Robert Redford's 10 Most Iconic Roles That Made Him a Bonafide Movie Star

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock

Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock

Robert Redfordhas had an illustrious film career.After getting his start on Broadway in the late 1950s, the actor made his screen debut with a small role in 1960’sTall Storystarring Jane Fonda, with whom he would go on to forma lasting bond on and off screen.In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, he gained success as a leading man with roles inBarefoot in the Park (1967),Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969),Jeremiah Johnson(1972) andCandidate(1972).Redford’s career has spanned over six decades, and while his charismatic good looks cemented his place as a bonafide movie star, his understated, natural acting talent earned him numerous awards and nominations, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1995 and an honorary Oscar in 2002. He also received an Oscar for Best Director for helming 1980’sOrdinary People.In recent years, he held roles in a number of other notable films, includingCaptain America: The Winter Soldier,Pete’s DragonandThe Old Man & the Gun, the latter of which marked one of his final rolesbefore retiring from acting in 2018.“I can’t last forever,” he toldVarietyat the time. “The truth is that I really do feel that it’s time for me to move into retirement. I’ve been doing this since I was 21. I’ve put my soul and heart into it over the years. I thought, ‘That’s enough. Why don’t you quit while you’re a little bit ahead? Don’t wait for the bell to toll. Just get out.’ So I felt my time had come and I couldn’t think of a better project to go out on than this film.”In honor of his 88th birthday, look back at some of his most notable roles through the years.

Robert Redfordhas had an illustrious film career.

After getting his start on Broadway in the late 1950s, the actor made his screen debut with a small role in 1960’sTall Storystarring Jane Fonda, with whom he would go on to forma lasting bond on and off screen.

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, he gained success as a leading man with roles inBarefoot in the Park (1967),Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969),Jeremiah Johnson(1972) andCandidate(1972).

Redford’s career has spanned over six decades, and while his charismatic good looks cemented his place as a bonafide movie star, his understated, natural acting talent earned him numerous awards and nominations, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1995 and an honorary Oscar in 2002. He also received an Oscar for Best Director for helming 1980’sOrdinary People.

In recent years, he held roles in a number of other notable films, includingCaptain America: The Winter Soldier,Pete’s DragonandThe Old Man & the Gun, the latter of which marked one of his final rolesbefore retiring from acting in 2018.

“I can’t last forever,” he toldVarietyat the time. “The truth is that I really do feel that it’s time for me to move into retirement. I’ve been doing this since I was 21. I’ve put my soul and heart into it over the years. I thought, ‘That’s enough. Why don’t you quit while you’re a little bit ahead? Don’t wait for the bell to toll. Just get out.’ So I felt my time had come and I couldn’t think of a better project to go out on than this film.”

In honor of his 88th birthday, look back at some of his most notable roles through the years.

01of 10

Barefoot in the Park (1967)

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Not only did the film help Redford’s career take off, but it was also the start of hislongtime friendship with Fonda. “It’s easy,”Redford previously toldTodayabout working with Fonda. “We’ve done many films over the years so it just worked out that way, that there was not a lot of discussion, we didn’t have to talk about a lot. Things just kind of fell into place between us, and there wasn’t much more to think about.”

02of 10Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)HA/THA/ShutterstockThe Western buddy film starredPaul Newmanas Wild West outlaw Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy, and Redford as his partner Harry Longabaugh, aka the “Sundance Kid.” The movie, one of the top-grossing films of 1969, went on to receive numerous accolades, including four Oscar wins and a nomination for Best Picture.In aprevious interview withCollider, Redford revealed that he and Newman were actually up for each other’s parts initially, but director George Roy Hill switched the roles at his request.“I was being put up for Butch Cassidy because I’d done the comedy. But that part didn’t interest me,” Redford told the publication. “What interested me was The Sundance Kid because I could relate to that based on my own experience and particularly my own childhood and feeling like an outlaw most of my life. So I told George and he knew Paul really well and knew he was much more like Butch Cassidy, so George turned it all around. He went to Paul and they argued a bit until Paul finally realized that George was right. He was well known and I wasn’t, which is why they switched the title too.”

02of 10

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

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The Western buddy film starredPaul Newmanas Wild West outlaw Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy, and Redford as his partner Harry Longabaugh, aka the “Sundance Kid.” The movie, one of the top-grossing films of 1969, went on to receive numerous accolades, including four Oscar wins and a nomination for Best Picture.

In aprevious interview withCollider, Redford revealed that he and Newman were actually up for each other’s parts initially, but director George Roy Hill switched the roles at his request.

“I was being put up for Butch Cassidy because I’d done the comedy. But that part didn’t interest me,” Redford told the publication. “What interested me was The Sundance Kid because I could relate to that based on my own experience and particularly my own childhood and feeling like an outlaw most of my life. So I told George and he knew Paul really well and knew he was much more like Butch Cassidy, so George turned it all around. He went to Paul and they argued a bit until Paul finally realized that George was right. He was well known and I wasn’t, which is why they switched the title too.”

03of 10

The Candidate (1972)

The political comedy-drama stars Redford as a left-leaning lawyer who winds up running for the senate seat in California. The film received an Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay for Jeremy Larner, who was a speechwriter for Senator Eugene J. McCarthy during McCarthy’s campaign for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.

