Robert Redford in “Pete’s Dragon”; Walt Disney Studios(NEW YORK) — Happy birthday to Robert Redford!
The actor, director and activist turns 80 today. He’s had a legendary career, starring in such classic films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men.
Redford appeared in various TV projects before landing a role in the 1962 movie War Hunt. He broke through as a major star seven years later with the release of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford played the Sundance Kid opposite Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy, both train robbers on the run. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture, and won four.
Redford’s career continued to rise in the early 1970s, with roles in films like the political satire The Candidate as well as The Way We Were, the latter of which also featured Barbra Streisand.
The Way We Were was released in 1973, the same year The Sting — a caper film that reunited Redford with Newman — debuted. It earned Redford an Oscar nomination for best actor.
Over the next few years, Redford starred in an adaptation of The Great Gatsby and the Watergate drama All the President’s Men, among other films.
The 1980s brought us two of Redford’s most well-known movies: the baseball classic The Natural and the romantic drama Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep.
Since then, Redford’s acting credits have included Indecent Proposal, Up Close & Personal, The Horse Whisperer and Spy Game. Marvel fans will also point out his performance as Alexander Pierce in the second Captain America movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
You can see Redford on the big screen now in Disney’s just-released remake of Pete’s Dragon.
Aside from his work in front of the cameras, Redford has directed several films, most notably Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, The Horse Whisperer and The Legend of Bagger Vance. He won a best director Oscar for Ordinary People, and was nominated in the same category for Quiz Show.
Redford received an honorary Oscar in 2002.
In addition to all of that, Redford founded the Sundance Institute, which annually presents the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
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