Robert Redford (born Aug. 18, 1936, died Sept. 16, 2025) gained the Cecil B. DeMille Award on the 51st Golden Globes and earned a number of Globes nominations as an actor and director. He additionally was the highest box-office attraction a number of years through the Seventies and was extensively admired and revered by the general public and throughout the trade. However his standing within the Hollywood Pantheon prolonged past that. He was additionally an outspoken environmentalist and a champion of impartial movies, along with his Sundance Institute and Competition answerable for placing numerous movies and filmmakers on the map. He additionally labored for rights of Native Individuals and LGBT+ folks lengthy earlier than it was modern.
Early in his appearing profession, Redford chalked up greater than two dozen appearances in such TV reveals as “The Twilight Zone,” “Dr. Kildare” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” After an uncredited bit half in Tall Story, he made his official movie debut with a talking half in Conflict Hunt, which additionally starred Sydney Pollack earlier than he grew to become a director. Their collaborations can be fruitful within the many years that adopted.
Hollywood actually took discover when Redford starred on Broadway in Neil Simon’s “Barefoot within the Park,” which debuted in 1963 and have become a long-running hit: He was a sensation, an actor with startling attractiveness who may truly act, and will deal with mild comedy. In 1967, he repeated the function within the Paramount movie, starring reverse Jane Fonda within the second of their 4 costarring movies collectively, additionally together with The Chase (1966), The Electrical Horseman (1979) and Our Souls at Evening (2017).
He waited two years for a followup and it was a smart move: His subsequent undertaking was starring with Paul Newman within the 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child. From then on he was a serious Hollywood star and it gave him clout, which he used well to supply movies and to arrange initiatives like Sundance.
He earned excessive reward for The Candidate (1972) and The Manner We Have been (1973) with Barbra Streisand and The Sting, once more with Newman. The final two movies have been each 1973 and each large hits, which made him the most important star on the planet. Even movies like The Nice Gatsby and The Nice Waldo Pepper, due to his star energy, made cash. Three Days of the Condor was one other Pollack undertaking that questioned the established order and was a thinking-person’s thriller.
The identical is true with the 1976 All of the President’s Males, which defied the percentages by being a current-events film, a suspense movie by which the viewers knew the result however was nonetheless on the sting of their seats. Redford was so good-looking and profitable that his appearing abilities have been generally neglected, however President’s Males features a tour-de-force scene, executed in a single lengthy take, by which reporter Bob Woodward (Redford) handles two simultaneous telephone calls from key sources whereas coping with workplace interruptions. You by no means catch him “appearing” within the scene, nor in his different motion pictures. He was under-appreciated as a result of he made all the pieces appear pure, as if the character was behaving quite than performing. Nevertheless it was truly extremely expert appearing.
The Electrical Horseman with Pollack was considerate and entertaining, as was Barry Levinson’s The Pure. He had one other box-office home-run with Out of Africa, with Meryl Streep. The movie gained the Golden Globe for Finest Image.
Some actors grow to be stars regardless of a string of principally ho-hum motion pictures, whereas others have two or three memorable titles. However Redford’s observe document contains a number of clear classics — Butch Cassidy, The Manner We Have been, The Sting, President’s Males, Out of Africa and his last movie, Avengers: Endgame (2019), one of many highest incomes movies of all time. He additionally toplined quite a few cult favorites together with Jeremiah Johnson, Downhill Racer, Sneakers (1992), Spy Recreation and Fact (2015). Some movies labored higher than others, however after he grew to become a star, Redford by no means appeared in a undertaking that regarded like he was simply doing it for the paycheck.
And that’s not even speaking about his directing of Strange Folks, Quiz Present, A River Runs Via It which gave Brad Pitt has first starring function, and The Horse Whisperer, introducing a really younger Scarlett Johansson.
Amongst his many honors, Redford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, by President Barack Obama, in a reside televised ceremony held within the East Room of the White Home, on November 22, 2016.
Requested at a Golden Globes press convention to evaluate his profession, Redford responds that he doesn’t prefer to assume that manner: “I’m dwelling within the second, and never pondering too far forward.” He admits discovering it exhausting to decide on a few of his favourite motion pictures, merely “as a result of I actually loved most all of them.”
Any regrets? “Most likely, however I feel it’s important to watch out of that. If you happen to put an excessive amount of emphasis on regrets, it’s a heavy load to hold. I’m certain all of us have regrets if we glance again. However I don’t consider that regrets ought to play too massive a job in any other case it may cease you from shifting ahead.”
Years after they first labored collectively on A River Runs Via It, Brad Pitt spoke with Globes journalists about Redford’s qualities as a director and as an individual: “I really like the man. He’s this absolute man, the person that males need to be, the person that girls need to be with, and folks anticipate an excessive amount of of him, due to the roles he has performed and his ideas, however he’s only a man. For me as an actor it took some time, a number of weeks, as a result of I didn’t know him, to belief his imaginative and prescient and see his energy as a director, as a result of he needed to construct this world, and he was very quiet, to maintain his sanity; however I used to be most impressed along with his directing. Redford knew precisely what he needed to say, he had it utterly mapped out, so he was very direct and simple, ‘That is what we’d like; there have been no different alternate options. And he made a really highly effective film.”
In 2001, Brad Pitt met once more with Golden Globes journalists recalling a number of movies, together with A River Runs Via It: “Again then, I used to be inexperienced and I used to be working with one of many icons of cinema, so there was extra of an intimidation issue, however it’s such a special relationship when now you’ll be able to meet considerably like friends. I simply noticed a ‘Biography’ on Redford on the cable channel A&E, and this man has executed superb stuff; in the event you have a look at the gathering of his movies collectively, it’s simply superb.”