Remembering Robert Redford
Academy Award-winning director, actor, producer, philanthropist and environmentalist Robert Redford died September 16, 2025 at the age of 89 at his Sundance mountain home in Utah. He is survived by second wife Sibylle Szaggars whom he married in 2009, and two of his four children – daughters Shauna Redford and Amy Redford – with first wife Lola Van Wagenen (they divorced in 1985). Redford leaves a professional and personal legacy that includes numerous grandchildren, several of whom are following the family footsteps into film and television work.
A look back at Robert Redford’s career through the decades:
Barefoot in the Park to The Sting (1936-1974)
(Robert Redford 1960 Tate “Comanche Scalps”)
Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California. In Robert Redford: The Biography (2011) by Michael Feeney Callan, Redfords recounts his parents marrying shortly after his birth, his childhood in Los Angeles, and the ending of World War II.
Redford graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1954; his focus had never been on school work, more on sports, girls, hot-rodding, and hijinks that included drinking. He has said he spoke to 15-year-old actress Natalie Wood when he (a senior) refused her admittance to a Van Nuys High School assembly, but she wouldn’t likely have remembered it; Wood was already a movie star.
(Robert Redford: University of Colorado Boulder Alumni)
Robert Redford enrolled at the University of Colorado (UC), where he had hopes of a baseball scholarship. While attending UC and driving home, Redford was impressed by the beauty of the Timp Haven canyon and Mount Timpanagos near Provo, Utah.
Redford’s mother’s death in 1955 devastated him and heavy drinking soon curtailed his university career when he lost his scholarship and was kicked out.
At loose ends, Robert Redford went to Europe in the late spring of 1956 to study art and travel; he suffered a mini-breakdown.
On his return to the U.S. in March 1957 he travelled across the U.S. and met Mormon college student and Provo, Utah native Lola Van Wagenen. They fell in love, but Lola continued her college studies while Redford moved to New York to study drama at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in October 1957.
In early 1958, a lonesome Robert Redford asked Lola to elope and move to New York with him. She dropped out of college and on August 9 1958, Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford were married in a private ceremony in a Las Vegas walk-in chapel. They had a Mormon marriage ceremony in front of her family in Provo, Utah on September 12, 1958.
Robert Redford continued his studies at AADA, and won a scholarship while Lola worked. He began to gather attention from casting directors and appeared in a small role as a basketball player for 3 months on Broadway in the basketball comedy Tall Story (1959). The movie version of Tall Story (1960) starring Anthony Perkins, Ray Walston, and Jane Fonda in her movie debut, was also Robert Redford’s first (uncredited) movie role.
Lola and Robert Redford’s first child, son Scott Anthony Redford was born in later that year in September 1959 and died a couple of months later in November from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Lola and Robert Redford soon had more children – daughter Shauna Redford (b. Nov. 1960) and son James Redford (b. May 1962).
(Patricia Blair & Robert Redford 1964 The Virginian: NBC Television)
From 1960-1964 Robert Redford appeared in TV movies and episodes of popular baby boomer television series such as Maverick, Perry Mason, Route 66, Naked City, The Virginian starring James Drury, The Untouchables, Bus Stop starring Richard Anderson, The Twilight Zone, and Dr. Kildare starring Richard Chamberlain.
He earned an Emmy Award Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in an episode of the television series Alcoa Premiere titled The Voice of Charlie Pont (1962), starring Fred Astaire, Bill Bixby, and Bradford Dillman.
Redford had a bigger role in the Korean War drama War Hunt (1962), which starred John Saxon, Sydney Pollack, Gavin MacLeod, and Tom Skerritt. Lifelong friendships between Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford, and Redford and Tom Skerritt, were born.
Leading roles on Broadway in the romantic comedies Sunday in New York (1961-1962) and Barefoot in the Park (1963) followed. Redford told Men’s Journal he bought 2 acres of land in Timp Haven canyon, Utah for $500 in 1961 and built a cabin there to retreat to with his young family.
