Robert Redford

Robert Redford (born August 18, 1936, Santa Monica, California, U.S.) American motion-picture actor and director known for his boyish good looks, diversity of screen characterizations, commitment to environmental and political causes, and founding the Sundance Institute and Film Festival in Utah.

After years of drifting and studying art in both Europe and the United States, Redford enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and soon thereafter made his Broadway debut in the play Tall Story (1959). Landing roles in several television dramas of the early 1960s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and Route 66, he scored the biggest triumph of his early career with the lead role in Neil Simon’s Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park (1963).

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Redford appeared in mostly forgettable films throughout the mid-1960s, the cult favourite The Chase (1966) and the screen adaptation of Barefoot in the Park (1967) being notable exceptions. The turning point in his career came when he costarred with Paul Newman in the enormously popular comic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), in which he portrayed the outlaw Sundance Kid. The film became the top-grossing picture of the year, and Redford was soon one of Hollywood’s most popular and bankable stars, next appearing in such successful films as Downhill Racer (1969; written by James Salter) and The Candidate (1972). He starred with Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were and reteamed with Newman in The Sting—the two most successful films of 1973—and was ranked as the top American box office attraction. The Sting won that year’s Academy Award for best picture and earned Redford his only Oscar nomination for acting.

Other films of the 1970s included The Great Gatsby (1974), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), and Three Days of the Condor (1975), but they were overshadowed by All the President’s Men (1976). An account of the downfall of the administration of U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon, the film starred Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. It garnered Oscar nominations in eight categories and firmly established Redford’s star status. He starred in The Natural (1984), an adaptation of the Bernard Malamud novel about mythical baseball hero Roy Hobbs, which earned four Oscar nominations. Out of Africa (1985), in which he appeared opposite Meryl Streep, won 7 of the 11 Oscars for which it was nominated.

Redford, however, was unable to repeat that level of success in later films. Sneakers (1992), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Spy Game (2001), and The Clearing (2004) earned mixed reviews. Better received, however, was All Is Lost (2013), in which he played a sailor whose yacht is struck by a shipping container; the tense survival drama featured little dialogue, and Redford was the only actor in the movie. He then appeared in the action film Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and the buddy comedy A Walk in the Woods (2015), which was based on the memoir (1998) by writer Bill Bryson. Redford portrayed CBS reporter Dan Rather in the newsroom drama Truth (2015), which concerns the backlash from a story about U.S. Pres. George W. Bush’s military service. Redford then starred in a remake of Pete’s Dragon, a family film from Disney. In 2017 he played a widower who is befriended by his longtime neighbour (played by Jane Fonda) in the Netflix movie Our Souls at Night. The next year Redford portrayed a bank robber with charming manners in The Old Man & the Gun. His later film credits included Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Redford launched his directing career with Ordinary People (1980), a family drama adapted from a novel by Judith Guest. The film won best picture at the Academy Awards, and Redford himself won an Oscar for best director. Of Redford’s first seven directorial efforts, The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Horse Whisperer, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), and Lions for Lambs (2007) garnered lukewarm reviews, but Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It (1992), and Quiz Show (1994) are regarded as minor masterpieces. The latter film, which dramatized a 1950s quiz-show scandal, earned four Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director. Redford subsequently directed The Conspirator (2010), about the trial of Mary Surratt, who was accused of having collaborated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and The Company You Keep (2012), in which he starred as a family man running from his radical activist past. His directing style is characterized by long, meditative takes and by an emotional detachment from subject matter that serves to heighten the irony of the narrative.

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In 1980 Redford established the Sundance Institute, which provides a workshop for young filmmakers each summer and sponsors the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. By the 1990s the festival had become one of the leading international film festivals, and it is regarded as a vital showcase for new talent. For his work with Sundance and other contributions to film, Redford was presented with an honorary Academy Award in 2002. His numerous other awards included the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2008) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016).