
Robert Redford’s most memorable roles
EW rounds up the legend’s best work as an actor and director, from The Sting and All the President’s Men to Ordinary People and Quiz Show.
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, from left: Robert Redford, Natalie Wood, 1966
This Property is Condemned. COURTESY EVERETT
In some ways, Robert Redford owed his earliest stardom to Natalie Wood, who starred opposite him in 1965’s Inside Daisy Clover. Wood had director and co-star approval over This Property Is Condemned, an adaptation of a one-act Tennessee Williams play of the same name, and she chose Redford after forming a friendship with him on Clover. Redford stars as Owen Legate, an employee of the railroad company who comes to Alva’s (Wood) small town to close the train depot there. Redford and Wood share a star-crossed romance as Alva and Owen, her fragility tempered by his straightforward manner. Redford also recruited his friend Sydney Pollack to direct the film, thus launching Pollack’s career as well. The two men cobbled together the script, which had already gone through numerous drafts with multiple writers, including a young Francis Ford Coppola. Though it wasn’t well-reviewed at the time, it helped secure Redford’s leading man status and displayed his crackling, heartbreaking chemistry with Wood.—Maureen Lee Lenker
02
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Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in ‘Barefoot in the Park’ (1967)
Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in ‘Barefoot in the Park’ (1967). PARAMOUNT/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
The original Barefoot in the Park play, directed by Mike Nichols and debuting on Broadway in 1963, marked Redford’s breakout moment as an actor. He starred as Paul, the stuffy newlywed who finds his life and relationship descending into comic mayhem due to the neighbors and living situation at his new apartment. Redford reprised the role in the film adaptation, with Jane Fonda starring as Paul’s vibrant wife, Corie. The film is considered one of the best adaptations of Neil Simon’s work, and Redford gets to immortalize his subtly comedic take on marriage that earned him notice on the Broadway stage. Not to mention, he has stellar chemistry with Fonda that sparks as the story hurdles to its hilarious conclusion. —Maureen Lee Lenker
03
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
1969
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
If there’s any film that can be credited with truly making Redford a star, it’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a Western fable of two outlaws, leader Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the stoic Sundance Kid (Redford). Directed by George Roy Hill, the movie is as much as parable of Vietnam disillusionment as it is a story of the death of the Old West and the American mythology surrounding it. Redford and Newman forge an indelible screen duo (a pairing they sadly only repeated one other time), as the two joke, hustle, and shoot their way out of one hairy situation after another. Redford also romances Katharine Ross’ Etta, creating an iconic trio with Newman as tender third wheel. The script by legendary scribe William Goldman is one of the best ever written, and it’s Redford who gets many of the film’s funniest glib one-liners, all the while maintaining Sundance’s image as the strong, silent type. With the assistance of Edith Head’s masterful, rugged costume designs and Conrad L. Hall’s evocative cinematography, the film shot Redford to instant heartthrob status. But its most crucial legacy may just be its freeze-framed final shot, as fitting an epitaph as any actor will ever receive. —Maureen Lee Lenker
04
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The Candidate (1972)
The Candidate (1972)
The Candidate. COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
In The Candidate, a searing satire of American politics, Redford plays Bill McKay, the Democrat son of a former governor who is selected to run an unwinnable campaign against an incumbent Republican senator. Redford is the perfect actor to play a politician, as he brilliantly embodies a character arc we see in virtually every major election: his candidate starts with starry-eyed idealism that’s gradually chipped away until he’s left with almost no concrete convictions, doing whatever it takes to stay in the race. The actor’s desperate, befuddled delivery of the film’s last line makes for one of the most effective finales of his career. — Wesley Stenzel
05
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The Way We Were (1973)
1973
COLUMBIA PICTURES INTERNATIONAL/GETTY IMAGES
Considered one of the greatest love stories of American cinema, The Way We Were chronicles the ill-fated romance of preppy WASP Hubbell (Redford) and the Jewish, staunchly anti-war Katie (Barbra Streisand). The bittersweet story follows their relationship over the course of many years, from their first meeting in college to their reunion following World War II through to the strain of the Communist witch hunt of the Hollywood Blacklist. Only Redford could manage to make a callous, entitled character like Hubbell so irresistible, and despite his own reservations about the project, it enshrined him as a romantic leading man of the highest order. Combined with Streisand’s rendition of the Oscar-winning title song, The Way We Were remains a tearjerker guaranteed to make audiences swoon. —Maureen Lee Lenker
06
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The Sting (1973)
THE STING, Robert Redford, 1973
The Sting. EVERETT COLLECTION
The actor reteamed with Butch Cassidy co-star Newman and director Hill for the smash-hit crime caper. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture and was second to only The Exorcist at the 1973 box office. While Butch Cassidy cast the duo as rugged outlaws on their last legs, The Sting allows Redford and Newman to fully embrace their endless movie star charisma as their characters charm their way through elaborate cons. Redford earned his only acting Oscar nomination for his turn here. — Wesley Stenzel
07
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All the President’s Men (1976)
2. All the President’s Men (1976)
‘All the President’s Men’. COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
Ask a journalist what movie made them want to become a reporter, and odds are it’ll be All the President’s Men. Redford stars as real-life reporter Bob Woodward opposite Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal and helped bring down the presidency of Richard Nixon. Redford followed the case closely from its earliest days and bought the rights to Woodward and Bernstein’s book in 1974. As an executive producer of the film, it was Redford who recruited Butch Cassidy scribe William Goldman to write the screenplay, and the actor was also involved in Alan J. Pakula’s hiring as director and in Hoffman’s casting. Nominated for eight Oscars, it lost Best Picture to Rocky, a decision many Academy Members have since said they regret. The film helped establish the ways in which Redford’s projects reflect his political concerns offscreen. Its timely depiction of investigative journalism and government corruption make for a memorable thriller that endures as the gold standard
of movies about the press. —Maureen Lee Lenker
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