Robert Redford

Robert Redford's father was an accountant for Standard Oil, and Redford was raised in a comfortable middle-class household. He earned a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, but the scholarship was revoked after Redford hosted several drunken parties. He then studied drama at New York's Academy of Dramatic Arts, and became a busy actor on Broadway through the mid-1960s. On off days and between plays he worked on television a lot -- Perry Mason, Naked City, Route 66, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, and so on. His first film was the 1962 Korean war drama War Hunt, with Redford in a supporting role as a naïve recruit, and co-starring Sydney Pollack, who later directed several of Redford's most famous films. Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park was Redford's biggest Broadway hit, and he also starred in a 1967 Barefoot film adaptation. It was his sixth film, and it made him famous.

His seventh film was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and at 32, Redford had become the embodiment of "the golden boy". Notable Redford films include The Candidate, The Way We Were, The Sting, Three Days of the Condor, and All the President's Men. He has also made dozens of near-classics, from Downhill Racer and Tell Them Willie Boy is Here to The Natural and The Clearing. He has directed six feature films, winning the Oscar as Best Director for Ordinary People in 1980. He was nominated again for Quiz Show in 1994, and has also directed The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, The Horse Whisperer, and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

He started the Sundance Film Festival, named after his Sundance Kid character. Held annually in Park City, Utah, the event was at first just a curiosity, but quickly evolved into America's most prestigious showcase for films made outside the studio system. Ruby in Paradise, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Blood Simple, Hoop Dreams, Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project, and The Kid Stays in the Picture are among the independent films that have been launched by Sundance buzz. Redford is also the man behind the Sundance Institute, and the Sundance Channel.

He is politically liberal and often outspoken about it, albeit more tactfully than Barbra Streisand.

Personal life

Robert Redford is politically liberal, and has supported environmentalism and Native American rights.

Redford married Lola Van Wagenen on September 12, 1958. The couple had four children: Scott (born 1959 and died shortly after from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Shauna (born November 15, 1960), David James (born May 15, 1962), and Amy (born October 22, 1970). They divorced in 1985. His companions since have included actress Sonia Braga (during 1988), Kathy O'Rear (from the late 1980s to 1995) and German painter Sibylle Szaggars (1996-current). Redford has four grandchildren and currently lives in Sundance, Utah.

His daughter Amy is set to direct her first feature film, an independent drama entitled The Guitar. His other daughter Shauna is married to, and has two children with, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser.