<img style="float: left;" title="Rahul daCunha" src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2025/sep/Rahul_e.jpg" alt="Rahul daCunha" width="200" height="69" />The glory of art is that it can not only survive change, it can lead it&nbsp;
&ndash; Robert Redford
<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/hollywood-news/article/avengers-endgame-star-robert-redford-passes-away-at-89-23594322" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Robert Redford</a> once said, &ldquo;When I was little, the most exciting thing to hear, were the words &lsquo;Once upon a time&hellip;&rsquo;
My father, loved storytelling, and every night he&rsquo;d tuck me into bed and once he said, &lsquo;Once upon a time&rsquo;&hellip;I knew I was in business&rsquo;.&rdquo;
There are many sides to Robert Redford, who passed away, aged 89. Heartthrob no doubt, but the heart was a bigger one.
Perhaps the one thing he fought in his youth was his hunky handsomeness. Very good-looking people have to fight hard to be taken seriously. His greatest gift of all, as an <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-crime-news/article/mithi-river-desilting-scam-actor-dino-morea-brother-appear-before-mumbai-police-s-eow-for-questioning-23553793" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">actor</a>, was the gift of timing, the ability to hold a moment, hold a silence, that twinkle in his eyes that he shared with Paul Newman, as the Sundance Kid, in The Sting. &nbsp;The pranks, the private relationship they shared over the years, his ability to truly play it straight, nothing overly dramatic, were immortal.
Robert Redford loved stories, telling them, acting in them, directing them, producing them, But he was bigger than the roles he played, there was a larger picture at every stage, having hit stardom with Butch Cassidy, Barefoot in the Park, and Wish You Were Here, he felt he wanted to be behind the camera. Ordinary People, his directorial debut, where he spoke of approaching filmmaking from the actor&rsquo;s perspective, honouring the actor, won him Best Director and Best Picture Oscars. Being an actor himself he was able to extract the finest performances from his cast.
He felt great empathy for the actor, &ldquo;too many modern <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/mid-day-director-shailesh-gupta-elected-ins-president-21800206" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">directors </a>are obsessed with equipment, zooms and booms, but not the actor. Modern directors don&rsquo;t know how to approach an actor&rsquo;s equipment&rdquo;, he felt.
But in 1981, came his biggest contribution to cinema &mdash; his legacy was ready, not waiting for his sunset years, but &ldquo;how do I give back now?&rdquo;, &ldquo;how do we make films out of the Hollywood studio system?&rdquo; He bought land in his native Utah, created the Sundance Institute and so was born Sundance Film Festival, the largest film festival for independent work.
To Robert Redford the story was everything. There were many aspects of his charisma that stayed with one, over the years.&nbsp;
The climax of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as Paul Newman and Robert Redford, knowing they were a few minutes away from death, wounded and exhausted, joke about going to Australia, that William Goldmans witty dialogue in the mouths of the these two &ldquo;friends&rdquo; was magic inspite of the strife they were under. Redford had a way to straddle various genres with ease. The consummate movie star, those dashing good looks, not a six pack stomach but a billion dollar smile.&nbsp;
When it came down to it, what was that &ldquo;x&rdquo; factor that he possessed? He was equally comfortable acting opposite men or women, equally good with romance and bromance, Jane Fonda and Barbara Streisand, Dustin Hoffman and, of course, Paul Newman, his chemistry with the latter, felt a lot like the Brad Pitt and George Clooney camaraderie.
And yet beyond the spotlight, Redford was shy, he was self-conscious, he was acutely aware of his shortcomings.&nbsp;
He was candid in his confession that he wasn&rsquo;t one of those actors who could direct himself, like Clint Eastwood. He wasn&rsquo;t a show off. Any opportunity to shelter himself he&rsquo;d retreat to his home in <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/world-news/video/rare-tornadoes-hit-utah-navajo-nation-1079153" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Utah</a>. And yet, he was such a secure actor. Robert Redford oozed sex appeal, he was an outlaw, he was an observer. He was an outsider, because he played by his own set of rules. He adored the outdoors. But he was no ordinary person. He was equally adept on screen as he was off it.
Goodbye Hubbell Gardiner, so long Harry Longabaugh, farewell Johnny Hooker, and Jeremah Johnson, and Bob Woodward, and Tom Booker. &ldquo;The danger of success is that it forces you into a mould, I prefer independence,&rdquo; he once said.
Rest well, Bob Redford. You were truly independent.
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, filmmaker and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com

Robert Redford loved stories, telling them, acting in them, directing them, producing them, But he was bigger than roles he played; there was a larger picture

For Robert Redford, story always came first in filmmaking

Good fortune on gig economy

To Robert Redford the story was everything. There were many aspects of his charisma that stayed with one, over the years

The way you were

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