“My wife and I would snowshoe up in the winter, with our kids on our backs.“
Robert Redford’s first credited big-screen movie was the comedy Situation Hopeless…But Not Serious (1965), in which he co-starred with Alec Guinness and Mike Connors (Mannix).
In December of that same year, the drama Inside Daisy Clover (1965) starring Christopher Plummer, Natalie Wood, Redford, Roddy McDowall, and Ruth Gordon was released. Redford won the 1966 Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor for his performance as bisexual Wade Lewis, who marries and then abandons Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood). Redford has said that Natalie Wood chose him to be her leading man in both Inside Daisy Clover and This Property is Condemned (1966); they became friends, and he was best man at her second wedding (to Richard Gregson in 1969). Robert Blake and Dabney Coleman also appeared in This Property is Condemned, which was the first of 7 movies starring Robert Redford that were directed by Sydney Pollack.
Prison-break movie The Chase (1966) featured Marlon Brando as Sheriff Calder, with Angie Dickinson as his wife Ruby. Robert Redford was escaped prisoner Charlie “Bubber” Reeves, and Jane Fonda was Bubber’s lonely wife Anna. Others in the cast of The Chase included Robert Duvall, Diana Hyland in her second movie with Robert Redford, and Jocelyn Brando (Marlon Brando’s older sister). The Chase was the first of three movies that Robert Redford and Jane Fonda would co-star in.
The Neil Simon comedy Barefoot in the Park (1967) starred Jane Fonda and Robert Redford as newlyweds. Both Redford and Fonda had played their respective roles in the 1963 Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park, as had Mildred Natwick (Fonda’s on-screen mother). Veteran actor Charles Boyer co-starred as the odd neighbour, and character actor Herb Edelman was the telephone installation guy. Barefoot in the Park was a box-office success, costing only $2 million to make and bringing in $20 million (and another $9 million in rentals later on). Natalie Wood was almost Redford’s co-star for a third time, but she passed on Barefoot in the Park in order to take some time off, so Redford and Jane Fonda were paired again in their second movie. This clip from Barefoot in the Park features Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.
Robert Redford won the 1969 BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performances in his next 3 movies, which were all released between October 24-1969 and December 18 1969:
The western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) co-starred Paul Newman as the outlaw Butch Cassidy and his pal Harry Longabaugh “The Sundance Kid“, played by Robert Redford, of the infamous Hole in the Wall Gang. Katharine Ross co-starred as The Sundance Kid‘s lover. Cloris Leachman and Sam Elliott also had small roles in the movie, with Elliott making his movie debut. Jack Lemmon passed on the role of The Sundance Kid because he didn’t like riding horses; after Warren Beatty also passed and Steve McQueen at first agreed but then dropped out, Robert Redford became The Sundance Kid. Released on October 24, 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid became the top-grossing movie of that year. The film spawned more lifelong friendships, this time between costars Newman and Redford, as well as screenplay writer William Goldman (he researched the movie for 8 years), who would work several more times with Robert Redford.
Downhill Racer (1969) saw Robert Redford (U.S. Ski Team hopeful) co-star with Gene Hackman (team coach). Dabney Coleman (assistant coach Mayo) and Sylvester Stallone in an uncredited role, also appear in Downhill Racer. Redford learned to ski for the movie, which was filmed on location in Europe (Austria, Switzerland, and France) and in the United States (Colorado). Robert Redford was an Executive Producer for Downhill Racer via his new production company, Wildwood Enterprises. Although not a box office success, Downhill Racer was a critically acclaimed sports drama, and Redford was nominated for the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor for his performance.
In a fictionalized retelling of a true story, Tell Them Willie Boy is Here (1969), Robert Blake starred as the Native American Indian Willie Boy, who is on the run, bringing along his girlfriend (Katharine Ross). This was the second Robert Redford movie for both Robert Blake (This Property is Condemned) and Katharine Ross (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). Redford played Deputy Sheriff Cooper who goes in pursuit of Willie Boy with a posse, and Susan Clark was Dr. Elizabeth Arnold.
