obert Redford is a true screen legend. The iconic actor has starred in some of the most classic films, and at one point or another has played every role there is. Now, his daughter Amy Redford is making it in the business.
Apart from being on screen, Redford has also done plenty of work as a director, and besides that, he’s also an activist and environmentalist, as well as philanthropist.the Redford family – and how his daughter Amy is keeping their legacy alive.
Robert Redford has done pretty much everything there is to do in his profession. Starring in films such as Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All President’s Men and The Natural, he put himself among the greatest. Furthermore, his work as a director has led to people raising him even higher up on the Hollywood celebrity shelf.
At the same time as Redford’s career has been his life, he’s also created a loving family. In fact, his daughter, Amy, has made it in the entertainment business herself.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Redford has outlived two of his sons who tragically passed away.
So how did everything start for Robert? And what is Amy Redford known for? This is all you need to know!
Robert Redford was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California. Growing up, his father was a milk man who later joined an oil company as an accountant. His mother, meanwhile, had a great passion for both film and literature.
Redford grew up in a lower working-class neighborhood in Santa Monica. Because of his mother’s great passion for the arts, he oftentimes visited the library and the movie theater. It was all because of his parents that Robert Redford also fell in love with film and books, and also, his desire to see the world grew.
Robert loved to draw as a child. However, within his family, art was considered more of a “trivial pursuit”. He would draw under the table in class when he was bored, and by third grade, his teacher called him out.
“‘Mr Redford, why don’t you bring that up and show us what’s more important?’” Redford recalled his teacher saying.
“Instead of burning me, she said, ‘I’ll make a deal with you. We’re gonna put an easel here. Every Wednesday, we’re gonna give you 15 minutes to draw a story, but then you have to promise to pay attention.’ That’s what saved me.”
Redford was great at sports growing up; he ran track, as well as played tennis and football.
In addition, he said that he had a “robust” romantic life. But in most areas, he wasn’t successful, according to himself.
“Actually, I was a failure at everything I tried,” Redford told Success Magazine. “I worked as a box boy at a supermarket and got fired. Then my dad got me a job at Standard Oil—fired again.”
Redford’s father had been living in California since his early days. He was “shipped out” to the West Coast from New England because of his mother not being able to raise two sons, and he was scared to death of poverty.
So when Robert pretty much said that he planned to pursue a career in arts, his father didn’t encourage him because it wasn’t a “real” job.
“It wasn’t his fault. I needed to get out of there. I needed to get to a clean, empty space because that house was occupied by thoughts that I didn’t share,” Redford explained.
“When I came out and looked like somebody who was gonna be freewheeling, it made him nervous. He thought, ‘He won’t survive that.’ That was the tension. He wanted me to be secure, to go to Stanford. I was lucky to get to Boulder, Colorado.”
Robert got a baseball scholarship to play at the University of Boulder, Colorado. But instead of focusing on the sport, he became the ” campus drunk” and before long, he was expelled.
Instead of staying in the US, Redford decided to head for Europe. He lived a bohemic, “artsy” lifestyle in Paris. 18 months later, “much more focused” on his country both culturally and politically, he went home to California. And it didn’t take long before his now-known career started.
Redford married Lola Van Wagenan in 1958, and the couple moved to New York City soon after,. They welcomed son Scott the following year, but tragedy struck only five months later, when their child passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“I was only 21, my wife was 20. We were just starting our lives, I was just starting my career in New York,” Redford recalled. “Of course it was traumatic, and how that plays out over time, I don’t know. We had to deal with it. You have to move on. And we had other children who came.”
At this point, Redford had studied at the Pratt Institute and then transferred to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he switched from design to acting. He decided to pour all of the heartbreak at losing his son into acting, and soon, he got himself his first gigs in theater.
Following a couple of smaller parts in films, Redford got his big breakthrough. In 1963, he landed the leadi