When you’re a larger-than-life, generation-spanning star like Robert Redford, the hard truth is that every movie is notable in some way. He was iconic in his own time, whether in front of the camera, or behind it. And in his lifetime, so many of his films transcended their original reviews to find passionate fanbases: Just ask older millennials about the 1992 hacker movie “Sneakers” or the younger generation about “The Way We Were.”
Redford died Tuesday at 89, leaving behind an arsenal of great roles that he owned, whether he was playing a quiet CIA agent, a con man, a baseball player, a grizzled mariner, an ambitious journalist, or a charming WASP in love. You could make a feast out of his Sydney Pollack collaborations alone, staring with “Jeremiah Johnson” (streaming on Tubi), a classic that also took on a surprising afterlife as a meme that became so popular, younger generations didn’t even realize it was Redford behind that beard. His very last role came this year, a cameo in “Dark Winds,” the AMC show about Navajo police officers he produced.
This is a list of some of Redford's most memorable performances, but don’t forget about the films he directed, too: among them are the all-timers “Ordinary People” (streaming on MGM+), which won him the best director Oscar, and “Quiz Show” (rent on Apple TV+), which got him another nod.
“Barefoot in the Park” (1967) Redford and Jane Fonda play a passionate but mismatched newlywed couple whose relationship is tested by their walk-up New York apartment in this Neil Simon comedy. Reprising the role he'd played on Broadway, Redford is the uptight, conservative foil to her more free-spirited character and they’re both stunningly beautiful and fun to watch. Fonda told The Guardian in 2015 that she was “always in love with Robert Redford.” He later responded that he wasn’t aware. The two also appeared together in “The Chase” (1966), “The Electric Horseman” (1979) and “Our Souls at Night” (2017).
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) Redford met Paul Newman on “Butch Cassidy,” George Roy Hill and William Goldman’s Western buddy film about outlaws on the run. It was the start of a lifelong friendship, but it almost didn’t happen, since the studio wanted a star like Steve McQueen or Marlon Brando instead of Redford.
“I was not a name equal to Paul’s. I was just sort of moving up at that time,” he told the AP in 2015. “There was a big argument that went on for months and months. They said it had to be a star. (Newman) said, ‘Well, I want to work with an actor,’ because Paul respected acting. Had it not been for Paul, I would not have gotten that break.”
“Downhill Racer” (1969) A film that’s as stylish as it is compelling, Redford plays an ambitious and smug downhill skier out for Olympic gold in this Michael Ritchie film. Roger Ebert, in his review, wrote that it is “a portrait of a man that is so complete, and so tragic, that ‘Downhill Racer’ becomes the best movie ever made about sports — without really being about sports at all.”
This was one of Redford’s passion projects, his first independent feature that taught him some hard lessons about Hollywood. “That was when I learned about how the film industry really works,” Redford told the Harvard Business Review in 2002. “The studio simply tossed ‘Downhill Racer’ away without a second thought. I broke my heart trying to get that film promoted and distributed.”
“The Sting” (1973) After the success of “Butch Cassidy,” “The Sting,” another Hill film, fell into place more easily. Redford and Newman play grifters in 1936 Chicago who fleece Robert Shaw’s rich mobster in this memorable caper that went on to win best picture.
“What was interesting was the switcheroo,” Redford told the AP. “Paul had played these iconic, quiet, still characters in the past, and that’s not what Paul is. He was a chatty, nervous guy who was always biting his fingernails. ... He loved to have fun and play games.”
“The Way We Were” (1973) Ah Hubbell, that beautiful, carefree WASP who falls in love with Barbra Streisand’s fiercely opinionated Katie. The making of the Pollack film, from a script standpoint, was fraught and the original writer Arthur Laurents was never quite happy with how it turned out. But this romantic drama with that memorable song has endured over the generations.
“Three Days of the Condor” (1975) Redford teamed with Pollack again for this paranoid thriller about a quiet CIA codebreaker, who returns from lunch only to discover his co-workers have all been murdered. The film sends him on the run from the bosses involved in this vast conspiracy, and a hit man played by Max von Sydow.
“All the President’s Men” (1976) To Redford, the history of this film was more interesting than the project itself. He started obsessing over the Watergate saga during a whistle-stop tour for “The Candidate,” also a great and prophetic Redford film, when he overheard some journalists gossiping about the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and became fascinated by the journalists covering the story, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
“I wanted to know who these guys were, who created all this disturbance,” Redford told the AP. “I thought, ‘Wow, one guy was a Jew, one guy was a WASP. One guy was a Republican, the other guy was a liberal. One guy was a good writer, the other wasn’t very good. They didn’t like each other, but they had to work together. Now that’s an interesting dynamic I’d love to know about.’”
“The Natural” (1984) This is one of those films that might not be many critics' favorite, but its cultural impact almost negates that. Redford played baseball player Roy Hobbs in Barry Levinson’s adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s novel about an up-and-coming talent whose career is derailed after getting shot, but who gets another chance at greatness 16 years later.
“Out of Africa” (1985) This breathtakingly beautiful historical romance (also directed by Pollack) finds Meryl Streep, as the Danish expat Karen Blixen, unable to resist the charms of Redford’s big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, an English man with no accent (Pollack thought it would be distracting for audiences). The film didn’t get the best reviews, but it did go on to win the best picture Oscar.
“All Is Lost” (2013) J.C. Chandor directed Redford in this harrowing survival story, in which a veteran sailor on a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean tries to survive after his yacht is stuck by a floating cargo container. Made for only $9 million, it’s stripped-down and thrilling.
“It’s a pure cinematic experience,” Redford told The Hollywood Reporter. “And 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.” It’s likely a quirk of modern film review aggregation, but it is also his highest Rotten Tomatoes score.
“The Old Man & The Gun” (2018) This indie gem from filmmaker David Lowery, about a 70-year-old San Quentin escapee who embarks on a series of bank heists, was a bit of a swan song for Redford, who was 82 when it was released. His character, Forrest Tucker, is the kind of thief who left his victims disarmed, with one bank teller explaining to the police, “He was a gentleman.” It’s one of those films that’s almost comforting to watch, a reassuring testament to his enduring appeal. Charisma doesn’t need to dwindle with age, and Redford was proof.