With his salary from these three movies, Robert Redford purchased the Timp Haven ski slope in 1969 near his Utah cabin and changed the name to Sundance; thus began an entertainment business empire. Lola and Robert Redford’s youngest daughter Amy Redford was born in October 1970, the same month his motorcycle racing comedy Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970) was released. Despite able co-stars Michael J. Pollard and Lauren Hutton, and with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan contributing on the soundtrack and title song, Little Fauss and Big Halsy is forgettable at best.
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) was filmed on location in Utah, with some scenes shot at Mount Timpanogos near Redford’s home. Sydney Pollack directed Jeremiah Johnson after Redford talked him into it. Robert Redford’s other two movies released in 1972 included the crime caper The Hot Rock (1972) co-starring George Segal and Ron Leibman, with Charlotte Rae as Ma Murch. Although based on a novel by Donald E. Westlake, the screenplay for The Hot Rock was written by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). The Hot Rock received some critical acclaim, but it cost more to make than it made at the box office.
Faring better with the critics was the political satire The Candidate (1972) starring Robert Redford and executive produced by him via Wildwood Enterprises (although he was uncredited as such). Redford’s friend and previous co-star Natalie Wood came out of semi-retirement to film a cameo in The Candidate as herself.
Two blockbuster movies released in late 1973 made Robert Redford a top box draw with baby boomer audiences again.
Director Sydney Pollack directed his third movie starring Robert Redford in the romantic drama The Way We Were (1973). Screenwriter Arthur Laurents had originally written the movie with Ryan O’Neal in mind for the secondary role of Hubbell Gardiner, because O’Neal was having an affair with Barbra Streisand in real life. By the time The Way We Were approached filming, Ryan O’Neal and Streisand’s affair had ended; Robert Redford was cast as Hubbell Gardiner and his role was expanded. Barbra Streisand sang The Way We Were title track, her first #1 hit single in the U.S. The Way We Were was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1973, making almost $50 million. This movie trailer for The Way We Were features Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, and Bradford Dillman.
Actress Sally Kirkland appeared in both The Way We Were and Redford’s second movie in 1973, the depression-era crime caper The Sting. The Sting (1973) reunited friends Robert Redford and Paul Newman onscreen, and director George Roy Hill. The Sting brought in almost $160 million and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Redford was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance..
Next year’s The Great Gatsby (1974) was another box office success, although not on the same scale as The Way We Were or The Sting. Robert Redford starred as mysterious Jay Gatsby and Bruce Dern and Mia Farrow were the unhappily married rich couple Tom and Daisy Buchanan; Sam Waterston and Lois Chiles were also in the cast of The Great Gatsby. As happened with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Redford got the leading role of Jay Gatsby after Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen turned it down.
All The President’s Men to Out of Africa (1975-1989)
Robert Redford and his friend, director Sydney Pollack teamed up again for the CIA thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975). Co-stars Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max Von Sydow, and John Houseman rounded out a convincing cast. Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises co-produced the film.
(Robert Redford 1975 The Great Waldo Pepper: SDASM Archives)
Pilot, writer, producer, and director George Roy Hill’s (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting) period drama The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) was his third and last movie starring Robert Redford .
Robert Redford is barnstorming biplane pilot Waldo Pepper in the film, while Bo Svensen is his rival turned partner.
Margot Kidder is Waldo’s love interest, and Susan Sarandon plays a (rightly) terrified stunt woman in The Great Waldo Pepper. Supporting actors Geoffrey Lewis and Edward Hermann were also in the cast.
The political thriller All the President’s Men (1976) was based on the book by journalists Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford). Robert Redford had bought the rights to All the President’s Men in 1974, and hired screenplay writer William Goldman to write the script. A first draft by Goldman came up short, so Carl Bernstein and girlfriend and writer Nora Ephron wrote a new script. When director Alan J. Pakula was hired, he requested rewrites from William Goldman, and both Pakula and Robert Redford also worked on the script. This clip from All the President’s Men features Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Warden.
