One of the last of the old school stars of the late 1960s and 70’s Robert Redford made a name for himself first as an actor before going behind the camera to win an Oscar as a director and even turned up in a Marvel film
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr on 18th August 1936 in Los Angeles where he attended high school then was expelled from the University of Colorado for drunkenness. With his mother dying aged only 40 he drifted from job to job and ended up in Florence where he studied art but his return to the US saw him enrol in New York to become a set designer for theatre before switching to acting. In 1958 he married his first wife producer Lola Van Wagenen and having gained experience in minor TV and stage roles he gained attention in the 1962 film The Voice of Charlie Pont that earned him a Best Supporting actor Emmy nomination that helped secure him the lead role the following year in Barefoot in the Park on Broadway and would reprise in the 1967 film too. But it was his role as a bisexual movie star opposite Natalie Woods in ‘Inside Daisy Clover (1965) that earned him another nomination. this time a Golden Globe. There followed a succession of film roles that culminated in a global star making turn opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that was nominated for seven Oscars and both actors remained good friends until Newman’s death in2008
Robert Redford’s liberal sensibilities drew him to appear in ‘Tell them Willie Boy is here’ that was directed by the former blacklisted director Abraham Polonsky and was the first of a string of hits in the 1970’s that included The Way we Were (1973), The Sting that saw him reunited with Newman, The Great Gatsby (1974) Three Days of the Condor (1975) and of course All the Presidents Men (1976) opposite Dustin Hoffman. After this his work rate as an actor slowed slightly perhaps because his interest was now in the launch of the Sundance Film festival that he set up by using his earnings to buy a ski resort in Utah, his wife Lola’s home state, which he renamed Sundance after one of his most famous roles. It was a way to show his support for independent films and in later years introduced a slew of hugely influential directors most notably Tarantino, Soderburgh and Kevin Smith and the festival’s importance grew each decade giving many films a commercial showcase.
It also saw him drawn to working behind the camera and 1981 saw him helm his first film with Ordinary People that won four Oscars including one for himself as Best Director.
The 1980’s saw him take occasional roles all in noteworthy films that included the Oscar nominated Out of Africa with Meryl Streep and the far more lightweight Legal Eagles before going back behind the camera again in 1988 for The Milagro Beanfield War. That decade also saw him divorced from his first wife having had four children together one of whom had tragically died as an infant and In 2020, his son, David, died in his fifties from complications of bile duct cancer. He had been ill since birth and had had two liver transplants.
But the early 1990’s saw him in far more commercial films with the excellent but underrated thriller ‘Sneakers’ and the glossy Indecent Proposal the premise of which was his character offering Woody Harrelson $1m to sleep with Demi Moore’s character and was a big box office earner.
He was drawn more and more to directing with a succession of films that included Quiz Show, The Horse Whisperer, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Lions for Lambs as well as several others but none had the impact of his debut film as director and by 2009 he married for a second time this time to artist Sibylle Szaggers.
Though he never won an Oscar for his acting ( he was only ever nominated once for The Sting) he did receive an honorary one in 2002 and some years later a lifetime achievement award at the Venice film festival in 2017 and an Honorary Cesar in 2019 that he could add to the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to him by Barack Obama in 2016
Perhaps the biggest surprise for many was him turning up in the Marvel film ‘Captain America The Winter Soldier and a cameo in Avengers Endgame too. But his final film as an actor was in 2018 The Old Man and the Gun that was a gentle film to bow out with as a leading man.
Robert Redford died on 16th September 2025 aged 89.
related feature : ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ – REVIEW
related feature : Every Marvel poster from Iron Man to Avengers Endgame at the London premiere
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