Speaking withThe Hollywood Reporter, Larner revealed that it was Redford who reached out to him about writing the script. “Redford said, ‘We want to do a movie about a liberal politician who sells out,’” Larner recalled, “and I said, ‘Well, I don’t think people sell out as much as they get carried away.’ A campaign is so such bigger than the candidate. You don’t have time to think of what you’re saying. It’s like floating down a river and you hear the sound of the falls ahead; it occurs to you you’re going to go over the falls, but it’s all you can do to keep steering the boat.”

“I told Redford, ‘It’s kind of like being a movie star. The role is bigger than the person playing it,’" Larner added.

04of 10The Sting (1973)Universal/Kobal/ShutterstockThe film reunited Newman and Redford as two professional grifters trying to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw). The film also reunited Newman and Redford with George Roy Hill, who directedButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Not only was the film a commercial success, but it received critical acclaim during award season, including 10 Oscar nominations and seven wins, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay. Additionally, Redford was nominated for Best Actor for his role.“We had a lot of fun together,”Redford told theSalt Lake Tribuneof his longtime friendship with Newman, who died in 2008. “We played a lot of jokes on each other, and just had such a good time.”

04of 10

The Sting (1973)

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The film reunited Newman and Redford as two professional grifters trying to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw). The film also reunited Newman and Redford with George Roy Hill, who directedButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Not only was the film a commercial success, but it received critical acclaim during award season, including 10 Oscar nominations and seven wins, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay. Additionally, Redford was nominated for Best Actor for his role.

“We had a lot of fun together,”Redford told theSalt Lake Tribuneof his longtime friendship with Newman, who died in 2008. “We played a lot of jokes on each other, and just had such a good time.”

05of 10

The Way We Were (1973)

The romantic drama, based on Arthur Laurents’ 1972 novel of the same name, starred Redford andBarbra Streisandas two lovers with very different backgrounds who attempt to make their relationship work amid political turmoil.

06of 10

Redford recalled toColliderthat doing the film was a “pleasure” as he was always “very fond of the [book’s author] F. Scott Fitzgerald.”

07of 10

All The President’s Men (1976)

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Redford, who also served as a co-producer for the film, was largely responsible for it getting made as he approached Bernstein and Woodward when they were still writing the book. It was also his idea to tell the story through their respective.

“Nixon had already resigned and the held opinion [in Hollywood] was ‘No one cares. No one wants to hear about this,”’Redford toldToday. “And I said, ‘No, it’s not about Nixon. It’s about something else. It’s about investigative journalism and hard work.”’

“Accuracy was the big, big objective in making the film,” Redford added. “We had to be accurate, otherwise we would fall under that perception that Hollywood was messing around with a very vital event.”

08of 10The Natural (1984)Tri-Star/Kobal/ShutterstockThe sports film based on Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel of the same name followed Redford as a baseball player named Hobbs over decades of ups and downs in his career. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Glenn Close.“I loved Malamud’s book, I tried to get it made for 10 years,”Redford previously told Yahoo Entertainmentabout the film. “I was told that, from a studio point of view that baseball doesn’t fly commercially.”He also explained that when he finally got the go-ahead for the film, he knew he would likely have to change the book’s ending. “I thought, ‘…even though you’re probably going to disappoint a lot of Malamud fans because you can’t have the guy strike out at the end, you’ve got to go the other way completely.’ But I thought it would be a better film, it wouldn’t be a downer.”

08of 10

The Natural (1984)

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The sports film based on Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel of the same name followed Redford as a baseball player named Hobbs over decades of ups and downs in his career. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Glenn Close.

“I loved Malamud’s book, I tried to get it made for 10 years,”Redford previously told Yahoo Entertainmentabout the film. “I was told that, from a studio point of view that baseball doesn’t fly commercially.”

He also explained that when he finally got the go-ahead for the film, he knew he would likely have to change the book’s ending. “I thought, ‘…even though you’re probably going to disappoint a lot of Malamud fans because you can’t have the guy strike out at the end, you’ve got to go the other way completely.’ But I thought it would be a better film, it wouldn’t be a downer.”

09of 10

Out of Africa (1985)

The film received massive critical acclaimand earned seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Sydney Pollack.

10of 10All Is Lost (2013)The Door Pictures/Kobal/ShutterstockThe action drama film stars Redford alone, as a man lost at sea. The movie received positive reviews from critics and remainsRedford’s top-ranked movie on Rotten Tomatoeswith a 94% rating.“It’s a pure cinematic experience,”Redford toldThe Hollywood Reporterof the film. “That was very appealing to me at this point in my life — to be able to go back to my roots as an actor, to be interesting enough to have the audience ride along with you and almost be a part of what you are feeling and thinking.”

10of 10

All Is Lost (2013)

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The action drama film stars Redford alone, as a man lost at sea. The movie received positive reviews from critics and remainsRedford’s top-ranked movie on Rotten Tomatoeswith a 94% rating.

“It’s a pure cinematic experience,”Redford toldThe Hollywood Reporterof the film. “That was very appealing to me at this point in my life — to be able to go back to my roots as an actor, to be interesting enough to have the audience ride along with you and almost be a part of what you are feeling and thinking.”

source: people.com