Robert Redford

Robert Redford Bio

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (August 18, 1936 – September 16, 2025) was an American actor, director, and producer, celebrated for his magnetic presence as a leading man during the American New Wave. Across a career spanning more than six decades, Redford earned widespread recognition and numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards, including a Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994. He also received 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.

Beyond his work in front of and behind the camera, Redford was a passionate advocate for independent cinema, environmental protection, and the arts. He co-founded the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, helping to launch a new generation of filmmakers. He passed away in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah, at the age of 89.

Early Life and Background

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Martha Woodruff Redford and Charles Robert Redford Sr., an accountant. He had a paternal half-brother named William, and his family was of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry. While growing up, his family lived in Van Nuys, and he often traveled with them to Austin, Texas, to visit his maternal grandfather. Redford later credited his lifelong love of nature and environmentalism to his childhood experiences in Texas.

Redford attended Van Nuys High School, where he was classmates with the future professional baseball pitcher Don Drysdale. He described himself as a poor student who found inspiration outside the classroom in art and sports. At the Los Angeles Tennis Club, he hit tennis balls with the great player Pancho Gonzalez to help him warm up for matches. When he was 11 years old, Redford had a mild case of polio.

After graduating from high school in 1954, Redford attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for about a year and a half, where he joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity. During this time, he began drinking heavily, which led to the loss of his half-scholarship and his expulsion from school. He then traveled through Europe, living in France, Spain, and Italy, before returning to the United States to study painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and to take classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, graduating in the class of 1959.

Path to Celebrity

Redford’s professional acting career began in New York City, where he worked on stage and in television. He made his Broadway debut in a small role in Tall Story (1959), followed by parts in The Highest Tree and Sunday in New York. His biggest early success on Broadway came when he was cast as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in the original 1963 production of Neil Simon’s comedy Barefoot in the Park. Starting in 1960, he built his television résumé as a guest star on numerous drama programs, including Naked City, Maverick, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Route 66, Dr. Kildare, Playhouse 90, and The Twilight Zone.

Redford made his screen debut in the film adaptation of Tall Story (1960), reprising his Broadway role, although he was not credited. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont in 1962. His second film role came in War Hunt (1962), and he soon appeared alongside screen legend Alec Guinness in the war comedy Situation Hopeless… But Not Serious. In Inside Daisy Clover (1965), he played a bisexual movie star opposite Natalie Wood, winning a Golden Globe for Best New Star.

Robert Redford Career

Early Career (1959-1966)

The first phase of Redford’s career established him as a rising talent on stage and screen. His Broadway success in Barefoot in the Park and his early film work led to larger feature roles. In 1966, he reunited with Natalie Wood and Charles Bronson for Sydney Pollack’s This Property Is Condemned, and the same year, he was paired for the first time with Jane Fonda in Arthur Penn’s The Chase, which also marked his only time starring with Marlon Brando. These roles helped him transition from a respected supporting player to a leading man in Hollywood.

Redford’s first major awards recognition came during this period, including a Golden Globe for Best New Star for Inside Daisy Clover and an Emmy nomination for The Voice of Charlie Pont. His work in anthology series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone gave him valuable on-camera experience, and his early films began to attract the attention of major directors and studios.

Breakthrough (1967-1979)

Redford achieved Hollywood stardom with the big-screen version of Barefoot in the Park (1967) opposite Jane Fonda, followed by his defining role in George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), where he was paired for the first time with Paul Newman. The film was a huge success and made him a major bankable star, cementing his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, and sometimes sardonic good guy. Although he did not receive an Academy Award or Golden Globe nomination for playing the Sundance Kid, he won a British Academy of Film and Television Award for the role and for Downhill Racer and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.

The early 1970s brought a remarkable run of box-office hits. His western Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and his romantic period drama with Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were (1973), were among the highest-grossing films of their years. The crime caper reunion with Paul Newman, The Sting (1973), became the top-grossing film of 1974 and earned Redford his only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1974, he became the first performer since Bing Crosby in 1946 to have three films in a year’s top-ten-grossing titles, and between 1974 and 1976, movie exhibitors voted him Hollywood’s top box-office star.

Redford continued his success with Three Days of the Condor (1975) alongside Faye Dunaway, and the critically acclaimed All the President’s Men (1976), in which he and Dustin Hoffman portrayed Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The film landed eight Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, and won for Best Screenplay. In 1976, he also published The Outlaw Trail: A Journey Through Time.

Notable Works and Milestones

Redford’s signature works include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President’s Men, The Way We Were, and The Natural, the last of which stands as a defining performance in his career. His 1973-1976 run of box-office dominance made him one of the most bankable stars of the era, and his only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor came for The Sting. In addition to his acting honors, he received the BAFTA Award and multiple Golden Globe Awards for both his acting and his lifetime contributions to film.

Robert Redford Award Nominations

Robert Redford received numerous award nominations across his more than six-decade career, spanning acting, directing, and lifetime achievement honors. He earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Sting in 1973, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for All Is Lost in 2013 and another for The Old Man & the Gun in 2018. Earlier in his career, he received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Voice of Charlie Pont in 1962 and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director for A River Runs Through It in 1992.

Robert Redford Awards Won

Robert Redford won an Academy Award for Best Director for his film Ordinary People in 1980, along with a BAFTA Award, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Golden Globe Best New Star Award for Inside Daisy Clover. His lifetime honors include 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. He also received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for All Is Lost in 2013 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 74th Venice Film Festival in 2017.

Robert Redford Family

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born to Martha Woodruff Redford and Charles Robert Redford Sr., an accountant. He had a paternal half-brother named William, and his family was of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry. His parents raised him in Van Nuys, and the family often traveled to Austin, Texas, to visit his maternal grandfather. Redford’s childhood experiences in Texas helped shape his lifelong environmentalism and love of nature.

Personal Life

On August 9, 1958, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen in Las Vegas, and the couple had four children: Scott Anthony, Shauna Jean, David James, and Amy Hart. Their son Scott died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of two and a half months, and their son James, a writer and producer, died of cancer in 2020. Redford and Van Wagenen never publicly announced a separation, but by 1982 they had been apart for a number of years, and Redford was negotiating their divorce settlement while filming Out of Africa in 1984.

On July 11, 2009, Redford married his longtime girlfriend, Sibylle Szaggars, at the Louis C. Jacob Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. She had moved in with Redford in 1996 and shared his home in Sundance, Utah. In May 2011, the book Robert Redford: The Biography was published by Alfred A. Knopf, written by Michael Feeney Callan with Redford’s cooperation. Redford primarily resided at the Sundance Resort in Utah, where he passed away in his sleep on September 16, 2025, at the age of 89. He was buried on his property in Sundance after a private funeral.