Cledus Snow

"No.. I am not Hank Snow's brother. No."
[~Cledus on the phone to an operator while trying to call his wife in Smokey And The Bandit]
"You- you're- you're CRAZY! And I'm divorced! And y-- ... ain't half bad, is it?"
[~Cledus to Bandit as they start off for Boston at the end of the first movie]
Cledus "Snowman" Snow was the deuteragonist in the first two movies of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise, and became the main protagonist in Smokey and the Bandit III. He was portrayed by Jerry Reed.
An Atlanta area truck driver, Cledus was married to Waynette and had several children with her. He also had a Basset Hound named Fred who always accompanied him on his runs when he worked alone. Cledus was a friend and business partner of Bo "Bandit" Darville, and spent some time in jail, which Waynette blamed Bandit for.
==Smokey and the Bandit==
After agreeing to haul a load of Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta for Big Enos and Little Enos Burdette, Bandit recruited Cledus to drive the semi that would haul the beer back to Atlanta, which at the time was illegal as Coors beer was not sold east of Texas. During their legendary run, Cledus drove the semi while Bandit drove the Trans Am that served as the "blocker"- drawing attention away from Cledus and his contraband haul. Fittingly, neither Sheriff Justice nor anyone else wearing a badge was ever aware of the illegal shipment of beer.
While able to make the run to Texas fairly trouble-free, on the return trip Bandit picked up a young woman named Carrie, and attracted the attention of Texas Sheriff Buford T. Justice. With Bandit attracting an increasing amount of attention from the police, Cledus was able to travel through the southeast fairly undetected except for two incidents: 
* At a small truck stop he gets into a brief tangle with a gang of miscreant bikers who falsely claim that Fred had bitten one of them; defending his hound, Cledus denies all saying that, "Fred absolutely don't like grease" before starting a fight with the bikers which they finish. But Cledus gets the last laugh when he runs over their bikes as he gets back on the road.
* Right after re-entering Georgia, Cledus is pulled over by a motorcycle patrolman for doing 96 miles an hour. Bandit quickly comes to his aid and draws the patrolman away from Cledus.
With only four miles to go, the presence of law enforcement escalates to the point where a discouraged Bandit is ready to give up. But Cledus, reminding Bandit of how far they've gotten, refuses to listen and takes the lead, smashing through the police barricade at the entrance to the fairgrounds. They succeed in delivering the beer to the Burdettes with only ten minutes to spare. 
Anxious to avoid the police, Bandit tells Cledus to get the money, but when Little Enos throws a 'double-or-nothing' challenge at them, Cledus is initially against it. Little Enos challenges them to head up to Boston for some clam chowder; Carrie and Bandit accept, and just as quickly as they finish one run, they're off on another with Cledus and Fred riding in the back seat of one of Big Enos' thirteen Cadillacs.
==Smokey and the Bandit II==
A few years after the legendary beer run, Cledus, now divorced, is making a living on the truck roadeo and racing circuit when he is approached by the Burdettes to recruit the Bandit to make another run, this time delivering a live elephant from Miami to the GOP convention in Dallas. Cledus calls Carrie, who had since left Bandit and went back to Texas to marry Junior Justice, and offers her $50,000 to help them, to which she agrees. 
During their run, Bandit and Snowman again have to face the relentless pursuit of Sheriff Justice, which culminates in a large-scale police chase across a Texas desert basin involving Justice and his two brothers, and a fleet of nearly 50 police cruisers. Over the CB radio, Bandit tells Cledus about his dilemma and orders him to finish the run, but Cledus, reminding Bandit that when they do a job they do it together, comes to his rescue with a large convoy of his trucker pals dispatching all of the cruisers including the three Justice Brothers.
Initially, Cledus was eager to make another run, but when they learn that the elephant they are to deliver is pregnant and very close to giving birth, he becomes more and more reluctant to keep going and, not wanting to endanger the elephant (whom he named Charlotte after one of his aunts) or her newborn calf, Cledus refuses to finish the run, and Charlotte, teary-eyed from post-partum depression, finally convinces Bandit to give up on the run as well.
==Smokey and the Bandit III==
Wanting nothing more to do with Bandit after failing to deliver Charlotte to Dallas, the Burdettes decide to make a bet with Sheriff Justice ($250,000 against his badge) that he can't deliver a stuffed shark from Miami to their new seafood restaurant in Austin, Texas. They stack the deck heavily against Buford, but after he dodges all of their traps, the Burdettes decide to hedge their bet by recruiting Cledus (now cosplaying as Bandit) to steal the shark and deliver it to Austin himself. 
Possession of the shark changes hands several times during the film, but it's Sheriff Justice who wins the bet. As he collects from Big and Little Enos, he sees Cledus nearby, still dressed as Bandit, struggling to start the Trans Am, and is ready to go up and arrest him, but when he is reminded of retirement, he gives him a five-minute headstart, and Cledus takes off.
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Rogues
Category:Parents
Category:Right-Hand
Category:Bond Protectors
Category:Voice of Reason
Category:Honest
Category:Honorable
Category:Sympathetic
Category:Selfless
Category:Animal Kindness
Category:Protectors
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Wise
Category:Optimists