Robert Redford
Encyclopedia : R : RO : ROB : Robert Redford
Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford, Jr. on August 18, 1936Birth date confirmed at the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Date of birth for Charles Robert Redford is 18 August 1936.) is an award-winning American motion picture actor, director, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist, and philanthropist.
Biography
Early life
Redford was born in Santa Monica, California to Charles Robert Redford, Sr., an accountant, and Texas-born Martha W. Hart. He has a half-brother, William, from his father's re-marriage.Redford graduated from Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, California in 1954 and received a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team, and a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He lost the scholarship due to adolescent drinking, fueled in part by the death of his mother, when Redford was eighteen. Redford was later a painting student at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and took classes in theatrical set design at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
Career
Redford is known for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Sting, The Natural, The Way We Were, Out of Africa, The Great Gatsby, and many others. Redford directed the films Ordinary People, Quiz Show, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Horse Whisperer, The Milagro Beanfield War, and A River Runs Through It. He was also a producer on all except Ordinary People.In 1980, Redford's directorial debut, Ordinary People, won him the Academy Award for Directing; his 1994 film, Quiz Show, was nominated for best director, but lost to Forrest Gump. Along with Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Richard Attenborough, and Kevin Costner, Redford is one of the few major actors to win an Academy Award for "Best Director".
With the financial proceeds of his acting success, starting with his salary from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Downhill Racer, Redford purchased the ski resort just outside Park City, Utah called Timphaven. He renamed it the Sundance Resort, and not long after, portions of the movie Jeremiah Johnson (1972), a film which is both one of Redford's favorites and one that has heavily influenced him, were shot in the area. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute, Sundance Catalog, and the Sundance Channel, all in and around Park City. The Sundance Film Festival caters to independent filmmakers in the United States and has received some recognition from the industry as a place to option films. The name Sundance comes from his character, the "Sundance Kid". In addition, Redford owns a celebrated restaurant called Zoom, located on Main Street in the former mining town of Park City.
In 1995, Redford received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Bard College. In December of 2005, he received honors at the Kennedy Center for his contributions to American culture. The Honors recipients are recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts: whether in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures or television.
Personal life
Robert Redford is politically liberal, and has supported environmentalism and Native American rights.Redford married Lola Van Wagenen on September 12, 1958; the couple, who had four children - Scott (born 1959 and died shortly after), Shauna (born November 15, 1960), David James (born May 15, 1962), and Amy (born October 22, 1970) - divorced in 1985. His companions since have included actress Sonia Braga (during the late 1980s), Kathy O'Rear (from the late 1980s to 1995) and German painter Sibylle Szaggars (1996-current). Redford has four grandchildren.
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Charlotte's Web | Ike |
| 2005 | An Unfinished Life | Einar Gilkyson |
| 2004 | The Clearing | Wayne Hayes |
| 2001 | Spy Game | Nathan D. Muir |
| The Last Castle | Lt. Gen. Eugene Irwin | |
| 1998 | The Horse Whisperer | Tom Booker |
| 1996 | Up Close & Personal | Warren Justice |
| 1993 | Indecent Proposal | John Gage |
| 1992 | A River Runs Through It | Narrator |
| Sneakers | Martin "Marty" Bishop | |
| 1990 | Havana | Jack Weil |
| 1986 | Legal Eagles | Tom Logan |
| 1985 | Out of Africa | Denys George Finch Hatton |
| 1984 | The Natural | Roy Hobbs |
| 1980 | Brubaker | Henry Brubaker |
| 1979 | The Electric Horseman | Norman 'Sonny' Steele |
| 1977 | A Bridge Too Far | Maj. Julian Cook |
| 1976 | All the President's Men | Bob Woodward |
| 1975 | Three Days of the Condor | Joseph Turner/The Condor |
| The Great Waldo Pepper | Waldo Pepper | |
| 1974 | The Great Gatsby | Jay Gatsby |
| 1973 | The Sting | Johnny Hooker aka Kelly |
| The Way We Were | Hubbell | |
| 1972 | ''Jeremiah Johnson | Jeremiah Johnson |
| ''The Candidate | Bill McKay | |
| The Hot Rock | John Archibald Dortmunder | |
| 1970 | Little Fauss and Big Halsy | Halsy Knox |
| 1969 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | The Sundance Kid |
| Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here | Deputy Sheriff Christopher 'Coop' Cooper | |
| Downhill Racer | David Chappellet | |
| 1967 | Barefoot in the Park | Paul Bratter |
| 1966 | This Property is Condemned | Owen Legate |
| The Chase | Charlie 'Bubber' Reeves | |
| 1965 | Inside Daisy Clover | Wade Lewis |
Directing
- 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)
|- style="text-align: center;"
References
Footnotes
Web sites
- [the Sundance Institute]
- [Sundance Resort]
- [Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Robert Redford]
- [}}}] at NNDB
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.