Robert Redford Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Producer , Executive Producer more
Birth name Charles Robert Redford, Jr.
Nationality American
Birth August 18, 1936 (Santa Monica, California – United States)

BIOGRAPHY
After his studies, Robert Redford enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to become a set designer, before turning to theater. In January 1959, he played the role of a basketball player in the play Tall Story before beginning a career on television by appearing in the credits of the most famous series of the time.

His role in The Iceman Cometh (1960), a television film directed by Sidney Lumet , attracted the attention of critics and producers. In 1961, he took his first steps in the cinema in War Is Also a Hunt, which remained unpublished in France. The same year, Robert Redford returned to New York and played Barefoot in the Park at the theater (a role he reprized in the cinema in 1966).

His career launched and his face of love become legendary, he found himself headlining such major productions as The Merciless Pursuit (1966, Arthur Penn ), Butch Cassidy and the Kid (1969) and The Swindle (1973) by George Roy Hill .

It was through his company Wildwood Enterprises that the actor was involved in the production of two Michael Ritchie films : The Descent from Hell (1969) and Vote MacKay (1972). This last feature film, where Robert Redford portrays a Democratic candidate during the senatorial elections, the “ecological” Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The President’s Men (1976), on the Watergate scandal, and the “progressive” Brubaker ( 1980), where he denounces the American prison world, prove that the actor also knows how to get politically involved in his films.

In 1980, he moved behind the camera. From the outset, he received the Oscar for directing and the Directors Guild of America award for the melodrama People Like Others . Then came Milagro (1988), And in the Middle Runs a River (1992), which earned the director a Golden Globe nomination, Quiz Show (1994) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2001) with Will Smith and Matt Damon .

At the same time, Robert Redford continued his acting career, filming sparingly under the direction of Sydney Pollack , to whom he owed two of his biggest successes: Out of Africa (1985) and Havana (1990). Despite his advanced age,Demi Moore in 1993 and horse whispering to charm Kristin Scott Thomas in 1998.

Very busy with his activities linked to the Sundance Independent Film Festival, of which he is the founder, he nevertheless agreed to play the agents of the CIA in Spy game (2002), a military officer imprisoned in The Last Castle (id.), a businessman kidnapped in The Kidnapping (2004) as well as a retired farmer hardened by the death of his son in An Unfinished Life (2005). Unfortunately, critical success is not always there.

In December 2005, Robert Redford received honors from the Kennedy Center for his participation in American culture. A fervent liberal, he returned to directing in 2007 with a political thriller, Lions and Lambs , where he starred alongside Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep .

A now discreet actor, Redford favors the production of documentaries ( Grand canyon, river in danger , Buck ) and directing, since he directs James McAvoy in the historical drama The Conspiracy (2010, unpublished in France) and Shia LaBeouf in the thriller Under Surveillance (2013). In the latter, he also plays a main role.

To conclude 2013, the Californian finally leaves the camera to return to his first love: acting. Alone in front of JC Chandor ‘s lens , he portrays a sailor adrift aboard his damaged boat in All Is Lost .

For a new audience, the following year he became Alexander Pierce, the agent of SHIELD (and much more) in Captain America: The Winter Soldier , a role he reprized in Avengers: Endgame (2019). He continued to appear on screen occasionally during the 2010s, notably for Truth with Cate Blanchett and The Old Man & the Gun by David Lowery .