{"id":142159,"date":"2025-09-16T22:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142159\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T22:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:53:11","slug":"robert-redford-essential-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142159\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Redford: Essential Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From presidential candidates to electric cowboys \u2014 these were the roles that showcased the late, great actor at his finest<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAn up-and-coming young actor in the 1960s, a sex symbol in the 1970s, a movie star (and Oscar-winning director) in the 1980s, an elder statesman in the 1990s and an \u00e9minence grise in the 21st century \u2014 Robert Redford\u2019s screen career spanned six decades and gave us too many memorable performances to count. Which, naturally, has not stopped us from singling out 20 roles that we believe highlight the late, great actor\u2019s immense talents. From presidential candidates to professional thieves, legendary journalists to legal eagles, electric cowboys to horse whisperers, here are our picks for Redford\u2019s best.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Chase\u2019 (1966)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE CHASE, Robert Redford, 1966\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-the-chase.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tRedford had a few movies \u2014 not to mention numerous bit parts on TV shows, a handful of stage performances, and a Golden Globe for a small role as an alcoholic, bisexual actor in 1965\u2019s Inside Daisy Clover \u2014 under his belt when he joined Arthur Penn\u2019s Southern-fried melodrama. Yet this is arguably the first time that audiences got a proper glimpse of what the future above-the-title star was capable of. Cast alongside Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, and fellow future screen icon Robert Duvall, Redford is Bubber Reeves (!), an escaped convict sneaking home to see his wife. His anticipated return riles the townsfolk into a mob-mentality fervor, and no, it doesn\u2019t end well for good ol\u2019 boy Bubber. Redford spends a lot of the movie literally on the run. But his way of holding your attention doing the quieter moments is evident, as is his chemistry with Fonda. And though Redford often bemoaned his early work, he holds his own against Brando in their few scenes together. Combined with his performance in the equally torrid This Property Is Condemned a few months later, this was the beginning of his ascent toward stardom. \u2014David Fear<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Barefoot in the Park\u2019 (1968)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Robert Redford in 'Barefoot In The Park', directed by Gene Saks, 1967\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-barefoot-in-the-park.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Silver Screen Collection\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tRedford had already played the part of newlywed Paul Bratter in the original 1965 Broadway production of Neil Simon\u2019s hit, opposite Elizabeth Ashley; the play gave him his first real taste of success. So it was a no-brainer that he\u2019d be cast in the screen adaptation, with his Chase co-star Jane Fonda subbing in as his free-spirited wife. The two will have their ups and down as a young couple, with the uptight Paul eventually learning to lighten up and follow his spouse\u2019s live-in-the-moment lead (see title). And movie audiences got to see exactly why Redford was singled out as a highlight of the show\u2019s theatrical run. The rapport \u2014 and, frankly, heat \u2014 between the two helps sell the conservative-versus-kooky dynamic, and Redford displays a casual sense of comic timing that he\u2019d put to great use down the road. His sex-symbol era had now commenced. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\u2019 (1969)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, from left: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, 1969. TM and Copyright \u00a9 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-butch-cassidy-and-sundance-kid.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 20th Century Fox\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tLegend has it that William Goldman\u2019s script was purchased by 20th Century Fox on the basis that Butch Cassidy would be played by Paul Newman \u2014 the star of Hud, The Hustler, and Cool Hand Luke was already a name that guaranteed asses in seats. Yet no one could figure out who to cast as Sundance. Jack Lemmon said no. So did Steve McQueen. It was Newman\u2019s wife, Joanne Woodward, who suggested Redford, who she\u2019d seen on Broadway. And thus one of the screen\u2019s great bromances was born. Watching Newman and Redford pal around as two members of the Hole in the Wall Gang and go on the lam together, it seems inconceivable that anybody else could have played these parts. With all due respect to Katherine Ross, the movie is a love story between these two outlaws, and that\u2019s thanks to Redford complimenting Newman\u2019s flinty rebelliousness with his own maverick streak. They were a match made in heaven, destined to jump off that cliff and face down the entire Bolivian army together. The two remained lifelong friends, and though Redford would be paired with several generations\u2019 worth of actors over his career, he never had a better co-star. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Downhill Racer\u2019 (1969)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"DOWNHILL RACER, Robert Redford, 1969.