All the President’s Men was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, and won 4 – Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Adapted Screenplay (William Goldman), and Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards); Jane Alexander was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Also among the large cast in All the President’s Men were Hal Holbrook, Meredith Baxter, Ned Beatty, James Karen, Stephen Collins, and F. Murray Abraham. The movie was another box office success for Redford.
A Bridge Too Far (1977) had a screenplay adaptation by William Goldman (his fourth movie with Robert Redford), and a star-studded cast. Fittingly, this World War II epic featured golden age movie actor Dirk Bogarde (Bogarde had actually been a British intelligence officer during WWII). Also in the cast of A Bridge Too Far – Michael Caine, Sean Connery, James Caan, Anthony Hopkins, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Ryan O’Neal, Nicholas Campbell, John Ratzenberger, Laurence Olivier, and Liv Ullman. According to co-producer Joseph E. Levine, the movie star that was most in demand by distributors to appear in the film was Robert Redford, who was paid $2 million for 5 weeks work; the other “name” actors agreed on a weekly fee of $250,000.
In August 1978, the Utah/US Film Festival in Salt Lake City was founded by Lola Redford’s younger cousin Sterling Van Wagenen. When Robert Redford heard about it, he agreed to serve on the board and appear at the festival. Van Wagenen and Redford subsequently founded the Sundance Institute, with Sterling Van Wagenen as it’s director. The festival was moved to Park City, Utah in the 1980’s and it became a program under the Sundance Institute; in 1991 it was officially renamed to the Sundance Film Festival.
Modern-day western romance-adventure movie The Electric Horseman (1979) was directed by Redford’s friend Sydney Pollack (their fifth movie) and co-produced by Ray Stark and Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises. It reunited Jane Fonda and Robert Redford in their fourth movie together. Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Willie Nelson, and horse Rising Star (Let’s Merge) are featured in this promotional trailer for The Electric Horseman.
Country singer Willie Nelson made his acting debut in The Electric Horseman as Wendell Hickson, pal to Redford’s former rodeo star character Sonny. Nelson sang several songs on The Electric Horseman soundtrack that became hit singles, including the #1 Country chart hits My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys by Sharon Vaughn, and Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys by Ed and Patsy Bruce.
Jane Fonda appeared as a reporter chasing a story while Valerine Perrine was Sonny’s ex-love Charlotta. John Saxon played a cold-hearted businessman, as did Nicolas Coster (his All the President’s Men co-star). The Electric Horseman was actor Wilford Brimley‘s second movie of his career; character actors Quinn Redecker and James B. Sikking also appear in the movie.
Robert Redford bought Let’s Merge after the movie, and the horse lived on his Sundance ranch in Utah until it’s 1997 death. Filming for The Electric Horseman took place in Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, and parts of Utah.
In the prison drama Brubaker (1980), Robert Redford starred as the new prison warden cleaning up a (corrupt) prison. Co-stars included Yaphet Kotto, Jane Alexander (All The President’s Men), David Keith, Wilford Brimley (The Electric Horseman), and veteran character actors Matt Clark, M. Emmet Walsh. Brubaker was actor Murray Hamilton’s third movie with Robert Redford (after Tall Story and The Way We Were).
By this time, Lola and Robert Redford had grown apart and were separated; she returned to school to complete her college degree.
Robert Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises produced his first movie as a director, the compelling drama Ordinary People (1980) starring Timothy Hutton, Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Judd Hirsch. In addition to the younger stars in the cast of Ordinary People – Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, and Adam Baldwin – Redford hired some of his former co-stars M. Emmet Walsh, Quinn Redecker, and James B. Sikking. Redford hit it out of the park with his directorial debut, as in addition to being a hit at the box office, Ordinary People was a critical success.
At the 1981 Academy Awards ceremony (Oscar clip below), Johnny Carson introduces Lillian Gish, who announced the Best Picture winner; Ordinary People was up against Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, Raging Bull and Tess.
