Iconic Actor

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All Is Lost [DVD] [2013]

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Robert Redford ~ Biography (Born 1937)

"Some people have analysis. I have Utah."
- Robert Redford

Robert Redford, tall, blond and handsome, was the classic all-American screen hero and one of Hollywood's highest-paidstars. But at the peak of his acting profession, he forged a new and successful career for himself, this timein the field of direction.

With his blond hair, blue eyes and clean-cutall-American appearance, Robert Redford seemed to be perfectly cast as a star in the grandHollywood tradition of the male romantic lead.Redford's emotional entanglements were usually subsiduary to the main plot of hisfilms: with the exceptions of Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda and Meryl Streep, he rarelyplayed opposite actresses of equal calibre (I mean, remember Demi Moore??).Indeed, some would argue that his only screenaffair has been with Paul Newman.

The films that work best are those in whichthere is a quiet questioning of the stereotypedAmerican male, and which thereby gentlysubvert Redford's own pretty-boy image. Hehas attacked the notion of the attractiveathletic winner - Downhill Racer (1969), Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), The Electric Horseman (1979) - commented on the heroic legendsof the Hollywood West - Butch Cassidy and theSundance Kid, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (both1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972) - and playedthe naive American caught up in somebodyelse's politics - The Candidate (1972), The WayWe Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975), All the President's Men (1976).

The cream on its way to the top

Redford's early life was not that of the well-to-do middle-class American that his appearancewould seem to suggest. Born in 1937, the sonof a milkman, Redford grew up in SantaMonica, California, in the shadow of the'dream factory' itself. But he despised themovies, often shouting at the screen on visitsto the cinema with his friends. Despite rebelling against the discipline of school, he won abaseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, but soon dropped out, believing therewas more to life than sport.

After hitch-hikingaround various European capitals, painting,and 'loitering' in bars and cafes, he returned toAmerica to study art at New York's PrattInstitute, and eventually found himself at theAmerican Academy of Dramatic Arts. He hadseveral minor roles on Broadway before thebreakthrough came - the lead part in NeilSimon's domestic farce Barefoot in the Park.The play, directed by Mike Nichols, had ravereviews and Redford earned recognition for hiscomic ability. With a growing reputation ontelevision, it was not surprising that he wassoon much sought after by Hollywood.

Robert Redford

Skimming the heights

However, his first film, War Hunt (1962), was asecond-rate, low-budget venture &bout a psychotic private in Korea. It was not a greatsuccess for either its producer, or Redford, butduring the filming he met and struck up a longworking relationship with the then actor Sydney Pollack - who later directed several of Redford's films. Redford's career continuedwith Inside Daisy Clover (1965), the film versionof Gavin Lambert's novel about the machinations of Hollywood.

He then went on tomake a total flop, Situation Hopeless, But NotSerious (1965); turned in a highly praisedperformance as Rubber Reeves, the escapedconvict whose presence brings out the mercenary tendencies of his home-town folk in TheChase (1966): starred with Natalie Wood in aTennessee Williams' small-town melodrama, This Property Is Condemned (1966): and wassued by Paramount for walking out on the Western Blue (1968) (a wise decision on hispart since the completed film, starring TerenceStamp, was not a success).

In 1967 he returned to Hollywood to fulfil anobligation to film Barefoot in the Park, echoinghis stage success. Redford's role as Paul Bratter, the straitlaced lawyer whose new wife (Jane Fonda) complains about his lack ofspontaneity - he cannot even walk barefoot inthe park - swept him to fame. Although Redford disliked Bratter's image he found aniche for himself as the fall-guy to his moreactive partner and he and Fonda made an effervescent duo.

Redford was subsequently offered several major roles which he turned down - including the diffident Benjamin in The Graduate (1967). It was well worth the wait for 1969 was Redford's year - he had a critical success with Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, made his long-cherished project Downhill Racer, and after Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty had all dropped out of the running he was offered what will probably remain his most memorable role. that of the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The attractive vitality of the relationship between the two heroes, and their tongue-in-cheek humour, made the film a smash hit. Newman has stated recently that everyone involved with the film knew before it was even finished that it would be huge.

Redford may not say much in the film, but his laconic,fast-shooting Sundance Kid complementedNewman's thoughtful Butch. The male camaraderie and slick repartee encouraged the quickgrowth of buddy-buddy movies and four yearslater Newman and Redford were reunited onthe screen in The Sting (1973). Once againunder the direction of George Roy Hill, it is awitty story concerning a successful confidencetrick on a racketeer. It was another hit.

Robert Redford, Havana

How the West was

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made Redford a valuable property and enabled himto pick and choose his parts. Having desertedHollywood for the mountains of Utah and acommitment to ecological preservation, manyof his films comment on the values he leftbehind, with a recurrent theme being the falseheroics of the Western. Tell Them Willie Boy IsHere, with Abraham Polonsky making areturn to direction after years on the blacklist,tackles the treatment of the American Indians. Redford was originally offered the part of WillieBoy - the Palute Indian who kills a chief whileclaiming his bride and finds himself hunted asa renegade - but, feeling that Indian rolesshould be played by Indians, he opted for therole of Sheriff Cope who learns to respect theIndian traditions.

