ROBERT REDFORD

Robert Redford is an actor and director who was born in Santa Monica, California on August 18, 1936. Redford was a gifted athlete that received a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, but quickly left school. He went to Europe to fulfill his ambition to be a painter and spent 13 months painting and studying in Paris. He returned to the U.S. and enrolled as an art student in New York. After time at the Pratt Institute of Art, he was taught acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. By the end of 1960 he was on Broadway in a series of plays including Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park. He has starred in classic films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Candidate (1972), The Way We Were (1973), The Sting (1973), All the President’s Men (1976), and The Natural (1984). He has found success in producing and directing, winning an Oscar for Ordinary People (1980) and receiving both directing and best picture nods for Quiz Show (1994). In 1978 Redford also helped start the Sundance Film Festival, which has grown into one of the movie industry's most prestigious events. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his contributions to the medium in 2001 with an honorary award for serving as an "inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere." In 2016, Redford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.