Ordinary People was nominated for a raft of awards and won several.
- Best Picture – Ordinary People won the Golden Globe and Academy Awards
- Best Director – Robert Redford won the Golden Globes, Directors Guild of America, and Academy Awards for Best Director
- Best Actress – Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for the BAFTA and Academy Awards for Best Actress, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress
- Best Supporting Actor – Both Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton were nominated for Golden Globe and Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor; Hutton won both, as well as a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer.
- Best Actor – Donald Sutherland was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actor
Baseball fantasy-drama The Natural (1984) based on Bernard Malamud’s novel of the same name, had Robert Redford starring as mysterious heavy-hitter Roy Hobbs. Co-starring with Redford in The Natural were Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, and Barbara Hershey. The Natural was Robert Redford’s first movie appearance in four years, since 1980’s Brubaker. During his time away from the movies Redford’s marriage to Lola was in it’s death throes, and his daughter Shauna Redford’s fiance Sid Wells was murdered in 1983 after filming on The Natural had begun. Redford would later say in an interview that
“The hardest thing in the world is when your children have problems. There have been so many hits on our family that no one knows about and I don’t want them to for my family’s sake.”
Out of Africa was the 6th Robert Redford movie directed by Sydney Pollack, and was filmed on location in Africa and Denmark. The romantic drama is based on the life and romance of Denmark native and writer Karen Dinesen/Baroness Von Blixen (Meryl Streep) and British big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), who met and fell in love in South Africa. Austrian actor Klaus Maria Bandauer plays Baron von Blixen.
The trailer for Out of Africa (above) features co-stars Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Klaus Maria Bandauer. Out of Africa was a hit with audiences and critics alike, winning 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director for Sydney Pollack. By the time the movie was released in December 1985, Lola and Robert Redford’s divorce had been finalized (they remained friends).
The comedy-mystery Legal Eagles (1986) starred a now 50+ Robert Redford as a prosecutor Tom Logan, facing off against co-stars Debra Winger as a defense attorney and Daryl Hannah as her client, suspected of art theft. Although Redford’s name was linked in the press to both Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah, each of them denied any romance. Rounding out the cast of Legal Eagles were actors Brian Dennehy, Terence Stamp, and Christine Baranski. Despite being panned by some critics, Legal Eagles made double it’s $40 million budget at the box office.
The next major film project for Robert Redford was that of producing and directing the comedy-drama The Milagro Beanfield War (1988).
(Sonia Braga & Robert Redford 1988 Photo: Georges Biard)
Actors in the ensemble cast included Rubén Blades, Sônia Braga, Melanie Griffith, John Heard, Daniel Stern, and Christopher Walken, and working on her first Robert Redford movie as costume designer, Kathy O’Rear.
The Milagro Beanfield War was not successful financially, only bringing in half of it’s budget at the box office, and got mixed reviews.
According to Robert Redford: The Biography (2011) by Michael Feeny Callan, Redford and Sônia Braga began a romance during filming of The Milagro Beanfield War in the beginning of the fall of 1987, and they were frequently pictured together in the press in 1988 while promoting the movie.
Acting in Havana to Producer and Director (1990-2016)
Havana (1990) was the seventh and last movie starring Robert Redford that was directed by Sydney Pollack. Set during the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Robert Redford stars as a gambler visiting Havana, Cuba. His co-stars included Lena Olin as his married romantic interest, Raúl Juliá as her husband, and Alan Arkin as the manager of a Havana casino. The film flopped, and the close friendship between Sydney Pollack and Redford later disintegrated for reasons unknown, although Pollack had always been irritated by Redford’s habitual lateness, and Redford said at one point that Pollack was “fussy”. Sydney Pollack died in 2008.