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-downhill-racer.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAfter he became a superstar cowboy as the Sundance Kid, Redford went for offbeat sports roles as an obsessive skier in Downhill Racer and a dirt-biker in Little Fauss and Big Halsy. He hits the slopes in Downhill Racer, battling U.S. Olympic ski team coach Gene Hackman. It was a passion project for Redford, as a lifelong fanatic who\u2019d already built his own Sundance resort. \u201cFor me, personally, skiing holds everything,\u201d Redford said at the time. The movie, which also marked his first time producing, filmed in Switzerland. \u201cPolitics surround this sport, like any business,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are cruel to each other. And the sport is cruel, too, although usually you think only of the beauty of it.\u201d \u2014Rob Sheffield<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Candidate\u2019 (1972)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE CANDIDATE, Karen Carlson, Robert Redford, 1972\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-the-candidate.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe Candidate is the ultimate showcase for Redford as the JFK figure of the 1970s: young, idealistic, handsome, full of noble dreams. In Michael Ritchie\u2019s political satire, Redford plays Bill McKay, the innocent liberal preppie drafted into his first political campaign, going up against a powerful Republican senator from California. Redford learns the game, with Peter Boyle as the cynical operator behind him, only to get corrupted by the political process. Released during the 1972 presidential election, The Candidate accidentally became a perfect portrait of the nation in the era of Watergate. It thrives on Redford\u2019s unique combination of natural golden-boy charisma, earnest moral grit, and sly comic chops. \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Hot Rock\u2019 (1972)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE HOT ROCK, from left:  Robert Redford, George Segal, 1972. \u00a920th Century-Fox TM &amp; Copyright\/courtesy Everett Collection\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-hot-rock.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 20th Century Fox\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOn The Brady Bunch, Alice once said she wanted to be cremated and have her ashes thrown on Robert Redford. The Hot Rock is why. He\u2019s at his most fetching here as a wily jewel thief, the picture of devil-may-care charm at its blondest. The Hot Rock is a comic New York City heist caper, Peter Yates\u2019 film of a Donald Westlake crime novel, made on location in the early 1970s, right before the \u201cFord to City: Drop Dead\u201d era. Redford sets out to steal a priceless gem from the Brooklyn Museum, on a team with George Segal, Zero Mostel, Moses Gunn, and other Seventies legends. Sleater-Kinney claimed this movie for the riot-grrrl generation with the cover of their 1999 punk classic The Hot Rock. \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Jeremiah Johnson\u2019 (1972)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"JEREMIAH JOHNSON, Robert Redford, 1972\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-jeremiah-johnson.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThis mountain-man epic was originally set up as a Clint Eastwood vehicle; when he dropped out, Warners turned to Redford, who enlisted This Property Is Condemned director Sydney Pollack to call the shots. It\u2019s peak granola Redford, a thinking-man\u2019s Western that appealed to the star\u2019s inner nature-lover and outer rugged-matinee-idol appeal. (This is ground zero of the Seventies-style bearded sex symbol, and everyone from Jason Momoa to Bon Iver should be forced to pay royalties in perpetuity.) A veteran soldier disillusioned by society\u2019s warring ways, Jeremiah takes to the Rocky Mountains with the intention of living as a trapper. He\u2019ll encounter friends and enemies along the way, all while learning to live off the land. Had its legacy simply been showcasing Redford\u2019s ability as an outdoorsman capable of giving a sublime performance \u2014 consider this a literal dry run for his near-dialogueless seafaring adventure All Is Lost \u2014 Jeremiah Johnson would still be a prime example of why he was such a great star for his socially conscious era. The fact that it also gave birth to <a href=\"https:\/\/trending.knowyourmeme.com\/editorials\/guides\/what-is-the-jeremiah-johnson-nod-of-approval-meme-the-classic-reaction-gif-featuring-actor-robert-redford-explained\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the world\u2019s greatest meme<\/a> only makes us love it more. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Sting\u2019 (1973)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"British actors Robert Shaw, American actors Robert Redford and Paul Newman on the set of The Sting, directed by George Roy Hill. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images)\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-the-sting.