Robert Redford, an iconic actor and leading man who loved nature and Mother Earth, died in his sleep at 89 at his home in Utah on Sept. 16.
Redford’s list of famous films includes “The Sting,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Natural” and “The Candidate,” among others.
One of my favorite Redford films is a 1972 action-comedy that even some Redford fans might not know about. “The Hot Rock,” directed by Peter Yates, stars Redford, George Segal and Ron Leibman. It made me laugh. It was cynical and yet light comedy. It was also the first Redford film I remember when I was growing up.
In the mystery-thriller “Three Days of the Condor (1975), Redford was superb as a CIA researcher in New York. When his colleagues and friends are wiped out by an assassin. Redford’s character, Turner, is forced to go on the run in this taut thriller directed by Sydney Pollack. Redford and Pollack worked together several times in classic films including “The Way We Were” (1973), “This Property Is Condemned” (1966), “Jeremiah Johnson” (1972), “The Electric Horseman” (1979) and “Out of Africa” (1985).
I really enjoyed “Sneakers” (1992), one of Redford’s lesser-known films. Not unlike “The Hot Rock,” it was a film that didn’t take itself too seriously. Redford shared the screen with Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley and the late River Phoenix in this ensemble caper comedy.
“The Horse Whisperer,” which featured Redford as both director and leading man in 1998, was an impressive slice-of-life contemporary Western. It also featured a young Scarlett Johansson as a girl traumatized by a horse-riding accident. Kristin Scott Thomas portrayed the girl’s mother.
Redford also directed two acclaimed dramas. “Ordinary People,” starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton, beat out “Raging Bull” for the Best Picture Academy Award in 1981. Redford also directed “Quiz Show,” starring Ralph Fiennes, in 1994.
Redford and Paul Newman teamed up for two huge classics. The first was “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) the saga of the two leading men portraying famous outlaws on the run after a botched train robbery. Katharine Ross co-starred in this Oscar-winning epic.
Newman and Redford teamed up again in 1973 for “The Sting” playing clever con men setting up and carrying out a huge caper.
Many Redford fans, me included, will always remember Redford’s performance opposite Dustin Hoffman in “All the President’s Men” (1976), the stirring political drama about the Watergate scandal. Redford was Bob Woodward and Hoffman portrayed Carl Bernstein. Together Woodward and Bernstein played huge roles in bringing down the President Richard Nixon administration.
