Robert Redford, the golden boy actor who later won an Oscar for directing and became a beacon of indie cinema by founding the Sundance Film Institute, died on Tuesday at the age of 89.
To honor his legacy, Variety is looking back on his most iconic roles and moments, from breaking hearts alongside Barbra Streisand in 1973’s “The Way We Were” to winning an Academy Award for his first directorial effort “Ordinary People” (1980) and even joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 2010s.
See Redford’s career in photos below.
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War Hunt (1962)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection After appearing on popular TV series such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Route 66,” Redford’s first true big-screen credit was for the 1962 film “War Hunt.” He headlined the film with John Saxon and his future collaborator Sydney Pollack, who was also making his feature film debut.
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Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Redford next starred alongside Natalie Wood in the 1965 drama “Inside Daisy Clover,” about a tomboy becoming a Hollywood actress.
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The Chase (1966)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Redford shared the screen with the legendary Marlon Brando — and collaborated with Jane Fonda for the first time — in the 1966 prison break drama “The Chase.”
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Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Just one year after “The Chase,” Redford and Fonda reunited for the film adaptation of “Barefoot in the Park,” based on Neil Simon’s play of the same name that Redford had also starred in. They play a young married couple whose passionate relationship is put to the test in their fifth floor walk-up New York City apartment.
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford broke out with the 1969 Western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” in which he played a Wild West outlaw alongside Paul Newman. It was a massive hit and went on to win four Oscars.
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The Candidate (1972)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The sharply-observed political comedy-drama won the best original screenplay Oscar with Redford as an unwilling Senate candidate who manages to go the distance.
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Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford played the rugged mountain man Jeremiah Johnson in Sydney Pollack’s Western, which was the first film in the genre to play in competition in Cannes.
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The Sting (1973)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The “Butch Cassidy” stars reunited with director George Roy Hill for his 1973 crime caper “The Sting,” which won seven Oscars including best picture and director. The film also earned Redford his first best actor nomination.
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The Way We Were (1973)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection That same year, Redford starred opposite Barbra Streisand in Sydney Pollack’s romantic drama “The Way We Were,” which follows the tumultuous relationship of two immensely different people and cemented his status as a soulful heartthrob.
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The Great Gatsby (1974)
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection Mia Farrow was Daisy Buchanan and Robert Redford was a debonair Jay Gatsby in Jack Clayton’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel. But despite a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola, it failed to ignite at the box office.
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Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Redford starred opposite Faye Dunaway and once again worked with Sydney Pollack in this political thriller about a CIA worker who returns from lunch to find his co-workers murdered.
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All the President’s Men (1976)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Redford starred as intrepid journalist Bob Woodward in the political thriller about the Watergate scandal opposite Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein. The film received near universal acclaim upon its release, won four Oscars and is regarded as an American classic.
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Winning the Best Director Oscar (1981)
Image Credit: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Redford shifted to directing in 1980 with his debut “Ordinary People,” starring Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore. It garnered critical and commercial success and won four Oscars, including best director for Redford.
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The Natural (1984)
Image Credit: ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford played Roy Hobbs, who possesses an uncanny natural ability for baseball, in Barry Levinson’s ’80s sports drama.
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Out of Africa (1985)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford and Meryl Streep were at their peaks in the epic, best picture-winning story of author Isak Dinesen, her life near Nairobi and her romance with a big-game hunter. And who could forget Redford shampooing Streep’s hair!
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Indecent Proposal (1993)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford was entering a more mature era as a high-stakes gambler in Adrian Lyne’s erotic drama “Indecent Proposal,” which despite lackluster reviews made more than $266 million worldwide. Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson star as a couple whose life is turned upside-down by the gambler’s offer to spend a night with the wife for $1 million.
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Robert Redford at the Sundance Film Festival
Image Credit: Getty Images Redford at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994. The festival first launched in 1978 under the name Utah/U.S. Film Festival before growing into an international launchpad for independent cinema.
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The Horse Whisperer (1998)
Image Credit: ©Buena Vista Pictures/courtesy Everet / Everett Collection Redford wrote and directed this Western drama which had the credit “Introducing Scarlett Johansson,” although it was actually her seventh screen role.
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Receiving the Academy Honorary Award (2002)
Image Credit: Getty Images In 2002, Redford was honored with the Honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement and reunited with his “The Way We Were” co-star Streisand.
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Lions for Lambs (2007)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford directed and starred in the 2007 war drama “Lions for Lambs,” reuniting with Meryl Streep and acting alongside Tom Cruise and Andrew Garfield in his feature film debut.
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All Is Lost (2013)
Image Credit: ©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection Redford played a man lost at sea in the survival drama “All Is Lost” in 2013, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination and New York Film Critics Circle win.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection Now an elder statesman, Redford made his first appearance in a superhero movie as Alexander Pierce, a senior official with S.H.I.E.L.D. He reprised the role in “Avengers: Endgame.”
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The Old Man & The Gun (2018)
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight / Everett Collection Redford’s final on-camera role before his “Avengers: Endgame” cameo was starring opposite Sissy Spacek in this crime biopic, for which he received a Golden Globe nom.