The End is a 1978 American black comedy film directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, written by Jerry Belson, and with music composed by Paul Williams. The film also stars Dom DeLuise along with Sally Field, Strother Martin, David Steinberg, Joanne Woodward, Norman Fell, Myrna Loy, Kristy McNichol, Pat O'Brien, Robby Benson and Carl Reiner. Reynolds later said he "loved" the film. "Nobody wanted to do it. They allowed me to do The End if I did Hooper, which made a fortune for Warner Brothers. But The End eventually made $40 million." Plot Wendell "Sonny" Lawson, an unscrupulous real-estate promoter, learns that he has a fatal blood disease and decides to kill himself rather than enduring a slow, painful death. He takes the time to meet with several friends and family members for the last time, while hiding the fact about his suicide attempt. Sonny ends up in a mental institution, where he befriends a fellow patient, Marlon Borunki, a deranged schizophrenic murderer. Cast Burt Reynolds as Wendell Sonny Lawson Dom DeLuise as Marlon Borunki Sally Field as Mary Ellen Strother Martin as Dr. Waldo Kling David Steinberg as Marty Lieberman Joanne Woodward as Jessica Lawson Norman Fell as Dr. Samuel Krugman Myrna Loy as Maureen Lawson Kristy McNichol as Julie Lawson Pat O'Brien as Ben Lawson Robby Benson as Father Dave Benson Carl Reiner as Dr. James Maneet Louise LeTourneau as Receptionist Bill Ewing as Hearse Driver Robert Rothwell as Limousine Driver James Best as Pacemaker Patient Frank McRae as Male Nurse Jock Mahoney as Old Man Production Belson wrote the script in 1971 and it was under development at Columbia Pictures before producer Lawrence Gordon took it on. He sat on the script for five years until Burt Reynolds became attached and the film went into development at United Artists. Reynolds said he wanted to do the film because "I'd read an awful lot of comedies and none struck me as especially funny, according to my strange sense of comedy. There are a lot of minefields in this topic, death, and that's why everybody turned it down over the last five years." He elaborated: "You can deal with death on a totally Mel Brooks level, but when you try to make a film with parts that are really real amidst the comedy, that's a big risk. What's really funny is what's real. When I was very sick, if