GREAT ACTORS: Robert Redford

Here is a tribute to one of the world's greatest actors, Robert Redford.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born in 1936) is an American actor, director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Sundance Film Festival.

Redford has described himself as having been a "bad" student, finding inspiration outside the classroom, and being interested in art and sports.

Redford began acting on television in the early 1960s. He appeared as a guest star on numerous television drama programs, including Naked City, Maverick, The Untouchables, The Americans, Whispering Smith, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Route 66, Dr. Kildare, Playhouse 90, Tate, The Twilight Zone, and "Captain Brassbound's Conversion" with a young Christopher Plummer, among others. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont (1962). His greatest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1963). He starred in the movie in 1967, with Jane Fonda.

Redford made his film debut in War Hunt (1962). His role in Inside Daisy Clover (1965), with Natalie Wood, won him a Golden Globe for best new star. In 1966 he was again with Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned and in The Chase, with Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and Angie Dickinson. After this initial success, Redford became concerned about his blond male stereotype image and turned down roles in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate. Redford found the niche he was looking for in George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), scripted by William Goldman, in which he was paired for the first time with Paul Newman. The film was a huge success and made him a major bankable star, cementing his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, sometimes sardonic good guy. In 1969, he starred in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and in Downhill Racer, with Camilla Sparv. In 1972, he starred in The Candidate, and that same year he had a critical and box office hit with Jeremiah Johnson. In 1973 he had the greatest hit of his career, the blockbuster crime caper The Sting, with Paul Newman, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. That same year, he was with Barbra Streisand in the famous The Way We Were. In 1974 he starred in The Great Gatsby, with Mia Farrow, and in 1975 in Three Days of the Condor, with Faye Dunaway, and in The Great Waldo Pepper. The popular and acclaimed All the President's Men (1976) was a landmark film for Redford. In 1979 he reunited with Jane Fonda in The Electric Horseman.

The first film that Redford directed, Ordinary People (1980), was one of the most critically and publicly acclaimed films of the decade, winning four Oscars including Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Director for Redford. In 1980, he starred in Brubaker. In 1985, he starred in Out of Africa, with Meryl Streep, which was an enormous critical and box office success, and won seven Oscars including Best Picture. He released his third film as a director, A River Runs Through It, in 1992, which was a return to mainstream success for Redford as a director and brought a young Brad Pitt to greater prominence.

He went on to receive Best Director and Best Picture nominations in 1995 for Quiz Show. He won a second Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. In 2010, he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. He has won BAFTA, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards.

In April 2014, Time magazine included Redford in their annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World", declaring him the "Godfather of Indie Film". In 2016, he was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Redford continued as a major star throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Redford supports environmentalism, Native American rights, LGBT rights, and the arts.

Enjoy Robert Redford's charismatic beauty!