“An incredible talent”: Robert Redford names his favourite actors of all time
There’s never an easy time for an actor to break into Hollywood and make it to the top, but it’s rarely been more difficult than it was during the ‘New Hollywood’ era when the industry was overflowing with future legends all competing for space at the top of the ladder.
It was a transformative period for American cinema in general, but the cavalcade of icons who emerged around the same time is nothing short of staggering, considering how many awards and classics they’d rack up between them in a golden age for Stateside storytelling on the big screen.
Robert Redford was just one of them, but even at that, he had to wait until 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to truly be received as an undeniable star. That was his first time sharing the screen with Paul Newman, too, who was another coveted by almost every major studio in town.
That’s without even mentioning Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Bridges, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, and the many others who were all regularly winning widespread acclaim and shifting mountains of tickets during the same era.
With his all-American looks, natural charisma, and dramatic chops refined and honed on the stage before he even jumped to the silver screen, Redford was always going to go far. He was a household name by the mid-1970s and never looked back, even segueing into directing and winning himself an Academy Award at the very first attempt after helming debut feature Ordinary People in 1980.
He carved out his own niche in the midst of a cutthroat period like no other, but he still remained reverential to the people who’d come before. In an interview with Rolling Stone to coincide with the release of his aforementioned first-time feature, Redford was quizzed on which actors he’d call his favourites.
“That’s hard,” he admitted. “I never really had any role models. I admire Marlon Brando’s work. I admire Jimmy Cagney. Cagney is an incredible talent.” It’s an inevitability of Redford’s generation that they all praise Brando in one way or another, but Cagney was another all-timer who influenced countless thespians.
On the other side of the coin, though, Redford also knew which actors he didn’t care for, even if he was far too diplomatic to name names. “The one kind of actor who never interests me is the type who chews the scenery,” he said. “They don’t allow you time to do work of your own. It’s funny, there are some actors who are their best when they’re alone. They’re at their worst when they have to share space with another actor.”
A slap in the face that he didn’t name close friend and collaborator Newman among his favourites, but maybe they were simply too close to view each other as either peers or rivals. Brando and Cagney, however, are inarguably a pair of towering titans who’ve inspired multiple generations.
