Robert Redford

They emigrated to New York City in 1849, immediately settling in Stonington, Connecticut.

They had a son named Charles, the first in line to have been given the name.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker.

Redford was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Martha Woodruff Redford (née Hart; 1914–1955) and Charles Robert Redford Sr. (1914–1991), an accountant.

He has a paternal half-brother, William.

Redford is of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.

His patrilineal great-great-grandfather, a Protestant Englishman named Elisha Redford, married Mary Ann McCreery, of Irish Catholic descent, in Manchester.

Appearing onstage in the late 1950s, Redford's television career began in 1960, including an appearance on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1961 and The Twilight Zone in 1962.

Redford's career, like that of many major stars who emerged in the 1950s, began in New York City, where the actor found work both on stage and in television.

After graduating from high school in 1954, he attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for a year and a half, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

While there, he worked at a restaurant/bar called The Sink, where a painting of his likeness still figures prominently among the bar's murals.

While at Colorado, Redford began drinking heavily and, as a result, lost his half-scholarship and was kicked out of school.

He went on to travel in Europe, living in France, Spain, and Italy.

He later studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and took classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (Class of 1959) in New York City.

His Broadway debut was in a small role in Tall Story (1959), followed by parts in The Highest Tree (1959) and Sunday in New York (1961).

Starting in 1960, Redford appeared as a guest star on numerous television drama programs, including Naked City, Maverick, The Untouchables, The Americans, Whispering Smith, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Route 66, Dr. Kildare, Playhouse 90, Tate, The Twilight Zone, The Virginian, and Captain Brassbound's Conversion, among others.

Redford made his screen debut in Tall Story (1960) in a minor role.

The film's stars were Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda (her debut), and Ray Walston.

After his Broadway success, he was cast in larger feature roles in movies.

In 1960, Redford was cast as Danny Tilford, a mentally disturbed young man trapped in the wreckage of his family garage, in "Breakdown", one of the last episodes of the syndicated adventure series, Rescue 8, starring Jim Davis and Lang Jeffries.

Redford made his film debut in War Hunt (1962).

His greatest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1963).

His biggest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in the original 1963 cast of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.

He gained success as a leading man in films such as Barefoot in the Park (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), and The Candidate (1972).

He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the crime caper The Sting (1973).

He continued to star in such films as The Way We Were (1973), All the President's Men (1976), and The Electric Horseman (1979).

Redford made his directorial film debut with Ordinary People (1980), winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

During this time, he starred in films such as Brubaker (1980), The Natural (1984), and Out of Africa (1985).

In 1981 Redford cofounded the Sundance Resort and Film Institute.

He released his third film as a director, A River Runs Through It, in 1992.

He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996, the Academy Honorary Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Honorary César in 2019.

He went on to receive Best Director and Best Picture nominations in 1995 for Quiz Show.

His later film roles include All Is Lost (2013), Truth (2015), Our Souls at Night (2017), and The Old Man & the Gun (2018).

He was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.

Redford portrayed Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Regarding Redford's maternal lineage, the Harts were Irish from Galway and the Greens were Scots-Irish who settled in the United States in the 18th century.

Redford's family lived in Van Nuys while his father worked in El Segundo.

Robert attended Van Nuys High School, where he was classmates with baseball pitcher Don Drysdale.

He has described himself as having been a "bad" student, finding inspiration outside the classroom in art and sports.

He hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzales at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to help Gonzales warm up for matches.