Robert Redford to let sun set on acting career
Actor says his final film likely will be ‘The Old Man & the Gun’
After a decadeslong career, Robert Redford has confirmed his plan to retire from acting.
His upcoming caper, “The Old Man & the Gun,” will likely be his final gig as an actor, he said in a recent interview.
“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and I’ll move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21,” the 81-yearold told Entertainment Weekly.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s enough.’ And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?”
The comedic biopic, based on career bank robber Forrest Tucker’s string of heists and prison breakouts, hits theaters in September and also stars Elisabeth Moss, Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck.
In 2016, Redford said that “The Old Man & the Gun” and the 2017 romance “Our Souls at Night,” in which he reunited with Jane Fonda, would be his final pair of acting jobs.
But that doesn’t mean he will retire from directing and producing, the indie titan said, “We’ll see about that.”
A representative for Redford confirmed the accuracy of the report.
Redford’s big break came in his 20s when director Mike Nichols cast him as the lead in Neil Simon’s Broadway comedy “Barefoot in the Park.” The 1963 play was a hit and opened the door to more films, including the film adaptation of “Barefoot” opposite Fonda, which made him a popular leading man.
At his best playing flawed heroes, he became a bankable leading man in the late 1960s and into the ’70s and early ’80s with roles in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Candidate,” “The Way We Were,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Three Days of the Condor” and “All the President’s Men.”
The prolific actor slid into the director’s chair with 1980s family drama “Ordinary People,” starring Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland, and earned four Academy Awards, including best picture and director.
He founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 and became the godfather of the booming indie film movement.