Famous actor-director, and, to a lesser extent, activist Robert Redford, 89, died earlier today. Despite his age, the death is still a shock.
He was seen everywhere on television in the 1960s, and then he branched into film later that decade, becoming a sensation thanks to his good looks as much as his acting skills. He later on started the Sundance Music Festival in Utah, where he lived for many years.
Here is a snip from an obituary:
Born Aug. 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, Calif., Redford was a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his Broadway debut in 1959's Tall Story, followed by a lead in 1963's Barefoot in the Park — a role he reprised in the 1967 film adaptation alongside Jane Fonda. His onscreen career began in the early 1960s with roles on TV shows like Tate, Route 66, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
And of course, his career reached new heights in 1969 when he landed the role of outlaw the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid alongside Paul Newman.“I was being put up for Butch Cassidy because I’d done the comedy. But that part didn't interest me,” Redford told Collider in 2019. “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 [director] George [Roy Hill], 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.”
Fun facts: Robert Redford graduated from Van Nuys High School the same year (1954) as baseball great Don Drysdale. Redford's first wife, Lola Van Wegenen, later became a noted historian, filmmaker, and activist in her own right. She is now 86 years old and had remarried many years ago.
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