Robert Redford Biography
Born: August 18, 1937
Date of Birth: August 18, 1937
This Santa Monica, California, native says that, "All my life I've been dogged by guilt because I feel there is a difference between the way I look and the way I feel inside. We are a country that is obsessed with the cosmetics of our lives, how we look."
The way he's always looked is simply marvelous and it no doubt led to his early screen casting. But he's long since proven himself more than just a pretty face with his excellent performances in front of the camera, his subtle touch behind the camera, and his founding of the Sundance Film Institute for budding filmmakers which led to the Sundance Film Festival which has become one of the world's leading showcase venues for independent films.
Not bad for a guy who didn't even think about being an actor until he was in his twenties. His first love was baseball and he even won a baseball scholarship to the University of Colarado but dropped out to move to Europe and chase his dream of being a painter. He returned to New York in the late '50s to study art at the Pratt Institute and at the same time began studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
It was his role alongside Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that turned Redford into a star of huge proportions. But, he says, "They throw that word 'star' at you loosely, and they take it away equally loosely. You take the responsibility for their crappy movie, that's what that means."
He reteamed with Newman in The Sting (1973), and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1980, Redford made his feature film directorial debut with Ordinary People, and won his first Oscar for Best Director. He also was nominated for Best Director for Quiz Show (1994), and was given an Honorary Oscar statuette for being an "Actor, director, producer, creator of Sundance, and an inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere." He recently starred in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and the Disney remake Pete's Dragon (2016).
Redford married Lola Van Wagenen in 1958. They have four children together but were divorced in 1985.