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Robert Redford
August 18, 1936 – September 16, 2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford




Robert Redford for much of my life has been one of my favorite actors, particularly during the 1960's and 1970's. He started out in the early 1960's doing guest appearances on many TV shows like Twilight Zone and The Virginian, before breaking into movies.


As actor:

  • Tall Story ( 1960, as Basketball Player, uncredited)
    War Hunt (1962, as Private Roy Loomis )
    Inside Daisy Clover (1965, as Wade Lewis )
    Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious ( 1966, as Capt. Hank Wilson )
    This Property Is Condemned ( 1966, as Owen Legate )
    The Chase (1966, as Charlie 'Bubber' Reeves )
    Barefoot in the Park 1967, as Paul Bratter )
    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid[/b] ( 1969, as Sundance Kid )
    Tell tTem Willie Boy Is Here ( 1969, as Dept. Sheriff Christopher 'Coop' Cooper )
    Downhill Racer (1969, as David Chappellet)
    Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970, as Halsy Knox)
    Jeremiah Johnson (1972, as Jeremiah Johnson )
    The Candidate (1972, as political candidate Bill McKay )
    The Hot Rock (1972, as John Archibald Dortmunder )
    The Sting (1973, as Johnny Hooker )
    The Way We Were (1873, as Hubbell Gardiner )
    The Great Gatsby (1974, as Jay Gatsby )
    Three Days of the Condor (1975, as Joe Turner, a.k.a. The Condor )
    Great Waldo Pepper Waldo Pepper (1975, as Waldo Pepper) l
    All the President's Men (1976, as Bob Woodward )
    A Bridge Too Far (1977, as Major Julian Cook )
    The Electric Horseman (1979, as Norman 'Sonny' Steele)
    Brubaker (1980, as warden Henry Brubaker )
    The Natural (1984, as baseball player Roy Hobbs )
    Out of Africa (1985, as Denys Finch Hatton
    Legal Eagles (1986, as Tom Logan)
    Havana (1990,, as Jack Weil)
    Sneakers (1992, as Martin Brice, a.k.a. Marty Bishop )
    Indecent Proposal (1993, as millionaire John Gage )
    Up Close & Personal (1996, as Warren Justice )
    The Horse Whisperer (1998, as Tom Booker, also directed by Redford)
    The Last Castle (2001, asLi eutenant General Eugene Irwin )
    Spy Game (2001, as CIA Case Officer Nathan D. Muir )
    The Clearing (2004, as Wayne Hayes Pieter )
    An Unfinished Life (2005, as Einar Gilkyson )
    Charlotte's Web (2006, as Ike Gary Winick.... voice )
    Lions for Lambs (2007, as Professor Stephen Malley, also direcde by Redford)
    The Company You Keep (2012, as Jim Grant, a.k.a. Nick Sloan )
    All Is Lost (2013, as Our Man )
    Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014, as Alexander Pierce )
    A Walk in the Woods (2015, as Bill Bryson)
    Truth (2015, as Dan Rather )
    Pete's Dragon (2016, as Conrad Meacham )
    The Discovery (2017, as Thomas Harbor )
    Our Souls at Night (2017, as Louis Waters )
    The Old Man & the Gun ( 2018, as Forrest Tucker David Lowery
    Avengers: Endgame (2019, as Alexander Pierce.... cameo appearance)
    Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia (2020, Lokia The Dolphin Monster Various...voice )




as Director :


  • Ordinary People (1980 )
    The Milagro Beanfield War (1998)
    A River Runs Through It (1992 )
    Quiz Show (1994)
    The Horse Whisperer ( 1998 )
    A Civil Action (1998)
    The Legend of Bagger Vance ( 2000)
    Lions for Lambs (2007 )
    The Conspirator (2010 )
    The Company You Keep (2012 )
    Cathedrals of Culture (2014 )



I bolded the ttiles of his movies I liked best. He had quite a consisten string of grea roles and commercial successes from about 1969-1979, and after a few pauses in his career, a few more through the 1980's. Particular favories of mine include Jeremiah Johnson, The Candidate, The Great Gatsby, The Great Waldo Pepper, Three Days of the Condor, All The President's Men, and The Electric Horseman.
I also thought Legal Eagles was very funny.

Andt then had a second period of acclaim as a director. Of those I liked best The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, and The Horse Whisperer.


After Redford starred in Jeremiah Johnson (1972) he liked the area in Utah so much that he made a large purchase of land there, and in relation to the movie role he played, named it the Sundance Ranch. Years later (I forget the details) he eiher participated in, or started by himself, creating the Sundance Film Festival, to give more visibility and showcase to independent films done outside of mainstream Hollywoord, that he felt were marginalized and not given a commercial and critical chance.

Redford also was friends wih reporter Carl Bernstein, and once while discussing Bernstein's reporting on the Watergate scandal, encouraged Woodward and Bernstein to write a book, saying it would be easier to turn the Watergate story into a movie if it were based on a book.
And I think Bob Woodward over the last 50 years has also gotten a lot of mileage out of having himself played in a movie by Robert Redford, tha gave visibility to every subsequent book Woodward has published since.



I actually have mixed feelings about Redford. He was the first movie actor I liked tothe point I sought out pretty much every role he ever played , back in 1981 or so. And I love the low-key stoic sincerity he brings to the roles he played. But he's also an ultra-left Hollywood liberal, and in particular his views on William Aers and the Weather Underground bombings in the 1970's and early 1980's are something Redford said he and his Hollywood inner circle were very favorable to and excited about.
And this made me lose a lot of respect for him.
And i's not like he said this in the 1960's or early 1970's, and matured to regret having supported these events, he said this in a videotaped interview in his late 70's, just 10 0r 12 years ago, at the end of his life.
He would probably be supportive of the murder sprees of Luigi Mangione and Tyler Robinson, based on that barometer.