Gator McKlusky

Bobby “Gator” McKlusky is a character played by Burt Reynolds in the films White Lightning (1973) and Gator (1976).

Gator McKlusky is a southern moonshiner who has been convicted of at least four moonshining/bootlegging charges and has served two terms (a total of at least four years) in prison. He has been a moonshiner since at least the age of thirteen. Some discontinuities exist between the two films in which he appears. In White Lightning, Gator is incarcerated in Arkansas, where his parents also live, while in Gator, the McKluskies now live in Georgia (as evidenced by opening scenes depicting the Georgia state flag and the Georgia state capitol building). In White Lightning, Gator’s father is named Jim. Upon completing his second prison sentence, Gator resumes moonshining deep within a southern swamp (presumably the Okefenokee, as identified in the lyrics of Jerry Reed’s song “Gator” sung over the latter film’s opening credits). By this time, Gator lives with his father, whose name is now given as Ned, and Gator’s nine year-old daughter Suzie (whose existence isn’t mentioned in the first film), having been abandoned by Suzie’s mother some years earlier due to Gator’s incarceration.

On two separate occasions, Gator agrees, with more or less reluctance, to serve as a government informant by infiltrating two different southern crime organizations, one a moonshining operation headed by Sheriff J. C. Connors (Ned Beatty) in the fictitious Bogan County, Arkansas, and the other by Gator’s former school buddy Bama McCall (Jerry Reed) in the fictitious Dunston County, Georgia. Gator offers to investigate Connors because he believes (correctly) that Connors murdered Gator’s younger brother Donny for organizing a sit-in in Bogan County. After serving his second term in prison, Gator is propositioned by Irving Greenfield (Jack Weston), a federal agent from New York, who is working with state authorities. Greenfield warns that if Gator refuses to infiltrate McCall’s organization, Ned will go to jail for moonshining and Suzie will be placed in a foster home. Faced with this threat, Gator agrees to investigate his friend McCall.

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