Robert Redford, born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on 18th August 1936 in Santa Monica, California, is an actor, producer, director, environmentalist, businessman, and a philanthropist. He has also founded the Sundance Film Festival. He started his career in 1960s as a television actor, and got an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Voice of Charlie Pont in 1962. His started his acting in films with the War Hunt in 1962, and he won several laurels in course of his journey with films.

Personal Life

Redford was born to Martha W., mother, and Charles Robert Redford Sr., father, who had been a milkman and later an accountant. As his father remarried, he got a stepbrother. His ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and Scots-Iris, and his surname has its origin in Midlothian, Scotland. His great-great grandfather from the paternal side had immigrated to New York in 1849.

The family of Redford moved to California, although his father was working in El Segundo. He joined Van Nuys High School, and as per his own admission, he was a “bad” student who was more comfortable out of the classroom. He was more interested in sports and art. He studied at the University of Colorado after his graduation from High School.

He married Lola Van Wagenen on 12th September 1958, and she had left her studies to marry him. They together had four children namely Scott Anthony born on 1st September 1959, Shauna Jean born on 15th November 1960, David James “Jamie” born on 5th May 1962, and Amy Hart Redford born on 22nd October 1970. Out of those four, the first child Scott Anthony died on 17th November 1959. Redford divorced Lola in 1985.

Career

The career of Redford, like most others film stars, started with theatre and television. In 1959, he got a small theatrical role in The Highest Tree. In 1960, he performed extensively as the guest star in a number of drama programs on television like Naked City, The Americans, and The Untouchables etc. His big screen debut was a small and minor role in the film Tall Story which was based on a basketball star.

In 1962, Redford got a role, his second, in a film entitled War Hunt. He performed in another film named Situation Hopeless…But Not Serious along with the film legend Alec Guinness. In that film, he performed the role of a soldier who spends his life hiding from the enemy on the border. For his role in Inside Daisy Cover in 1965, he won a Golden Globe as the best new star.

He paired with Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park in 1967, and again co-starred in 1979 in Pollack’s The Electric Horseman. He starred in a number of other films, and remained a major star in the 1990s through 2000s. He also worked as executive producer in the film Downhill Racer, and his first film as director was Ordinary People. His biography would be incomplete without a reference to his net worth which is estimated as $170 million.