Charles Robert Redford Jr. (রবার্ট রেডফোর্ড) was an American actor, director, and producer. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Golden Globe Awards (including the 1994 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award), the 1996 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, a 2002 Academy Honorary Award, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005, the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the 2019 Honorary César. He was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.

Redford started his career in television acting in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone before making his Broadway debut playing a newlywed husband in Neil Simon's comedic play Barefoot in the Park (1963). Redford made his film debut in War Hunt (1962) before finding leading man stardom acting in Barefoot in the Park (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), and The Sting (1973), the last of which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Martha Woodruff Redford (née Hart; 1914–1955), who was from Austin, Texas, and Charles Robert Redford Sr. (1914–1991), an accountant. He had a paternal half-brother, William. Redford was of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry. His patrilineal great-great-grandfather, a Protestant Englishman named Elisha Redford, married Mary Ann McCreery, of Irish Catholic descent, in Manchester, Lancashire. They emigrated to New York City in America in 1849, immediately settling next in Stonington, Connecticut. They had a son named Charles, the first in line to have been given the name. Regarding Redford's maternal lineage, the Harts were Irish from Galway and the Greens were Scotch-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. As a child, he and his family often traveled to Austin to visit his maternal grandfather. Redford credited his environmentalism and love of nature to his childhood in Texas.

Redford attended Van Nuys High School, where he was classmates with baseball pitcher Don Drysdale. He described himself as having been a "bad" student, finding inspiration outside the classroom in art and sports. He hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzalez at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to help Gonzalez warm up for matches. Redford had a mild case of polio when he was 11.

On August 9, 1958, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen in Las Vegas. A second reception was held at Van Wagenen's grandmother's home on September 12. The couple had four children: Scott Anthony, Shauna Jean, David James, and Amy Hart. Scott died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 2½ months. Shauna is a painter and married to journalist Eric Schlosser. James was a writer and producer. Amy is an actress, director, and producer. Redford had seven grandchildren.

Redford and Van Wagenen never publicly announced a separation or divorce, but in 1982, entertainment columnist Shirley Eder reported that the pair "have been very much apart for several years." In 1991, Parade magazine said, "it is unclear whether the divorce has been finalized."

Redford supported environmentalism, Native American rights, LGBT rights, and the arts. He was a supporter of advocacy groups like the Political Action Committee of the Directors Guild of America.

Redford supported Brent Cornell Morris in his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination for Utah's 3rd congressional district in 1990. Redford also supported Gary Herbert, another Republican and a friend, in Herbert's successful 2004 campaign to be elected Utah's Lieutenant Governor. Herbert later became Governor of Utah.

As an avid environmentalist, Redford was a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He endorsed Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Redford was the first quote on the back cover of Donald Trump's book Crippled America (2015), saying of Trump's candidacy, "I'm glad he's in there, being the way he is, and saying what he says and the ways he says it, I think shakes things up and I think that is very needed." A representative later clarified that Redford's statement, taken from a longer conversation with Larry King, was not intended to endorse Trump for president.

On September 16, 2025, Redford died in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah, at the age of 89. Numerous members of the entertainment industry paid tribute to Redford, including frequent co-star Jane Fonda, who wrote, "He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America that we have to keep fighting for."

Legacy and reception