Robert Redford

Robert Redford

Name

Charles Robert Redford Jr.

Birthplace

Santa Monica, California

Birth date

August 18, 1936 (1936-08-18)

Occupation

Actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist

Active Years

1959 – present

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an award-winning American motion picture actor, director, producer, businessman, model, and philanthropist.

The blonde haired, athletic actor is known for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Candidate (1972), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), All the President's Men (1976), Brubaker (1980), The Natural (1984), Out Of Africa (1985), and many others. Redford directed the films Ordinary People (1980), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), The Horse Whisperer (1998) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). He was also a producer on all except Ordinary People.

Biography

Redford was born in Santa Monica, California to Charles Robert Redford, Sr., an accountant, and Texas-born Martha W. Hart. He has a half-brother, William, from his father's re-marriage.

Redford graduated from Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, California in 1955 and received a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team, and a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He lost the scholarship due to adolescent drinking, fueled in part by the death of his mother, when Redford was eighteen. Redford was later a painting student at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and took classes in theatrical set design at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

In 1980, Redford's directorial debut, Ordinary People, won him the Academy Award for Directing; his 1994 film, Quiz Show, was nominated for best director, but lost to Forrest Gump. Along with Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Richard Attenborough, and Kevin Costner, Redford is one of the few major actors to win an Academy Award for "Best Director".

With the financial proceeds of his acting success, starting with his salary from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Downhill Racer, Redford purchased the ski resort just outside Park City, Utah called Timphaven. He renamed it the Sundance Resort, and not long after, portions of the movie Jeremiah Johnson (1972), a film which is both one of Redford's favorites and one that has heavily influenced him, were shot in the area. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute, Sundance Catalog, and the Sundance Channel, all in and around Park City. The Sundance Film Festival caters to independent filmmakers in the United States and has received some recognition from the industry as a place to option films. The name Sundance comes from his character, the "Sundance Kid". In addition, Redford owns a celebrated restaurant called Zoom, located on Main Street in the former mining town of Park City.

In 1995, Redford received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Bard College. In December 2005, he received honors at the Kennedy Center for his contributions to American culture. The Honors recipients are recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts: whether in dance, music, theater, opera, movies or television.

Robert Redford is politically liberal. He has supported environmentalism and Native American rights. Supposedly, Barbara Bush told her husband George Bush that he should chose Dan Quayle as a running mate because he looked like Redford. Redford then began some speeches by saying, "Hello. I'm Dan Quayle." However, Redford resented the equation as he and the former Vice President are on the opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Redford married Lola Jean on September 12, 1958; the couple, who had four children, Scott (born 1959 and died shortly after), Shauna (born November 15, 1960), David James (born May 15, 1962), and Amy (born October 22, 1970), divorced in 1985. His companions since have included actress Sonia Braga (during the late 1980s), Kathy O'Rear (from the late 1980s to 1996) and Sibylle Szaggars (1998). Redford has three grandchildren.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1960	Tall Story	Basketball Player	Joshua Logan	Uncredited
1962	War Hunt	Private Roy Loomis	Denis Sanders
1965	Inside Daisy Clover	Wade Lewis	Robert Mulligan
	Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious	Captain Hank Wilson	Gottfried Reinhardt
1966	This Property Is Condemned	Owen Legate	Sydney Pollack
	The Chase	Charlie 'Bubber' Reeves	Arthur Penn
1967	Barefoot in the Park	Paul Bratter	Gene Saks
1969	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	Sundance Kid	George Roy Hill
	Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here	Deputy Sheriff Christopher 'Coop' Cooper	Abraham Polonsky
	Downhill Racer	David Chappellet	Michael Ritchie
1970	Little Fauss and Big Halsy	Halsy Knox	Sidney J. Furie
1972	Jeremiah Johnson	Jeremiah Johnson	Sydney Pollack
	The Candidate	Bill McKay	Michael Ritchie
	The Hot Rock	John Archibald Dortmunder	Peter Yates
1973	The Sting	Johnny Hooker	George Roy Hill
	The Way We Were	Hubbell Gardiner	Sydney Pollack
1974	The Great Gatsby	Jay Gatsby	Jack Clayton
1975	Three Days of the Condor	Joseph Turner / The Condor	Sydney Pollack
	The Great Waldo Pepper	Waldo Pepper	George Roy Hill
1976	All the President's Men	Bob Woodward	Alan J. Pakula
1977	A Bridge Too Far	Major Julian Cook	Richard Attenborough
1979	The Electric Horseman	Norman 'Sonny' Steele	Sydney Pollack
1980	Brubaker	Henry Brubaker	Stuart Rosenberg
1984	The Natural	Roy Hobbs	Barry Levinson
1985	Out of Africa	Denys Finch Hatton	Sydney Pollack
1986	Legal Eagles	Tom Logan	Ivan Reitman
1990	Havana	Jack Weil	Sydney Pollack
1992	Sneakers	Marty Bishop / Martin Brice	Phil Alden Robinson
	Incident at Oglala	Narrator	Michael Apted
1993	Indecent Proposal	John Gage	Adrian Lyne
	La Classe américaine	Steven	Michel Hazanavicius & Dominique Mézerette
1996	Up Close & Personal	Warren Justice	Jon Avnet
1998	The Horse Whisperer	Tom Booker	Himself	Also producer
2001	The Last Castle	Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin	Rod Lurie
	Spy Game	CIA Case Officer Nathan D. Muir	Tony Scott
2004	The Clearing	Wayne Hayes	Pieter Jan Brugge
2005	An Unfinished Life	Einar Gilkyson	Lasse Hallström
2006	Charlotte's Web	Ike	Gary Winick	Voice
2007	Lions for Lambs	Professor Stephen Malley	Himself	Also producer
2012	The Company You Keep	Jim Grant / Nick Sloan
2013	All Is Lost	Our Man	J.C. Chandor
2014	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Alexander Pierce	Anthony and Joe Russo
2015	A Walk in the Woods	Bill Bryson	Ken Kwapis	Also producer
	Truth	Dan Rather	James Vanderbilt
2016	Pete's Dragon	Mr. Meacham	David Lowery
2017	The Discovery	Thomas Harbor	Charlie McDowell
	Our Souls at Night	Louis Waters	Ritesh Batra	Also producer
2018	The Old Man & the Gun	Forrest Tucker	David Lowery	Also producer
	Buttons	Narrator (voice)	Tim Janis
2019	Avengers: Endgame	Alexander Pierce	Anthony and Joe Russo	Cameo
2020	Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia	Lokia The Dolphin Monster (voice)	Various

Director

Year	Title	Notes
1980	Ordinary People
1988	The Milagro Beanfield War	Also producer
1992	A River Runs Through It	Also producer
1994	Quiz Show	Also producer
1998	The Horse Whisperer	Also producer
2000	The Legend of Bagger Vance	Also producer
2007	Lions for Lambs	Also producer
2010	The Conspirator	Also producer
2012	The Company You Keep	Also producer
2014	Cathedrals of Culture	Documentary, segment: "The Salk Institute"

Film quotes

• "What do we do now?" - from The Candidate (1972)
• "Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?" - as Joe Turner in Three Days of the Condor (1975).

External links

• Robert Redford at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
• the Sundance Institute
• Sundance Resort
• Article about the Zoom Restaurant in the Guardian
• Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Robert Redford (retrieved from the Internet Archive. October 18, 2013)
• Robert Redford at TriviaTribute.com