The cinematic icon, who passed away at the age of 89, appeared in over 50 motion pictures, won an Academy Award for his work behind the camera, and was known as a champion of indie creators through founding the recurring Sundance event.
His success allowed him to choose projects that reflected his left-leaning views, and he was also an advocate for planet conservation and Native American rights.
His timeless heartland features made a lasting impression: One writer commented he was like “a piece of a national monument clad in casual wear.”
Another reviewer noted he possessed “an effortless poise and a glow that made it seem as if he shone from the inside.”
But the actor felt his appearance proved more of a barrier than a help professionally, and remarked that fate had brought tragedy in his family life as punishment for his physical gifts.
Charles Robert Redford Jr entered the world in Santa Monica in the late 1930s, the son of a milkman who eventually became a bookkeeper for a major corporation.
During school, he joined a street gang and was arrested for “taking a car that housed pilfered goods in its trunk.”
He earned a sports-based opportunity to the University of Colorado, but asked to leave not long after for excessive drinking. Simultaneously, his mother died at a young age.
Struck by grief, he traveled briefly, laboring in drilling sites before visiting Paris and Florence, where he studied art.
His time abroad offered fresh insight on America: “I began to see America from another angle,” he commented.
Coming back, he signed up at a acting school hoping to be a set designer—however pivoted to performance.
Similar to other aspiring actors in late 1950s New York, he gained bit parts on Broadway and on TV, such as roles in well-known shows including The Untouchables.
His first film was in 1960 via a minor role in a motion picture, in which he acted alongside an emerging talent.
The project wasn’t a successful beginning to his film career. The feature flopped—with a critic declaring that “nothing would help the film.”
Yet, it was the foundation of a enduring friendship with Fonda, Fonda confessed to falling in love whenever they worked together.
“It was constantly something hidden as he kept private much,” she noted. “He has a glow about him.”
His first big theatrical hit occurred playing pompous attorney a character in Neil Simon’s romantic comedy the show. Eventually played the character in the film version, reuniting with Fonda.
In 1965, he won a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for his performance in Inside Daisy Clover co-starring an actress.
But he was rejected for the role of the graduate in The Graduate because Mike Nichols felt he was too good-looking—which made Redford cautious of being typecast because of his image.
International stardom blossomed at the end of the sixties with the film.
The 33-year-old’s interpretation of the laidback Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman’s charismatic role, was one of Hollywood’s great pairings.
Ironically, Redford almost missing out on the part because an insider remarked: “He’s just another typical star. Throw something out of an opening in Malibu, you’d find several similar.”
The production company tried all not to casting Redford, till Newman—a huge figure—got involved and required he be hired.
The two actors found they both loved a love of acting, and stayed good pals up until Newman’s death in that year.
