Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born August 18, 1937, in Santa Monica, CA. The son of Charles Robert Redford, an accountant for Standard Oil, and Martha Redford, who passed away in 1955, lived a colorful life before making the decision to become an actor.

After attending the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship, Redford toiled for a year as an oil worker, and then headed off to Europe, where he made a living as a painter while in Paris.

He finally returned to the US and made his way to New York City, in pursuit of a film career. In 1959, he was cast on Broadway in the production of Tall Story, and followed it up with parts in The Highest Tree and Sunday in New York. He was also making the TV rounds in the early '60s, with appearances in programs such as Maverick, Tate, Perry Mason, The Americans, Route 66, The Twilight Zone, and The Untouchables.

Although parts were coming his way, Redford's career was touch and go before his starmaking role in 1969's Butch Cassidyand the Sundance Kid. He made his big-screen debut in 1962's War Hunt, and after some more stints on Broadway, he returned to film with 1966's The Chase and This Property Is Condemned, both box-office failures. A year later he reprised his role as the lead for the film adaptation of Barefoot in the Park, in which he starred on Broadway.

While his career was on its way, it was laced with some bad decisions; he rejected roles in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate and Rosemary's Baby, and then backed out of Blue, which led to some lawsuits and a reputation as a risky casting choice.

Redford bounced back with 1972's Jeremiah Johnson and The Candidate, and of course, the classics The Way We Were, co-starring Barbra Streisand and 1973's The Sting, reuniting Redford with "Butch Cassidy Paul Newman and garnering critical-acclaim and 7 Academy Awards.

By the time the '80s rolled around, Redford was a sure box-office bet, thanks to 1976's All The President's Men and 1977's A Bridge Too Far. In 1980, Redford made his directorial debut with the film Ordinary People, which won 4 Oscars, including one for Best Director. After several years away from moviemaking, both behind and before the camera, Redford was back with 1984's The Natural and 1985's Best Picture Oscar winner, Out of Africa.

In the '90s, Redford was still proving that he was leading man material, thanks to 1990's Havana and the action-packed Sneakers in 1992, while 1993's controversial Indecent Proposal and 1996's Up Close & Personal marked his return as the heartthrob opposite Demi Mooreand Michelle Pfeiffer respectively.

Redford was also keeping busy as a director, with A River Runs Through It, starring Brad Pitt, Quiz Show, which is considered Redford's best work as director to date, as well as The Horse Whisperer and The Legend of Bagger Vance, which received lukewarm reviews.

Redford started the new millennium on the right foot, with roles in 2001's The Last Castle and Spy Game, which reunited him with Brad Pitt, was a box-office hit, and proved once again that he is the man, even when co-starring with Pitt.

A student of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Redford's list of awards includes three Golden Globes for World Film Favorite (in 1974, 1976 and 1977), National Board of Review Award and Golden Globe for Best Director for Ordinary People (to add to his Oscar in the same category), the Cecil B. DeMille Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award in 1994 for Best Picture for Quiz Show, and the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

Among his activism in environmental causes, Robert Redford has shown his support of independent film by founding the Sundance Institute, whose annual film festival honors and serves as a launching pad for aspiring independent filmmakers. The festival has become one of the most influential in the world since its establishment in 1980, and is held annually in Park City, Utah.

The director, actor, producer, and activist is also a father and grandfather; he has three children (Shauna, David James, and Amy Hart; the fourth passed away at an early age) with ex-wife Lola Van Wagenen (the two were married from 1958 until 1985). He has been seeing Kathy O'Rear since 1988, a costume designer who worked on costumes for A River Runs Through It and Quiz Show.