The Heartbreaking Truth: Why Burt Reynolds Took Over 60 Takes For Judith Barsi's Final Scene

The connection between Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds and child star Judith Barsi is one of the film industry's most heartbreaking and enduring tragedies. While they never shared a physical set, their professional lives intersected on the 1989 animated classic, All Dogs Go to Heaven, a project that would forever link Reynolds's emotional performance to Barsi's untimely and brutal death. As of this December 2025 update, the story of Reynolds's struggle to record his final, poignant lines remains the most powerful and cited evidence of his reaction to the young actress's murder.

The tragedy surrounding Barsi’s life casts a long shadow over the film, transforming a touching cinematic moment into a real-life, raw emotional goodbye. Reynolds's difficulty in the recording booth is widely considered his true, unspoken statement on the loss of his young co-star, a testament to the profound impact her story had on those who worked with her.

Judith Barsi: A Full Biography of a Star Gone Too Soon

Judith Eva Barsi was an American child actress who, despite her tragically short life, amassed an impressive resume across film and television. Her career began at an incredibly young age, quickly establishing her as one of Hollywood's most in-demand child performers of the 1980s. Her small stature for her age often led to her playing characters younger than she actually was, a trait that helped her secure major roles.

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• Full Name: Judith Eva Barsi
• Born: June 6, 1978, in Los Angeles, California
• Died: July 25, 1988 (aged 10), in Los Angeles, California
• Cause of Death: Murder-suicide (Shot by her father, József Barsi)
• Mother: Maria Barsi (also murdered by József Barsi)
• Notable Filmography:
  • Jaws: The Revenge (1987) as Thea Brody
  • The Land Before Time (1988) as Ducky (Voice)
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) as Anne-Marie (Voice)
• Television Appearances: Numerous roles in popular 1980s shows, including St. Elsewhere, Cagney & Lacey, and Growing Pains.

Behind the scenes of her glittering career, Judith and her mother, Maria Barsi, suffered years of physical and emotional abuse from her father, József Barsi. The escalating domestic violence culminated in the horrific murder-suicide in July 1988, before the release of her two most iconic animated films.

The Heart-Wrenching Connection: All Dogs Go to Heaven

The core of the Burt Reynolds and Judith Barsi story lies in their work on the Don Bluth animated feature, All Dogs Go to Heaven. Reynolds voiced the lead character, Charlie B. Barkin, a roguish German Shepherd, while Barsi voiced Anne-Marie, an orphaned little girl with the ability to talk to animals. Due to the nature of voice acting, the two actors never recorded their lines together in the same studio, meaning their personal connection was minimal.

However, Barsi had completed all of her voice work for the film before her death in July 1988. Reynolds, on the other hand, still had some of his dialogue left to record, most notably the film’s emotional climax: the "Goodbye, Charlie" scene. This sequence is where Charlie, having sacrificed his life to save Anne-Marie, says a final, tearful farewell to the little girl before ascending to heaven.

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The Emotional Toll: Why Reynolds Needed Over 60 Takes

The production timeline meant that Burt Reynolds was asked to record his side of the emotional farewell scene knowing that the voice on the other side—the innocent, sweet voice of Anne-Marie—belonged to a child who had been brutally murdered by her own father. The weight of this tragic reality proved to be an overwhelming obstacle for the veteran actor.

The widely circulated and generally accepted report from the film’s production team is that Reynolds struggled immensely to get through the lines without breaking down. It is rumored that the director, Don Bluth, had to record the scene over 60 times because Reynolds kept crying. Some accounts even suggest that Reynolds held a photograph of Judith Barsi while recording, channeling his genuine grief into the performance.

This struggle transformed the scene from a simple piece of animation dialogue into a genuine, raw eulogy. The final, deeply moving lines delivered by Charlie B. Barkin—where he reassures Anne-Marie that he will always be with her—are imbued with the authentic sorrow of an adult saying goodbye to a child whose life was unjustly taken.

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Burt Reynolds’s Unspoken Statement and Legacy

While there is no widely published, direct, formal interview quote from Burt Reynolds stating, "Here is what I think about Judith Barsi's death," his emotional struggle in the recording booth serves as a far more powerful and visceral statement. It is the core of his "reaction" to the tragedy.

The story of the 60-plus takes has become an indelible part of Hollywood lore, a poignant reminder of the vulnerabilities of child actors and the dark realities that can exist behind the bright lights of show business. Reynolds, known for his charismatic screen presence in films like *Smokey and the Bandit* and his dramatic depth in *Deliverance* and *Boogie Nights*, was profoundly affected by the death of his young co-star.

Entities and Topical Authority: Reynolds, Barsi, and Hollywood Tragedy

The tragic intersection of these two careers highlights several key entities and themes within the film industry:

• Burt Reynolds: A major Hollywood star whose career spanned decades, working with figures like Sally Field and Loni Anderson, and whose role in this film remains one of his most emotionally complex.
• Judith Barsi: A gifted child star who also voiced the beloved Littlefoot’s friend Ducky in *The Land Before Time*, another Don Bluth production. Her death brought renewed attention to the issue of child abuse and domestic violence in Hollywood.
• Don Bluth: The director, who also struggled with the tragedy, reportedly basing Anne-Marie’s design on Barsi to honor her memory.
• Voice Acting: The unique environment of the recording studio, which often separates actors but in this case, tragically connected them through a performance recorded after a real-life death.
• The "Goodbye, Charlie" Scene: A famous scene in animation history, recognized not just for its narrative power but for the tragic backstory that gives it genuine, heartbreaking weight.

The enduring narrative is that the emotional authenticity of the final scene in *All Dogs Go to Heaven* is a direct result of Burt Reynolds’s personal grief over Judith Barsi’s senseless murder. His inability to simply read the lines is his most profound and lasting tribute to the little girl who gave a voice to Anne-Marie. It is a moment where the line between acting and raw human emotion blurred, leaving behind a cinematic masterpiece tinged with real-world sorrow.