Robert Redford
Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on September 17, 2025 @ tonymacklin.net.
Robert Redford had an extraordinary career.
I never met him in person, although I was invited to his ranch to talk about Jeremiah Johnson (1972). But I had a trip with my wife to go to England to celebrate our anniversary at the same time.
Redford had his first major appearance in a 1960 television production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, directed by Sidney Lumet with Jason Robards as Hickey. As a 23 year old actor Redford played the complex mother-hating Don Parritt.
[At the time Redford's bio said he was born in 1937. Later it was discovered he actually was born in 1936.]
Redford's first movie was War Hunt in 1962. On the set he met fellow-actor Sydney Pollack. They became close friends, and Pollack directed 7 films with Redford in them, including The Way We Were (1973) and Out of Africa (1985).
Redford and Paul Newman make an interesting comparison. They were terrific in Butch Casssidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). In their early careers, both played flawed anti-heroes Newman several times, including The Left-Handed Gun (1958) and The Hustler (1961).
Redford played anti-heroes in two films directed by Michael Ritchie -- Downhill Racer with Gene Hackman (1969) and The Candidate (1972). Like Newman, Redford became a major movie star -- when he appeared in The Way We Were, but he never returned to anti-heroic characters.
Newman took risks, especially in Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976) and Road to Perdition (2002). The audience didn't accept what Altman had done with their blue-eyed boy, although it's a very underrated film with a memorable satiric performance by Newman.
Both Newman and Redford have not won the Oscars that perhaps they should have. Newman finally won the Best Actor award for The Color of Money (1986). Redford has never won an Oscar for acting. He was nominated for The Sting but was beaten by Jack Lemon in Save the Tiger (1973). It perhaps is ironic that Redford's only Oscar is for directing Ordinary People (1980).
It is a little disheartening that most of Redford's output the last two decades has been mediocre. Although All Is Lost (2013) -- with less than a minute of dialogue and an experimental performance by Redford -- is a memorable farewell.
RIP, RR.
