Oscar Profile #173: Robert Redford

Born August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California, Charles Robert Redford Jr. began his acting career in 1959.

First on Broadway with a minor role in Tall Story, he had an uncredited role in the 1960 film version. His first major role was in the 1960 TV version of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards (Jr.) In numerous TV shows over the next few years, his 1962 portrayal of Death in an episode of Twilight Zone opposite Gladys Cooper made audiences sit up and take notice. He had his first starring role on screen that same year in War Hunt.

Roles opposite Natalie Wood in Inside Daisy Clover and This Property Is Condemned and Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park increased his visibility. His role in the latter was a reprise of his last Broadway role.

Redford achieved major stardom in a trio of 1969 films, Downhill Racer; Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, his iconic performance in the latter establishing the cool screen persona that would sustain his career.

Iconic performances in 1972’s The Candidate and Jeremiah Johnson led to two 1973 films that made him the screen’s number one box office star. Both The Way We Were opposite Barbra Streisand and The Sting, which reunited him with his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid co-star, Paul Newman, were hugely successful. The Oscar winning The Sting also brought him his first and to date only Oscar nomination for acting.

Redford continued his major stardom with such films as 1975’s Three Days of the Condor; 1976’s All the President’s Men and 1980’s Brubaker. That same year he made his directing debut with Ordinary People for which he won an Oscar for Best Director.

1985’s Out of Africa in which he starred opposite Meryl Streep, became the third Redford film to win a Best Picture Oscar following The Sting and Ordinary People.

Redford had purchased an entire ski area near Provo, Utah with the proceeds from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Downhill Racer in 1970 which he renamed Sundance. He subsequently founded the Sundance Institute which took over management of the Utah Film Festival in 1985, officially renaming it the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. The Festival, held annually in January, is the premier venue for the first exhibition of independent films.

Redford received his second Oscar nomination for directing for 1994’s Quiz Show. He remains active with the Sundance Film Festival while continuing to both act in and direct films. He received an honorary Oscar for career achievement at the 2001 awards and was Kennedy Center honoree in 2005.

Redford’s recent directorial efforts include 2010’s The Conspirator and 2012’s The Company You Keep. Before the cameras he received some of the best notices of his career for 2013’s All Is Lost.

Robert Redford remains one of the film industry’s most influential figures at 77.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969), directed by George Roy Hill

Nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of four, this hugely popular western gave audiences of the day something hipper than a John Wayne western, yet with a lighter tone and less violence than a Sam Peckinpah western. The pairing of superstar Paul Newman and emerging superstar Redford proved as fortuitous for the movie-going public as it did for the two stars. Burt Bacharach’s Oscar winning score and song, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” provided just the right touch.

Marvin Hamlisch’s ragtime tinged score did much the same for 1973’s The Sting which reunited Newman, Redford and director Hill, winning an impressive eight Oscars out of ten nominations.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976), directed by Alan J. Pakula

Nominated for eight Academy Awards and winner of four, this uncanny political thriller played like a richly detailed mystery even though the audience knew the outcome of the biggest U.S. political scandal of the Century.

Redford and Dustin Hoffman are superb as Woodward and Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who uncovered the details of the Watergate break-in. Jason Robards, who starred in the TV version of The Iceman Cometh in which Redford first attracted attention sixteen years earlier, won a much deserved Supporting Actor Oscar for plying Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee.

ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980), directed by Robert Redford

Redford made a sensational directorial debut, winning an Oscar for his direction, one of four Academy Awards out of seven nominations the film would receive.

Redford’s knowledge of acting paid off handsomely in his direction of Timothy Hutton in his Oscar winning performance as a troubled young man in the aftermath of a suicide attempt; Mary Tyler Moore as his cold mother and Donald Sutherland as his sensitive father. He was especially acclaimed for getting a dynamic dramatic performance out of Moore that no one would have believed the actress known for light comedy could possibly achieve.

QUIZ SHOW (1994), directed by Robert Redford

Redford’s fourth film as a director brought him another Oscar nomination for Best Director.

Based on a notorious show business scandal of the late 1950s, the film chronicles the events surrounding the unmasking of Charles Van Doren, the patrician son of one of America’s leasing literary families. Redford gets amazing performances out of Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren; Paul Scofield as his father Mark and John Turturro as Herbie Stempel, the hapless contestant picked to lose against Van Doren.

ALL IS LOST (2013), directed by J.C. Chandor

Redford received his best notices as an actor since the 1970s as an old man lost at sea in this enthralling adventure film.

Poor marketing caused the film to flop at the box office affecting Redford’s chances of winning an acting Oscar. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance and the film won for Best Score, but its only Oscar nomination was given for its sound recording. The actor does have one more shot at a win, though. He is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. As beloved as he is by that community, he might just win.