Of all the bright lights of American cinema, none has ever burned brighter than that of the great Robert Redford. Now, sadly, the bright light has burned out, with Robert Redford having passed away at 89. No news yet on the cause of death, but Redford had largely retired in recent years, save for a small cameo on the AMC show Dark Winds, which he produced.
What can one say about Robert Redford except for the fact that he was probably the greatest movie star of his time, and one of the all-time legends? Not only did he star in a series of all-time classics like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Sneakers, Indecent Proposal, and so many others. But, more than that, Redford was the patron saint of independent cinema. In a daring move, Redford parlayed the wealth he earned as an actor into funding the Sundance Institute and starting the Sundance Film Festival—a fest we’ve attended for the past sixteen years. It’s where a diverse slate of directors including Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Ryan Coogler, Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Bros, Lulu Wang, and so many others had their starts. Without Redford, cinema as we know it would be a fundamentally different place.
Redford had several different eras as a movie star. In the sixties, he was the golden boy, WASP leading man, but he subverted that image in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which paired him with Paul Newman for the first time and paved the way to his seventies megastardom. Movies like The Sting, All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor and Jeremiah Johnson made him the biggest star of his era. As he moved into middle age, his stardom never dimmed, with movies like Out of Africa, Indecent Proposal and Sneakers maintaining his A-list status. He also became an A-list director at the same time, winning an Oscar for directing Ordinary People back in 1980. In recent years, he became known to a younger generation of film fans thanks to his recurring role as Alexander Pierce in the MCU.
Truly, there was no one like Robert Redford, so let’s take a moment to remember a legend. What’s your favorite Robert Redford movie? Let us know in the comments!More to come…