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One of the Most Beloved Actors of the Past Half-Century Says He Will Retire After Two More Movies

Nov 11, 2016  •  Post A Comment

An actor who is one of the giants of Hollywood says he will retire from acting after wrapping up the two films he currently has in production. Robert Redford made the revelation in a Walker Art Center interview conducted by his grandson, Dylan Redford.

After recounting how he started out as an artist, the actor was asked by his grandson, “Do you ever think about returning to painting?”

Redford replied: “Yeah, a lot — and a lot lately because I’m getting tired of acting. I’m an impatient person, so it’s hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take. At this point in my life, age 80, it’d give me more satisfaction because I’m not dependent on anybody. It’s just me, just the way it used to be, and so going back to sketching — that’s sort of where my head is right now.”

Redford, who won an Oscar for directing “Ordinary People” in 1981 and picked up an honorary Oscar in 2002, added: “I’ve got two acting projects in the works: ‘Our Souls at Night,’ with Jane Fonda, a love story for older people who get a second chance in life, and ‘Old Man With a Gun,’ a lighter piece with Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek. Once they’re done then I’m going to say, ‘Okay, that’s goodbye to all that,’ and then just focus on directing.”

Redford won a string of Golden Globes in the 1970s as “World Film Favorite — Male,” and has been nominated for Emmys both as an actor and as a producer. His quintessential role may have been as the Sundance Kid in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969, although fans have plenty of others to choose from — “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Sting,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Natural” … the list goes on.

Early in his career, Redford made an impact on TV, with memorable performances on “The Twilight Zone,” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and other shows.

Here’s a young Robert Redford playing a neo-nazi thug on “Naked City” in 1961 …

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