gator and 1983′s Stroker Ace. In television, he put in appearances on two Reynolds series, B.L. Stryker and Evening Shade.

Reed also wrote a pleathra of songs that were recorded by the likes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.  Presley recorded “Guitar Man” and “U.S. Male”.