Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (August 18, 1936 – September 16, 2025), was an American film actor, director, producer, businessman, activist and model. One of Hollywood's biggest superstars, Redford kept his appeal as the decades passed. In 1978, Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival.

During his career, Redford won many awards including an Academy Award; a BAFTA Award; and five Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994; the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996; the Academy Honorary Award in 2002; the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005; the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016; and the Honorary César in 2019.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on August 18, 1936^[1] in Santa Monica, California.^[2] He had a paternal half-brother, William.^[3] Redford was of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry.^[4][5][6] Redford's family lived in Van Nuys while his father worked in El Segundo.^[7]

Redford had a mild case of polio when he was 11.^[8]

After graduating from high school in 1954,^[9] he went to the University of Colorado in Boulder for a year and a half.^[10][11] While at Colorado, Redford began drinking a lot and, as a result, lost his half-scholarship and was kicked out of school. He later studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and took classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, New York.^[12]

Redford started his career in television acting in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone before making his Broadway debut playing a newlywed husband in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1963). Redford had his first movie role in War Hunt (1962) before having the lead roles in Barefoot in the Park (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), and The Sting (1973).

Redford became more popular when he was in The Way We Were (1973); Three Days of the Condor (1975); All the President's Men (1976); The Electric Horseman (1979), Brubaker (1980), The Natural (1984); and Out of Africa (1985). Redford also played Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Redford directed his first movie Ordinary People in 1980. It won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. He went on to direct eight movies including the drama The Milagro Beanfield War (1984); the period drama A River Runs Through It (1992); the historical drama Quiz Show (1994); the neo-western The Horse Whisperer (1998); and the sports fantasy The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000).

Redford co-founded the Sundance Resort and Film Institute in 1981. He was also known for his work as a political activist where he supported environmentalism, Native American and indigenous people's rights, and LGBT rights.

In August 2018, Redford officially announced his retirement from acting.^[13]

On August 9, 1958, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen. They had four children: Scott Anthony Redford, Shauna Jean Redford^[14], David James Redford,^[15][16] and Amy Hart Redford.^[17] Redford and Van Wagenen divorced in 1985.^[18]

In July 2009, Redford and his longtime girlfriend, Sibylle Szaggars, married at the Louis C. Jacob Hotel in Hamburg, Germany.^[19]

In May 2011, Robert Redford: The Biography was published by Alfred A. Knopf, written by Michael Feeney Callan.^[20]

Redford died in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah at the age of 89 on September 16, 2025.^[21]

• Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
• This Property Is Condemned (1966)
• The Chase (1966)
• Barefoot in the Park (1967)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)
• Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
• The Candidate (1972)
• The Hot Rock (1972)
• The Sting (1973)
• The Way We Were (1973)
• The Great Gatsby (1974)
• Three Days of the Condor (1975)
• The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
• All the President's Men (1976)
• A Bridge Too Far (1977)
• The Electric Horseman (1979)
• Brubaker (1980)
• The Natural (1984)
• Out of Africa (1985)
• Legal Eagles (1986)
• Havana (1990)
• Sneakers (1992)
• Indecent Proposal (1993)
• Up Close & Personal (1996)
• Spy Game (2001)
• The Last Castle (2001)
• All Is Lost (2013)
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
• Pete's Dragon (2016)
• The Discovery (2017)

• Ordinary People (1980)
• The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
• A River Runs Through It (1992)
• Quiz Show (1994)
• The Horse Whisperer (1998)
• The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

• Chicagoland (2014)

• Robert Redford on IMDb
• the Sundance Institute
• Sundance Resort
• Robert Redford at TV.com