In the early 1990’s, Robert Redford’s heyday as a movie star was on the decline as his baby boomer fans aged along with him. He began focusing more on narrating and producing documentaries such as Incident at Oglala (1992), and directing and producing movies. By the end of 1991, Redford had also acquired a new girlfriend – costume designer Kathy O’Rear – who had worked on his movie The Milagro Beanfield War (1988). He’d also become a grandfather for the first time, when his daughter Shauna Redford and her husband Eric Schlosser’s daughter Mica Schlosser was born.
Redford had always had a keen interest in conservation, the environment, and Native Americans. Since the late 1980’s, he’d owned the rights to Native American western mystery writer Tony Hillerman’s books featuring Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee. The first adaptation of these books for film was the big-screen movie The Dark Wind (1991). Starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Officer Jim Chee and Fred Ward as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, The Dark Wind was executive produced by Robert Redford.
Eleven years later, Redford’s film production company, Wildwood Enterprises, in conjunction with PBS, began producing 3 made-for-television movies based on more of the Tony Hillerman mystery series. Skinwalkers (2002), Coyote Waits (2003), and A Thief of Time (2004) all had Robert Redford as an Executive Producer, while new actors Wes Studi and Adam Beach respectively portrayed Leaphorn and Chee. Redford’s son James Redford adapted the screenplay for Skinwalkers, and actor Peter Fonda appeared in A Thief of Time.
In one of his few early 1990’s movie roles, Robert Redford starred in the crime comedy-drama Sneakers (1992) with co-stars Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poiter, Ben Kingsley, and Mary McDonnell. A bigger success was his direction of the period drama A River Runs Through It (1992), which made a star out of leading actor Brad Pitt and included Craig Sheffer, Redford’s friend Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, and a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the cast. A River Runs Through It received three Academy Award nominations including best cinematography. Redford was nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe Award. Costume designer Kathy O’Rear also worked on this movie.
Although Redford’s performance in Indecent Proposal (1993) opposite Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson was panned, the movie was a box office hit. It would be three years before Redford would appear in another movie. Meanwhile, he was focused on producing and directing the movie Quiz Show (1994) starring John Turturro, Rob Morrow, and Ralph Fiennes. Directors and producers Griffin Dunne, Barry Levinson and Martin Scorcese both appeared onscreen as minor characters in Quiz Show. Redford’s girlfriend Kathy O’Rear was a costume designer on Quiz Show. During the filming of Quiz Show, Redford’s son James underwent a fraught liver transplant in Omaha, and Redford spent much of his time flying back and forth between filming in New York City and Omaha. Quiz Show was nominated for an Academy Award Best Picture and Robert Redford was nominated as Best Director (in addition to BAFTA, Directors Guild of America, and Golden Globe Award nominations as Best Director).
At the 1994 Golden Globe Awards, Redford was given the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award for his outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment. The following year, he was given a Life Achievement Award by Screen Actors Guild in 1995.
1996 was an important year for Robert Redford. His relationship with Kathy O’Rear had ended in 1995, and he’d met a divorced German artist named (Billie) Sibylle Szaggars in Utah; they began dating and then living together. He founded the premium movie channel Sundance Channel in February 1996 as a joint venture with Showtime Networks (later sold to Rainbow Media in 2008), and was presented with the National Medal of Arts on behalf of Congress by then-President Bill Clinton, for his achievement in the arts. Redford’s mind must have been on romance that year, as he executive-produced the romantic comedy She’s the One (1996).
He also co-starred in the love story Up Close & Personal (1996) with Michelle Pfeiffer. Redford plays a news director and mentor in a story very loosely based on the biography of news anchor Jessica Savitch (Pfeiffer). Critics derided Up Close & Personal for not sticking more closely to the facts, but fans liked the movie, and co-star Stockard Channing won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – Romance. Perennial character actor James Karen was also in the cast of Up Close & Personal.
More successful with fans and critis alike was the Robert Redford produced, directed, starring drama The Horse Whisperer (1998), with Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest, Chris Cooper, and child actresses Scarlett Johansson and Kate Bosworth. Real-life horse whisperer Buck Brannaman consulted on the movie and doubled for Redford in some scenes. On a budget of $60 million, it took in over $186 million at the box office. Robert Redford earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Director.
