born Aug. 18, 1937, Santa Monica, Calif., U.S.
U.S. film actor and director.
He made his Broadway debut in 1959 and won acclaim in Barefoot in the Park (1963; film, 1967). The blond, appealing Redford began acting in films in the mid-1960s. He appeared with Paul Newman in the hits Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973) and also starred in The Candidate (1972), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), All the President's Men (1976), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), and Indecent Proposal (1993). His directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980, Academy Award), was followed by The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). He received an honorary Academy Award in 2001. In 1980 he founded the Sundance Institute to sponsor young filmmakers' works, and by the 1990s its film festival was the major showcase for U.S. independent films.