Robert Redford~ Dedicated to the Craft and the Production of Performing Arts

01 Apr Robert Redford~ Dedicated to the Craft and the Production of Performing Arts

Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, CA) is a semiretired American actor, director, producer, and businessman. He is the founder of the Sundance Film Festival. Redford began acting on television in the late 1950s. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont (1962). His greatest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband of co-star Elizabeth Ashley’s character in Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park (1963). He starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), which was a huge success and made him a major star. He had a critical and box office hit with Jeremiah Johnson (1972), and in 1973 he had the greatest hit of his career, the blockbuster crime caper The Sting, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. The popular and acclaimed All the President’s Men (1976) was a landmark film for Redford.

Redford had long harbored ambitions to work on both sides of the camera. As early as 1969, Redford had served as the executive producer for Downhill Racer. In the 1980s, Redford began as a director with Ordinary People (1980), which was one of the most critically and publicly acclaimed films of the decade, winning four Oscars including Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Director for Redford. Redford was credited with obtaining a powerful dramatic performance from Mary Tyler Moore, as well as superb work
from Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton.

In April 2014, Time magazine included Redford in their annual Time 100 as one of the “Most Influential People in the World”, declaring him the “Godfather of Indie Film”. In 2016, Redford was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sundance Institute was created from the financial proceeds of his acting success, starting with his salaries from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Downhill Racer, Redford bought an entire ski area on the east side of Mount Timpanogos northeast of Provo, Utah, called “Timp Haven”, which was renamed “Sundance”. Redford’s wife Lola was from Utah and they had built a home in the area in 1963. Portions of the movie Jeremiah Johnson (1972), a film which is both one of Redford’s favorites and one that has heavily influenced him, were shot near the ski area. Sundance Film Festival caters to independent filmmakers in the United States and has received recognition from the industry as a place to open films. In 2008, Sundance exhibited 125 feature-length films from 34 countries, with more than 50,000 attendees. The name Sundance comes from his Sundance Kid character. Redford also owned a restaurant called Zoom, located on Main Street in the former mining town of Park City, until its closure in May 2017.

Robert Redford founded: the Sundance Institute, Sundance Cinemas, Sundance Catalog, and the Sundance Channel, all in and around Park City, Utah, 30 miles (48 km) north of the Sundance ski area. Wildwood Enterprises, Inc.

Robert Redford is the Owner of Wildwood Enterprises, Inc., with Bill Holderman, Producer, with the following film credits: Lions for Lambs; Quiz Show; A River Runs Through It; Ordinary People; The Horse Whisperer; The Legend of Bagger Vance; The Slums of Beverly Hills; The Motorcycle Diaries; and The Conspirator. Wildwood Enterprises, Inc./ South Fork Pictures is located at 1101 Montana Avenue, Suite E, Santa Monica, CA 90403, Phone: 310-395-5155., and Utah. Sundance Productions produced Chicagoland (CNN), Cathedrals of Culture (Berlin Film Festival), The March (PBS) and Emmy Nominee All The President’s Men Revisited (Discovery), Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno Live!, and To Russia With Love on Epix. Independent films Since founding the nonprofit Sundance Institute in Park City, Utah, in 1981, Redford has been deeply involved with independent film. Through its various workshop programs and popular film festival, Sundance has provided much-needed support for independent filmmakers. In 1995, Redford signed a deal with Showtime to start a 24-hour cable television channel devoted to airing independent films. The Sundance Channel premiered on February 29, 1996.

Personal Life: Redford married Lola Van Wagenen, who dropped out of college to marry him. They had four children: Scott Anthony (September 1, 1959 – November 17, 1959), Shauna Jean (born November 15, 1960), David James “Jamie” (born May 5, 1962), and Amy Hart Redford (born October 22, 1970). Lola and Redford divorced in 1985. Scott Redford died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 2½ months and is buried at Provo City Cemetery in Provo, Utah. Shauna Redford is a painter and married to journalist Eric Schlosser. Jamie Redford is a writer and producer, while Amy Redford is an actress, director, and producer. Redford has seven grandchildren.

In July 2009, Redford married his longtime partner, Sibylle Szaggars, at the Louis C. Jacob Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. She had moved in with Redford in the 1990s and shared his home in Sundance, Utah. In May 2011, Alfred A. Knopf published Robert Redford: The Biography by Michael Feeney Callan, written over fifteen years with Redford’s input and drawn from his personal papers and diaries.

Redford supports environmentalism, Native American rights, LGBT rights, and the arts. He has also supported advocacy groups, such as the Political Action Committee of the Directors Guild of America. Redford has supported Republicans, including Brent Cornell Morris in his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination for Utah’s 3rd congressional district in 1990. Redford also supported Gary Herbert, another Republican and a friend, in Herbert’s successful 2004 campaign to be elected Utah’s Lieutenant Governor. Herbert later became Governor of Utah. Redford is an avid environmentalist and is a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He endorsed Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Redford is the first quote on the back cover of Donald Trump’s book Crippled America (2015), saying of Trump’s candidacy, “I’m glad he’s in there, being the way he is.” But Redford’s comment was intended to be sarcastic, as the rest of the comment follows, “He’s got such a big foot in his mouth I’m not sure you could get it out.”

In April 2014, Redford, a Pitzer College Trustee, and Pitzer College President Laura Skandera Trombley announced that the college will divest fossil fuel stocks from its endowment; at the time, it was the higher education institution with the largest endowment in the US to make this commitment. The press conference was held at the LA Press Club. In November 2012, Pitzer launched the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College. The Redford Conservancy educates the next generation of students to create solutions for the most challenging and urgent sustainability problems.

Redford said he is retiring from acting in October 2018…or well, maybe not…..