Golf drama The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) starred Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, and veteran Jack Lemmon as the narrator and aged Old Hardy Greaves. Robert Redford directed and produced but he have lacked the magic touch this time and the movie tanked at the box office.
Redford starred in two new big-screen movie releases – the military prison drama The Last Castle (2001), and the spy thriller Spy Game (2001) the same year he officially became a senior. The Last Castle was a critical failure and lost money, while Spy Game, which co-starred Brad Pitt, fared a little better.
(Robert Redford 2005: Steve Jurvetson)
A flurry of film projects that Robert Redford was involved in were released in 2004. He was an Executive Producer on The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), a project he’d been involved in for several years. The Motorcycle Diaries premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004 and won 3 awards at the Cannes Film Festival that year as well.
Redford starred in the kidnapping drama The Clearing (2004) with Helen Mirren, Willem Dafoe and Matt Craven. As he approached his 70th birthday, he began Executive Producing the TV documentary series Iconoclasts (2005-2012) exploring the lives of creative visionaries such as Sean Penn, Lorne Michaels, Quentin Tarantino, etc.
He began focusing on narrating conservation/environmental documentaries, directing, and acting in selected films. Although Redford had said previously he’d not likely marry again, in 2008 his engagement to Sibylle Szaggars was announced. They married in July 2009 in Hamburg, Germany; Sibylle was then 51 years of age, Robert Redford 22 years older.
Robert Redford: The Biography (2011) by Michael Feeney Callan was written over fifteen years, at first with Redford’s assistance, although he later distanced himself from the book.
Redford produced and directed the historical drama The Conspirator (2010); and produced, directed, and starred in the political thriller The Company You Keep (2012) with Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Sam Elliott, and Stanley Tucci.
Robert Redford is a man lost at sea for almost the entirety of the drama All is Lost (2013). All is Lost writer and director J. C. Chandor met Redford at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and asked him to star in the movie, which had a cast of exactly one person – Robert Redford. Critics loved All is Lost and the now 77-year-old Redford’s performance in it. All is Lost made many critic’s Top Ten Lists for 2013 and Robert Redford was nominated for several Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globe Best Actor Award.
In a surprise move for his fans, Redford appeared in a small role as Alexander Pierce in the superhero movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). When asked why, Redford said the attraction for him was the contrast to his usual movies, and a desire to
“experience this new form of filmmaking that’s taken over where you have kind of cartoon characters brought to life through high technology.“
He produced and could be seen onscreen in the adventure biography A Walk in the Woods (2015) co-starring Emma Thompson, and Nick Nolte. Robert Redford had been attached to A Walk in the Woods since 2005, and had initially hoped his friend Paul Newman would co-star with him, but Newman had retired from acting and died in 2008. A Walk in the Woods premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 to mixed reviews, but fared well at the box office. This movie trailer for A Walk in the Woods features Robert Redford and Nick Nolte taking the proverbial walk.
The love story Our Souls At Night reunited Robert Redford with Jane Fonda in their fourth and final movie together, 37 years after their chemistry in The Electric Horseman (1979) and even longer since Barefoot in the Park (1967 – 49 years earlier).
Robert Redford continued living on his ranch in Utah with second wife Sibylle. He became a grandfather several times over, and how he felt back 1998 likely changed:
“The word grandfather is weird. It feels like some old guy in a robe.” He told Esquire in 2013 that “The way to deal with arthritis is you keep moving. As long as I can play hard tennis, as long as I can ski or ride a horse — all kinds of things can come your way. But as long as you can, do it. People who retire die. My dad retired and died shortly after…Just keep moving.”
(Robert Redford 1960 Tate)
Note: This article was first published in 2016 as a three-part series, Celebrating Seniors – Robert Redford Turns 80. It has been updated with new/additional content.
*Images are public domain or Creative Commons licensed & sourced via Wikimedia Commons, Vimeo, YouTube, or Flickr, unless otherwise noted*