Jeremiah Johnson, a legendary story of a lone trapper who braves theelements to live his own life in the mountains, isanother film that challenges Hollywood'sheroic notions. Redford's Johnson is neitherbraver nor wiser than others: he is simply moredetermined to live free from interference.

In atotally different setting, the wealthy Twentiesas depicted by Scott Fitzgerald in The GreatGatsby (1974), Redford portrays another lonerwho rejects 'modern' society's materialism.However, the film failed because it was one ofthe few Redford films that indulged itself as alove story.

Redford has expressed his dislike of the borncompetitor who smiles as he clocks up the winsand the girls:

'What about the athlete who is a creep? Wedo tend to tolerate creeps if they win. They canbehave any way so just forget that swell guywhom everyone loves and who came second.'

With 20,000 feet of unofficial footage fromthe Grenoble Winter Olympics, and after atwo-year struggle, Redford was finally able toembody these views in Downhill Racer - acouple of seasons in the life of David Chappellet, a skier who is only admired so long as he keeps winning. That Redford's looks made itdifficult to believe Chappellet is such a jerkemphasizes the very point the film is trying tomake. Little Fauss and Big Halsy develops thesame theme, this time on the motorcycleracetrack. The misguided admiration that Fauss (Michael J. Pollard) holds for his moreconfident fellow competitor Halsy (Redford)leads only to disillusionment. However, themost revealing image of the American athleticwinner is in The Electric Horseman; the drunken, ex-rodeo champion rides out of town onthe prize horse he has rescued from thebreakfast-cereal company he publicizes. Allthat can be seen of him against the night is hisilluminated outline - a visual indication of thehollowness of that kind of success.

A man for the people

Several of Redford's films have examined themanipulations and threats of modern politics:in The Way We Were, the McCarthy witchhunt is the cause of the break-up of a youngHollywood couple's marriage when the wife Katie (Barbra Streisand) becomes involved inthe campaign against the blacklist; The Candidate looks at competition in the electoral fightas a certain-to-loose well-intentioned contender (Redford) becomes seduced by the political arena; Three Days of the Condor is a spythriller about a desk-worker for the CIA who,on returning to his office, finds all his colleagues shot dead, possibly by his own side: Brubaker (1980) investigates the clash of interests between a prison governor bent on reformand the corrupt local businessmen andpoliticians.

But undoubtedly Redford's major intervention into political film is All the President's Men. He had negotiated a film deal with Woodward and Bernstein even before the book of theWatergate cover-up investigation had beenwritten. He then spent a long time researching the journalistic background by talking to thereporters and staff of the Washington Post. Theresulting film - with Dustin Hoffman and Redford as the two intrepid reporters - is astrong indictment of power politics and thedistortions which ensue.

Bridging the gap

Redford broke with tradition for two moreromantic movies. In Out of Africa (1985), onceagain directed by Sidney Pollack, he played anEnglishman gripped by the beauty of Africaand by the love of Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep).A beautifully photographed film, it reflects allof Redford's personal concerns with the environment and the freedom of the individual.Then in 1986 he added his lustre to theotherwise tepid Legal Eagles.

In 1981, he won an Academy Award -not for acting, however, but for the direction of Ordinary People (1980), a highly emotional andperceptive study of family tensions based uponthe guilt that the son Conrad (Timothy Hutton)feels over his brother's drowning. Starring Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland, thefilm was a commercial and a critical successand led to his second film as director - TheMilagro Beanfield War (1987).

After four years offscreen Redford made a starring "comeback" in Havana (1990), a romantic drama with Casablanca pretensions, but it was a costly flop, in spite of good personal reviews. It was one of his few outright failures with longtime collaborator Sydney Pollack.

In 1992 he made a conscious decision to put his career back in high gear, and enjoyed great success on every front. Sneakers proved he had lost none of his star power (or his light comedy touch); A River Runs Through It revealed his strengths as a director; and Incident at Oglala which he executive-produced and narrated, reaffirmed his social commitment. Then in 1993 he defined charisma (and box-office clout) as the sexy millionaire who offers Demi Moore a million dollars to sleep with him, in the smash hit Indecent Proposal. He earned Oscar nominations for directing and coproducing the intelligent, superbly crafted Quiz Show (1994).

He is the founder of 'The Sundance Film Festival'. Was married to Lola Van Wagenen from 1958 until their divorce in 1985. They had 4 children. Currently dating German painter Sibylle Szaggars.

Redford and Paul Newman were in talks about performing together again in the years before Newman passed away.

Robert Redford autographs, photographs and more @ ebay.com (direct link to photographs) - just checked and a bigger selection than i have seen everywhere else

Robert Redford Dvds available @ amazon.com.

Robert Redford ~ Photo Gallery