Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on August 18, 1936) is an actor, director, and producer. He is a 1954 graduate of Van Nuys High School, in Van Nuys, CA, where he was a member of the tennis team. Redford started his acting career on Broadway in 1959 and began landing guest appearances on television the following year, on shows that included The Untouchables, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone. His first film appearance, a small uncredited role in Tall Story, was also in 1960. Redford’s biggest Broadway success, 1963’s Barefoot in the Park, launched one of his earliest starring movie roles when the play was adapted for the big screen a few years later. Then in 1969, he became a marquee name when he co-starred with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford teamed up with Newman again in 1973 in The Sting, which became arguably the biggest hit of his career. Also interested in working behind the camera, he directed his first film, Ordinary People, in 1980, receiving critical acclaim and a Best Director Oscar. Throughout his career, Redford has alternated between acting, directing, and producing. Other notable films in which he has acted include The Way We Were (1973), All the President’s Men (1976), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), Indecent Proposal (1993), and All Is Lost (2013). Other directed films include A River Runs Through It (1992) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). Redford, a champion of independent filmmaking, founded the Sundance Institute in 1981. The organization’s Sundance Film Festival has become the largest independent film festival in the United States. Redford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
Awards (partial list):
- Academy Award for Best Director for Ordinary People. 1980
- Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. 2001
- Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for Ordinary People. 1980
- Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor for Inside Daisy Clover. 1965
- Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Ordinary People. 1980
- Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. 1994
- Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. 1995
- New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for All Is Lost. 2013
Source: Wikipedia