Bidding Adieu to Robert Redford, a Golden Icon Onscreen and Off

 

One of the most influential and beloved figures in cinema for his notable achievements both in front and behind the cameras, Hollywood’s most renown fair-haired male superstar Robert Redford passed September 16^th at 89. Starting his career in the late 1950’s on stage with Tall Story, Redford would thrive in the early 1960s on television, including “Nothing in the Dark,” one of the best Twilight Zone episodes, and gaining an Emmy nomination for “The Voice of Charlie Pont,” while making his film debut in a bit via the 1960 screen adaptation of Story, which coincidentally also featured Redford’s future and most frequent costar Jane Fonda in her first film. Gaining momentum and a Theater World Award for Sunday in New York, Redford would raise his career bar substantially as the male lead in the 1963 Broadway smash Barefoot in the Park, then make an impression opposite Natalie Wood in 1965’s Inside Daisy Clover (which one Redford a Golden Globe as best new male star) and This Property is Condemned before his first real teaming with Fonda in the all-star potboiler The Chase.

 Those three weren’t hits, but Redford soon broke through as a leading man of great charm, allure and comic deftness with the smash 1967 screen version of Barefoot opposite Fonda, wherein Redford plays one of his most relatable, likeable heroes as newlywed Paul Bratter, generating a beguiling, believable chemistry with Fonda to create an ideal, lively romantic couple of genetic perfection. Redford may look like a million bucks, but as Paul he conveys a decency and down-to-earth appeal audiences can relate to, while delivering his lines with ace comic brio for an endearingly funny, handsome and affable hero. Following this, Redford would reach the pantheon of top male box-office stars teaming with the current king in that area, Paul Newman, as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The rare camaraderie the two possess during the unfolding of this breezy Western helped Butch become one of the blockbusters of its era, and set Redford up for a run as one of the most bankable and admired stars of the 1970s, while also winning the British Best Actor Academy Award for Butch and his other two 1969 releases, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and Downhill Racer.

This breakthrough year promising greater things ahead for the newly-minted megastar indeed panned out, with successes such as Jeremiah Johnson and his 1973 one-two punch consisting of smoothly reteaming with Newman for The Sting (which won Best Picture and gained the suave, sly Redford his sole Best Actor nomination at the Oscars) and The Way We Were opposite Barbra Streisand, who wanted no one but Redford as her costar, such was his status in the movie industry as the preeminent male star of the period, made evident by the resounding popularity of both films. Following this astounding year, Redford possibly hit a snag with the big-budget, highly publicized 1974 rendering of The Great Gatsby, but recovered nicely with Three Days of the Condor and The Great Waldo Pepper, both  hits, then another critical and financial smash opposite Dustin Hoffman in All the President’s Men, before closing the decade out in another all-star endeavor, A Bridge Too Far, and a successful romantic comedy reunion with Fonda for The Electric Horsemen.

                The end of the 1970s also brought a shift in Redford’s career focus, with the establishment of the Sundance Film Festival in 1978, which became and remains one of the biggest venues for independent filmmakers to showcase their works, and his switch behind the camera to helm 1980’s profoundly moving and skillfully crafted Ordinary People, which enabled Redford the chance to display his talent as a sensitive, thoughtful director capable of drawing great performances from an exceptional cast. Following this triumph, which won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Redford, Redford would focus more on Sundance and Director/Producer duties with The Milagro Beanfield War, the serene A River Runs Through It and the riveting Quiz Show, which brought Redford nominations as producer and director, while still bringing his calm, sage persona to major productions as Brubaker, The Natural, involved in another Best Picture endeavor and top female costar with Meryl Streep in Out of Africia before convincingly moving into more mature roles with 1993’s Indecent Proposal, Up Close and Personal and The Horse Whisperer, his first starring feature wherein he also served as producer/director.

                In his later years, Redford became an elder stateman for American cinema, particularly through his continued dedication to Sundance. He continued in front and behind the camera, with distinct recognition for his acting in indies, including 2013’s All is Lost, which offered Redford a Best Actor win from the prestigious New York Film Critics, a touching final pairing with Fonda in Our Souls at Night before another imposing performance as The Old Man & the Gun and returning to the mainstream for Disney Studios’ Pete’s Dragon and, for Marvel, as Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and his final film appearance in another mammoth money spinner, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. For his many significant contributions to cinema, Redford also gained several major awards, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Globes in 1994, an honorary Oscar in 2002, a 2005 Kennedy Center Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2016 and a 2017 Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival. Rest in Peace to one of the most important, virtuoso and classy figures in motion pictures, Robert Redford.