Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California. Over more than sixty years, he built a reputation as a magnetic leading man of the American New Wave, working as an actor, director, and producer. His awards include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globes—among them the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994. He also received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award (1996), an Academy Honorary Award (2002), the Kennedy Center Honors (2005), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016), and an Honorary César (2019).

Redford grew up in Van Nuys, California, where his father worked as an accountant. His mother was from Austin, Texas, and his ancestry is Irish, Scottish, and English. As a child, he often visited his maternal grandfather in Texas, and he credits those trips for his environmentalism and love of nature. He attended Van Nuys High School alongside future baseball pitcher Don Drysdale, describing himself as a poor student who found inspiration in art and sports. At age eleven, he had a mild case of polio. After graduating in 1954, he spent a year and a half at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity and worked at a bar called The Sink. Heavy drinking cost him his half-scholarship and led to his expulsion. He then traveled through Europe, living in France, Spain, and Italy, before studying painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and taking classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, graduating in 1959.

His acting career began in New York, on stage and television. He made his Broadway debut in a small role in *Tall Story* (1959), followed by parts in *The Highest Tree* (1959) and *Sunday in New York* (1961). His biggest Broadway success came in 1963 as the stuffy newlywed husband opposite Elizabeth Ashley in Neil Simon’s *Barefoot in the Park*. Starting in 1960, he guest-starred on numerous TV dramas, including *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*, *The Twilight Zone*, *Naked City*, *Maverick*, *The Untouchables*, *Perry Mason*, *Route 66*, and *Dr. Kildare*. His uncredited screen debut was in the film adaptation of *Tall Story* (1960), starring Anthony Perkins and Jane Fonda. He earned an Emmy nomination for his role in an episode of *Rescue 8*.

Redford achieved Hollywood stardom with the film version of *Barefoot in the Park* (1967), followed by *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid* (1969), *Downhill Racer* (1969), *Jeremiah Johnson* (1972), *The Candidate* (1972), and *The Sting* (1973). The last earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. His stardom continued with *The Way We Were* (1973), *The Great Gatsby* (1974), *Three Days of the Condor* (1975), *The Great Waldo Pepper* (1975), *All the President’s Men* (1976), *The Electric Horseman* (1979), *The Natural* (1984), and *Out of Africa* (1985). Later film credits include *Sneakers* (1992), *Indecent Proposal* (1993), *An Unfinished Life* (2005), *All Is Lost* (2013), *Truth* (2015), *Our Souls at Night* (2017), and *The Old Man & the Gun* (2018). He also played Alexander Pierce in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films *Captain America: The Winter Soldier* (2014) and *Avengers: Endgame* (2019), the latter being his final film role.

Redford made his directorial debut with the family drama *Ordinary People* (1980), which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. He went on to direct *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). A strong advocate for independent cinema, he co-founded the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival in 1978, helping to nurture new filmmakers. Beyond his artistic work, Redford was known for his environmental activism, support for Native American and Indigenous rights, and advocacy for LGBTQ equality.