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Charles Robert Redford, Jr., better recognized as Robert Redford, was a scrappy kid born in Santa Monica, western California to an accountant father and a housewife mother who died the same year as of his high school graduation. After he lost his baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado due to his drunkenness, part fueled by his mother's death, he joined the Pratt's institute of art and lived the life of a painter in Europe for a while. Afterwards he moved to New York to study acting from the American Academy of Dramatics.Though he entered the film and television industry in 1960, he got his major break from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid at the age of 32, 9 years after his first film Iceman Cometh was released but was only meant for television and thus didn't hit the theatres.

His acting career dates back to 1959 when he starred in the Broadway production for the Tall Story. He juggled between plays and television shows for few years. In 1969, he featured in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, which brought him the recognition for his role as Sundance kid. Subsequent to that he was known for many of his other roles too. His character Johnny Hooker, a young con man in the 1973 production of The Sting got him an Oscar nomination. Also, his role as journalist Bob Woodward along with his partner Carl Bernstein played by Dustin Hoffman who uncover the details of the Watergate scandal which leads to President Nixon's resignation, in the movie All the President's men (1976), won Redford critical acclaim. Amid his other works include The Way We Were (1973) co-starring Barbara Streisand, The Natural (1984) and Out of Africa (1985).

After his movie Havana (1990) bombed badly at the box office, he started pursuing different kind of roles. But, almost every other movie of his had some or the other kind of adultery involved in it. Either it be Indecent Proposal (1993) with Demi Moore or Up, Close and Personal (1996) along side Michelle Pfeiffer.
Redford is not only known for the movies that he did, but rather also for the movies that he refused to do. Movies like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Love Story, The Day of the Jackal, and many more which turned out to be huge success..
Apart from acting Redford directed a few films too. His first film as a director, Ordinary People (1980), not only won him an amazing Oscar but also a golden globe and a Director's Guild of America (DGA) for the same. He is one of the few major actors to win an Academy Award for Best Director. He also directed the movies such as A River Runs Through (1992) starring Brad Pitt, The Quiz Show (1994) starring Ralph Fiennes and John Turturro, and The Horse Whisperer (1998) in which he himself starred alongside Scarlett Johansson and Kristin Scott Thomas. Both his movies, The Quiz Show and The Horse Whisperer were nominated for Golden Globes and Academy Awards, but he didn't win any. .
Robert Redford won his second Oscar at the age of 66. But this, time he won it not for his directorial skills but rather for being an inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers all across the globe and also for creating Sundance. He founded the Sundance film festival, The Sundance institute, Sundance cinemas, Sundance catalog and the Sundance Channels, all around park city, Utah. They all were named after his character in the movie Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. The main aim of Sundance was to cater to independent filmmakers in the United States and has received recognition for the same. The biggest token of acknowledgment was the 2002 honorary award presented to him, by the Academy foundation.

He disappeared from the act after 1998 as the projects being offered to him started reducing in number. Redford came back with a bang with the 2001 thriller, The Last Castle where he portrayed the role of a disgraced army official who was sent to prison. The same year, he collaborated with actor Brad Pitt once again, for the movie The* Spy Game* that featured Redford as a CIA agent whose protégé, played by Pitt, has been taken hostage

He was next seen in the movie The Clearing (2004), where he plays a wealthy businessman who is abducted by his employee played by Willem Dafoe. In 2005, he starred along with Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez in the movie An Unfinished Life, where he Plays, Lopez's Father in law. He also gave his voice to a horse in the recent movie Charlotte's web (2006), which is based on a famous children's storybook.
Redford also has some productions duties credited to his name. He produced most of the movies that he directed, including his upcoming projects Lambs for Lions (2007) starring him, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, and Aloft (2007). He also produced The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), which received an Oscar for the best foreign film at the 77th Academy Awards.
He is a leading environmental activist who has always supported natural causes. He narrated the IMAX documentary Sacred Planet (2001) that featured a journey to some of the most endangered placed across the globe. Besides this, he has been honored for his contribution to the American culture as well.
The man, who was once branded as just another Californian blonde and was rejected by 20th Century Fox, is now one of the most successful and acknowledged American actor as well as producer director. The double Oscar winner has 63 acting and 8 directorial projects to his credit. In his career of 47 years, he has proved that he is more than a handsome blonde and is capable of much more, which I believe past this article is no longer needed to be mentioned again.