Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936),
[Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905-1995 on-line. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.] better known as
Robert Redford, is an American
film director, actor,
producer,
businessman,
model,
environmentalist,
philanthropist, and founder of the
Sundance Film Festival. He received two Oscars: one in 1981 for
Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime Achievement in 2002.
Personal life
Redford was born in
Santa Monica,
California, the son of Martha W. (
née Hart) and Charles Robert Redford Sr. (November 19, 1914 – April 2, 1991),
[Social Security Death Index] a milkman-turned-accountant from
Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
[Robert Redford Biography (1937-)][Robert Redford: An American idol - Times Online][The Sundance Kid] He has a half-brother, William, from his father's re-marriage. Redford is of
English and
Scots-Irish ancestry.
[RootsWeb][Sponsored Archives: A Robert Redford Retropsective][New England Historic Genealogical Society]
When he was a child, legendary tennis star
Pancho Gonzales asked Redford to warm him up before a match by hitting a few balls with him. Redford claims that this was one of the most memorable moments of his life in a documentary called
"Remembering Pancho".
He attended
Van Nuys High School in
Los Angeles,
California where he was classmates with
Natalie Wood and
Don Drysdale, and was a teammate on the Van Nuys High School
baseball team with Don Drysdale. He graduated in 1954, and received a
baseball scholarship to the
University of Colorado, where he was a
pitcher. He lost the scholarship due to excessive fratting, possibly fueled by the death of his mother, which occurred when Redford was 18. He later studied painting 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 September 1958, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen, who dropped out of college to marry him. They had four children: James, Shauna, Amy, and Scott Anthony Redford, their first child, who died in 1959 at age 2½ months of
sudden infant death syndrome. They divorced in 1985.
[Biography for Lola Van Wagenen]
In July 2009, Redford married his longtime partner, Sibylle Szaggars at the luxury Louis C. Jacob Hotel in
Hamburg,
Germany. She had moved in with Redford in the 1990s and shares his Sundance, Utah home.
[Robert Redford marries long-term girlfriend]
Acting career
Television
Redford's career, like that of almost all major stars who emerged in the 1950s, began in New York, where an actor could find work both in
television and on
stage. Starting in 1959, he appeared as a guest star on numerous programs, including
The Untouchables,
Whispering Smith,
Perry Mason,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents,
Route 66,
Dr. Kildare,
Playhouse 90,
Tate and
The Twilight Zone, among others. He earned an
Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in
The Voice of Charlie Pont (ABC, 1962). One of his last television appearances was on October 7, 1963, on the
ABC medical drama about
psychiatry,
Breaking Point.
Theatre
Redford's
Broadway debut was 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 was as the stuffy
newlywed husband of
Elizabeth Ashley in
Neil Simon's
Barefoot in the Park (1963).
Film
While still largely an unknown, Redford made his screen debut in
War Hunt (1962), co-starring with
John Saxon in a film set during the last days of the Korean War. This film also marked the debuts of
Sydney Pollack and
Tom Skerritt. After his Broadway success, he was cast in larger feature roles in movies. He played a
bisexual movie star who marries starlet
Natalie Wood in
Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and rejoined her for Pollack's
This Property Is Condemned (1966)—again as her lover. The same year saw his first teaming with
Jane Fonda, in
Arthur Penn's
The Chase. Fonda and Redford were paired again in the big screen version of
Barefoot in the Park (1967), and were again co-stars in Pollack's
The Electric Horseman (1979).
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 property 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 made him a bankable star and cemented his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, sometimes sardonic good guy. Redford became one of the most popular stars of the 1970s.
Redford suffered through a few films that did not achieve
box office success during this time, including
Downhill Racer (1969),
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969),
Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), and
The Hot Rock (1972). But his overall career was flourishing, with the critical and box office hit,
Jeremiah Johnson (1972), the political satire
The Candidate (1972),
The Way We Were (1973) and
The Sting (1973), for which he was nominated for an
Oscar.
During the years 1974-76, exhibitors voted Redford Hollywood's top box office name. His hits included
The Great Gatsby (1974),
The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) and
Three Days of the Condor (1975). The popular and acclaimed
All the President's Men (1976), directed by
Alan J. Pakula and scripted once again by Goldman, was a landmark film for Redford. Not only was he the
executive producer and co-star, but the film's serious subject matter, the
Watergate scandal, also reflected the actor's offscreen concerns for political causes.
He also starred in the baseball film
The Natural (1984). Redford has continued his involvement in mainstream Hollywood movies, though projects became fewer. He appeared as a disgraced Army general sent to prison in the political thriller,
The Last Castle (2001), directed by Rod Lurie, someone else with a strong interest in politics. Redford, a leading environmental activist, narrated the IMAX documentary
Sacred Planet (2004), a sweeping journey across the globe to some of its most exotic and endangered places. In
The Clearing (2004), a thriller co-starring Helen Mirren, Redford was a successful businessman whose kidnapping unearths the secrets and inadequacies that led to his achieving the American Dream.
Redford stepped back into producing with
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), a coming-of-age road film about a young medical student, Ernesto 'Che' Guevera, and his friend Alberto Granado. It also explored political and social issues of South America that influenced Guevara and shaped his future. Five years in the making, Redford was credited by director Walter Salles for being instrumental in getting the film made and released.