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tCaper movies are a sort of con game, an effort to keep viewers engaged through every twist and turn for the cost of a movie ticket. And there was no better con man of his era than Robert Redford\u2019s Johnny Hooker. Reuniting with the co-star (Paul Newman) and director (George Roy Hill) of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Redford brought the confidence for a film that would shape his legacy as much as any in his body of work. By this time, Redford\u2019s magnetic onscreen presence was a known quantity, allowing him to wield that star power like a weapon. It\u2019s the tousled blonde hair peeking out from under his ascot cap, that blinding smile, his rakish good looks, and an infectious laugh. How could anyone say no? Instead of hiding his beauty, Hill directs Redford to lean into what people already loved about him, a blinding charm that\u2019s only amplified through his chemistry with Newman. A piece of pure, unabashed entertainment, The Sting would not only win Best Picture, but land Redford what would somehow be his only Oscar nomination for acting. What a con. \u2014Brian Tallerico<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Way We Were\u2019 (1973)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE WAY WE WERE, from left: Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, 1973\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-the-way-we-were.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tMemories, light the corners of our minds. The Way We Were has the iconic Seventies pairing of Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, in the wildly popular drama of two star-crossed lovers. They meet in college in the 1930s \u2014 she\u2019s a Marxist Jewish intellectual activist, he\u2019s a blonde WASP novelist. Their stormy romance rages through World War II to McCarthyism to the Hollywood blacklist. The StreisFord opposites-attract chemistry is off the charts \u2014 the Brooklyn noodge vs. the Santa Monica tennis jock \u2014 establishing them both as the key romantic leads of their era. Every mom in America saw it four times. (As Pauline Kael wrote, \u201cIt\u2019s good to see Redford with a woman again after all that flirting with Paul Newman.\u201d) It became one of 1973\u2019s box-office sensations, with Barb\u2019s hit theme song to evoke misty watercolor memories of the way we were. \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Great Gatsby\u2019 (1974)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE GREAT GATSBY, Robert Redford, 1974\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-great-gatsby.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt wasn\u2019t the first movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby \u2014 and it may or may not be the best, depending on your Baz Lurhmann tolerance level. But it was a Seventies blockbuster, turning the classic 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald novel into an over-the-top Hollywood fantasy of the Jazz Age, directed by Jack Clayton with a Francis Ford Coppola screenplay. Redford\u2019s Jay Gatsby is the tormented bon vivant of West Egg, with his Roaring Twenties idea of style \u2014 nobody has ever said \u201cold sport\u201d with less irony than Redford. He carries a torch for Mia Farrow\u2019s Daisy, with Bruce Dern as her jerk husband Tom. But he captures the steely self-discipline behind the obsessive social climber; Redford convinces you that he\u2019s the dashing romantic Gatsby dreamed of being all along. \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Three Days of the Condor\u2019 (1975)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, Robert Redford, 1975\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-three-days-the-condor.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFew movies captured the woozy paranoia of the mid-1970s better than Sydney Pollack\u2019s thriller, in which Redford\u2019s C.I.A. analyst (code name: Condor) takes a lunch break and returns to his office in New York\u2019s Upper East Side to find his co-workers murdered. It turns out to be an inside job, and the intelligence agency employee must go on the run before assassins track him down in the name of tying up loose ends. Redford gets a workout, running all over Manhattan, outwitting his betrayers and wooing Faye Dunaway all in the span of a few afternoons. He\u2019s a thinking-man\u2019s action hero, and not even the post-Watergate bad vibes can keep him from losing his cool. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018All the President\u2019s Men\u2019 (1976)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"American actor Robert Redford wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt with a patterned tie, his arms folded with a pencil in his mouth, in a recreation of The Washington Post's offices in 'All the President's Men', filmed at Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, 1976. The political thriller based on the Watergate scandal, directed by Alan J Pakula, starred Redford as Bob Woodward. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-all-the-presidents-men.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBob Woodward would probably concede that it was quite generous to cast the most handsome man alive to play him in a movie. On paper, Redford wasn\u2019t a great fit for the role so much as the sugar to make the medicine go down: If you\u2019re going to ask audiences to spend two hours with a couple of rumpled, workaholic journalists sniffing out leads, it helps if one of them looks like the Sundance Kid. But it was Redford himself who spearheaded Alan J. Pakula\u2019s rigorously fact-based newspaper procedural, purchasing the rights to Woodward and Bernstein\u2019s book about how they methodically uncovered the Watergate coverup. And that genuine interest in the material colors his vanity-free performance, which forgoes movie-star grandstanding at every turn in favor of unfussy, focused professionalism. No self-flattery was ultimately necessary for writers to see themselves in his take on\u00a0the\u00a0Washington Post veteran, because Redford fully commits to the unglamorous nature of investigative reporting, looking right at home with a phone balanced on one shoulder and a stack of documents under his nose. He truly disappears into the work \u2014 hardly a small thing for a Hollywood legend of his wattage. \u2014A.A. Dowd<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Electric Horseman\u2019 (1979)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"American actor Robert Redford on the set of The Electric Horseman directed by Sydney Pollack. