He was born Charles Robert Redford, Jr. on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, the son of an accountant. His mother died in 1955, a year after he finished high school. He went to the University of Colorado, but dropped out a year later and subsequently moved to Europe to study art in Paris and in Italy, a formative experience that transformed his political and social awareness. After returning to the United States, he moved to New York, where he enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art and made his debut as a stage actor.

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Source: Everything Zoomer

After a variety of television roles, he moved on to the silver screen, where he found success with the romantic comedy “Barefoot In The Park” opposite Jane Fonda, before his major breakthrough in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969, when he was 33. Subsequent hits as an actor came in “The Sting” (1973) which won him an Oscar nomination; “The Great Gatsby” the following year; “Three Days of the Condor” (1975); and the critically acclaimed “All the President’s Men” (1976) — his sun-kissed all-American good looks making him a household name.

Other majoring acting credits for the man with the sun-kissed, all-American good looks were baseball classic “The Natural” and epic romance “Out of Africa” (1985) alongside Meryl Streep.

In 1981, he won an Academy Award for his directorial debut on “Ordinary People” and has a string of other directing credits, including “A River Runs Through It,” in which he starred alongside a young Brad Pitt, and “Quiz Show.” Also in 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute in Utah for aspiring filmmakers, disaffected with Hollywood’s commercialism and lack of diversity. The annual Sundance film festival is one of the most influential in the world and has fostered more than a generation of independent directors.

Source: Entertainment.ie

Despite his fame, Redford has led a largely private life and steers clears of many award shows and public film festivals. A passionate conservationist and environmentalist, he has often spoken up for social responsibility. In 2002, he won an honorary Oscar as an actor, director, producer and creator of Sundance. To date, he has also won six Golden Globes and one BAFTA.

In 2016, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian award, by Barack Obama. He married his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, in 1958. They had four children, one of whom died as an infant. They divorced in 1985 and he married second wife, German artist and long-term girlfriend Sibylle Szaggars in 2009.

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Source: Peninsula Qatar