Back in front of the camera, Redford received good notices for his turn in director Lasse Hallstrom's
An Unfinished Life (2005) as a cantankerous rancher who is forced to take in his estranged daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez)—whom he blames for his son's death—and the granddaughter he never knew he had when they flee an abusive relationship. The film, which sat on the shelf for many months while its distributor Miramax was restructured, was generally dismissed as clichéd and overly sentimental. Meanwhile, Redford returned to familiar territory when he signed on to direct and star in an update of
The Candidate.
Director
Redford had long harbored ambitions to work on both sides of the lens. As early as 1969, Redford had served as the executive producer for
Downhill Racer. His first outing as
director was in 1980's
Ordinary People, a drama about the slow disintegration of an
upper-middle class family, for which he won the
Academy Award for
Best Director. Redford was credited with obtaining a powerful dramatic performance from
Mary Tyler Moore, as well as superb work from
Donald Sutherland and
Timothy Hutton, who also won the Oscar for
Best Supporting Actor.
Redford did not direct again until
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), a well-crafted though not commercially successful, screen version of
John Nichols' acclaimed novel of the Southwest.
The Milagro Beanfield War is the story of the people of Milagro, New Mexico (a real place off I-40 near Alburqueque) overcoming big developers who set about to ruin their community and force them out because of tax increases. Other directorial projects have included the period family drama
A River Runs Through It (1992), based on
Norman Maclean's novella; and the exposé
Quiz Show (1994), about the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s. Redford worked from a screenplay by
Paul Attanasio with noted cinematographer
Michael Ballhaus and a strong cast that featured
John Turturro,
Rob Morrow, and
Ralph Fiennes. Redford handpicked Morrow for his part in the film (Morrow's only high-profile feature film role to date), because he liked his work on
Northern Exposure. Redford also directed
Matt Damon and
Will Smith in
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000).
Beside his directing and producing duties, Redford continued acting. He played opposite
Meryl Streep in Sydney Pollack's Oscar-winning
Out of Africa,
Michelle Pfeiffer in the newsroom romance
Up Close & Personal, and
Kristin Scott Thomas in
The Horse Whisperer, which he also directed. Redford also continued work in films with political context, such as
Havana (1990),
Sneakers (1992),
Spy Game (2001), and
Lions for Lambs (2007).
Honors
[
Kennedy Center honorees.jpg|thumb|300px|right|U.S. President [[George W. Bush] and First Lady
Laura Bush pose with the
Kennedy Center honorees, from left to right, actress
Julie Harris, actor Robert Redford, singer
Tina Turner, ballet dancer
Suzanne Farrell and singer
Tony Bennett on December 4, 2005, during the reception in the
Blue Room at the
White House]].
He attended the
University of Colorado in the 1950s and received an Honorary Degree in 1983.
In 1995, Redford received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from
Bard College. He was a 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award/Honorary Oscar recipient at the 74th Academy Awards.
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, motion pictures or television.
The University of Southern California (USC) School of Theater announced the first annual
Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists in 2009. According to the school's web site, the award was created "to honor those who have distinguished themselves not only in the exemplary quality, skill and innovation of their work, but also in their public commitment to social responsibility, to increasing awareness of global issues and events, and to inspiring and empowering young people."
[Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists Accessed 2009-07-15]
Robert Redford received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from
Brown University at the 240th Commencement exercises on May 25, 2008.
[Brown University to Confer Seven Honorary Degrees May 25 Accessed 2009-07-15] He also spoke during the ceremonies.
Filmography
Actor
Director
Sundance
With the financial proceeds of his acting success, starting with his salaries from
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and
Downhill Racer, Redford bought an entire
ski area on the east side of
Mount Timpanogos northeast of
Provo,
Utah called "Timp Haven," which was renamed "
Sundance." Redford's wife Lola was from Utah and they had built a home in the area in 1963. 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 near the ski area. He founded the
Sundance Film Festival,
Sundance Institute,
Sundance Cinemas, Sundance Catalog, and the
Sundance Channel, all in and around
Park City, Utah, 30 miles (48 km) north of the Sundance ski area. The Sundance Film Festival caters to independent filmmakers in the United States and has received recognition from the industry as a place to open films. In 2008, Sundance exhibited 125 feature-length films from 34 countries, with more than 50,000 attendees.
[Adrienne Papp. "2008 Sundance Insider". Retrieved on 2008-05-16.] 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.
Independent films
Since founding the nonprofit
Sundance Institute in Park City, in 1981, Redford has been deeply involved with
independent film. Through its various workshop programs and popular film festival, Sundance has provided much-needed support for independent filmmakers. In 1995, Redford signed a deal with Showtime to start a 24-hour cable TV channel devoted to airing independent films—the Sundance Channel premiered on February 29, 1996.
Political activity
Redford is politically
liberal, and has supported
environmentalism,
Native American rights, and the arts. Most of his federal political contributions have been to
Democrats (61%) or
special interest groups (34.6%), such as the
Political Action Committee of the Directors Guild of America.
[Robert Redford's Federal campaign contributions @ Newsmeat.com] However Redford has on occasion also supported
Republicans, including Brent Cornell Morris in his unsuccessful 1990 race for
Utah's 3rd congressional district seat.
[Brent Morris - at OurCampaigns.com] Redford also supported
Gary R. Herbert, another Republican and a friend, in Herbert's successful campaign to be elected
Utah's Lieutenant Governor, and is currently the Governor of Utah. He is an avid environmentalist and is a trustee of the
Natural Resources Defense Council.
See also