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images)\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-electric-horseman.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tRedford gave one of his most roguishly charming performances as Sonny Steele, a washed-up, drunken rodeo star who steals a million-dollar horse from an abusive conglomerate, rides it down the Las Vegas strip, and aims to turn it loose. Directed by Sydney Pollack, it\u2019s a cops-and-cowboys lark of the highest order, but Redford made it a genuine, heartfelt appreciation of the American West, both its geography and its culture. When Jane Fonda\u2019s city-slicker reporter Hallie Martin catches up with Steele out in the desert, she slowly melts thanks to the rough-hewn wrangler\u2019s knowledge of the land. \u201cThis country\u2019s where I live,\u201d Steele says matter-of-factly. Naturally, they fall in love, but Steele, ever the drifter, doesn\u2019t hang around long. Just like the horse, he needs to be free. \u2014Joseph Hudak<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Natural\u2019 (1984)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE NATURAL, Robert Redford, 1984.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-the-natural.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tRight, Hollywood changed the ending to Bernard Malamud\u2019s somber novel, which saw its cautionary-tale hero Roy Dobbs not win the big game or walk off into the sunset. But Barry Levinson\u2019s adaptation of The Natural understood that it would be irresistibly mythic to have Robert Redford come to the plate, his side bleeding, and hit the walk-off home run that clinches the pennant for the New York Knights, Randy Newman\u2019s stirring score serenading him as he runs the bases in slow-motion. It\u2019s a glorious moment in the Oscar-nominated film, which found the golden-boy star comfortably shifting into middle age onscreen, his Dobbs an aging athlete filled with regret but determined to make things right both on and off the diamond. If in his daring 1970s films, like Three Days of the Condor and All the President\u2019s Men Redford utilized his stardom to create provocative dramas that spoke to the dark side of America\u2019s political climate, here he was offering a bittersweet fantasy of redemption and hope restored. He was rarely more moving, or more beautiful. \u2014Tim Grierson<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Out of Africa\u2019 (1985)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"OUT OF AFRICA, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, 1985. (c) MCA\/Universal: Courtesy Everett Collection.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-out-of-africa.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 MCA\/Universal Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tA decade after director Sydney Pollack made a screen couple out of Redford and Streisand, he did the same thing for Redford and Meryl Streep. Out of Africa was based on the autobiographical novel by Isak Dinesen, about World War I-era European aristocrats in Kenya. Streep plays a Danish plantation owner (cough) who finds romance with Redford as a British big-game hunter (double cough), with a tiny support role for the already mega-famous Iman. Even at the time, the colonialist milieu was hard to take, but Out of Africa won an Oscar for Best Picture and another for Pollack as Best Director. \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Legal Eagles\u2019 (1986)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"LEGAL EAGLES, Debra Winger, Robert Redford, 1986, (c)MCA Universal\/courtesy Everett Collection\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-legal-eagles.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 MCA\/Universal Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tDoes it get any more Eighties than this? Legal Eagles is a rom-com about sexy Manhattan lawyers\u2026 wait, come back!\u2026with a sensual theme song from Rod Stewart, the erotically charged \u201cLove Touch\u201d! Redford plays an assistant D.A. who gets caught up in the case of a performance artist (Daryl Hannah) accused of stealing a painting from a crooked millionaire. He teams up with a lawyer played by Debra Winger, and before you know it, there\u2019s mystery, murder, Terence Stamp as a sleazy art dealer, and because this film was made in the 1980s, Brian Dennehy. But Redford\u2019s charm holds it all together. It was director Ivan Reitman\u2019s follow-up to Ghostbusters \u2014 as he told the L.A. Times, \u201cIt was easier getting Redford than it was getting Bill Murray.\u201d \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018Indecent Proposal\u2019 (1993)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"INDECENT PROPOSAL, Robert Redford, 1993, \u00a9 Paramount\/courtesy Everett Collection\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-indecent-proposal.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 Paramount Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSometimes, a preposterous high-concept movie idea will work if you cast the right actor. Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne did just that when he tapped Redford to play John Gage, a mysterious billionaire who offers down-on-his-luck David Murphy (Woody Harrelson) a million dollars to spend one evening with his wife Diana (Demi Moore). A box-office smash that invited plenty of controversy \u2014 was the film sexist? Was it secretly feminist? \u2014 Indecent Proposal could have felt like a stale leftover from Hollywood\u2019s portraits of Reagan\u2019s America with its sleek, ambiguous look at love, money, and morality. But Redford lent the potentially tawdry plot line a melancholy gravitas as his Gatsby-esque figure laments his life, which has afforded him untold riches but little in the way of meaningful human connection. When Gage wistfully recalls a young woman he briefly glimpsed long ago who has forever enraptured him, Redford transcended the speech\u2019s clear parallels to a similar speech in Citizen Kane, in the process revealing a broken man that no amount of money can fix. \u2014T.G.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Horse Whisperer\u2019 (1998)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE HORSE WHISPERER, Robert Redford, 1998.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-horse-whisperer.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 Walt Disney Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFor a certain millennial cohort,\u00a0The Horse Whisperer\u00a0might have been their first exposure to Redford the director. While many movie snobs at the time dismissed the film as overly glossy, sappily sentimental Oscar bait, others (ahem) saw a gorgeously filmed, sensitively rendered picture of grief and trauma\u2019s myriad complexities. (The words \u201cgrief\u201d and \u201ctrauma\u201d weren\u2019t quite so overused in those days.) Yes, it is all rather stately and traditional and luxe, but\u00a0The Horse Whisperer\u00a0is also gently insightful about human interaction \u2014 between mother and daughter, husband and wife, uptight city girl and philosopher-cowboy country boy. It\u2019s a hushed, aching romance and a thoughtful portrait of a child healing from what could otherwise become a life-defining calamity.\u00a0The Horse Whisperer\u00a0is a lovely and goodhearted film, as reverent of emotional experience as it is of Redford\u2019s cherished mountain vistas.\u00a0\u00a0\u2014Richard Lawson<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018All Is Lost\u2019 (2013)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"ALL IS LOST, Robert Redford, 2013. ph: Richard Foreman\/\u00a9Lionsgate\/Courtesy Everett Collection\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-all-is-lost.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 LionsGate\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBy the 2010s, Redford had mostly stopped acting outside of his own movies. But he got back in front of the camera for Margin Call writer-director J.C. Chandor\u2019s ambitious follow-up, which focused on an unnamed man in the middle of the Indian Ocean whose small vessel has just hit a shipping container, causing significant damage to his craft. Playing the film\u2019s only character, and speaking only a few dozen words over the course of the story, Redford delivered his most purely physical performance, giving us a solitary soul who fights to stay afloat as we try to piece together clues regarding who he is. Well into his seventies by that point, Redford remained a striking presence, his boyhood athleticism still on display as the character\u2019s battle with nature becomes a metaphor for humans\u2019 endless wrestling with mortality. All Is Lost\u2019s primal thrill was heightened by the beloved star at its center, who never stopped taking chances on the way to one of his greatest late-career roles. \u2014T.G.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u2018The Old Man and the Gun\u2019 (2018)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"THE OLD MAN &amp; THE GUN, (aka OLD MAN AND THE GUN), from left: Sissy Spacek, Robert Redford, 2018.  ph: Eric Zachanowich\/ TM &amp; copyright \u00a9 Fox Searchlight Pictures. All rights reserved. \/Courtesy Everett Collection\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/redford-old-man-and-the-gun.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tNo posthumous highlight reel could hope to encapsulate the iconic stature of Robert Redford better than his final star vehicle. Though technically not the actor\u2019s swan song (his last credits are a couple of voice-only gigs and a Marvel cameo), David Lowery\u2019s elegiac outlaw yarn arranged a perfect parting showcase for his twinkling charm. His character, a laid-back outlaw still politely robbing banks well into his twilight years, is based on a real person. But he could just as well be an older version of any classic Redford desperado, from Sundance to Johnny Hooker to Jeremiah Johnson \u2014 a notion Lowery underscores by splicing in footage of the actor from his youth. The bittersweet magic of the movie is how it makes Redford\u2019s relaxed gravitas (and his chemistry with fellow screen legend Sissy Spacek) the whole show, while giving him the opportunity to wave farewell on his own mythic terms. You soak in his star power, undiminished by age or its ultimate ephemerality.\u00a0\u2014A.A.D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From presidential candidates to electric cowboys \u2014 these were the roles that showcased the late, great actor at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,58937,2839,45007,30411,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-142159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jane-fonda","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-paul-newman","12":"tag-robert-redford","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}