Happy Birthday Robert Redford: Aging Gracefully on Screen

If you read me with any frequency you may know I have a long-standing crush on Robert Redford. He is, in fact, the only actor I've ever written a fan letter to. That was back in the 70's. Humor me, then, for wishing the iconic star a Happy 82nd Birthday. 82! How the hell did that hunky young hottie turn into an 82-year-old man? Especially when I still feel like I'm that 20 years old girl writing him a fan letter! 

Here's how ...  in pictures that roughly trace Robert Redford's fifty-five-plus year career, we can see Redford mature and age with each film or television part. I haven't included all 78 of the roles that make up his CV, some years he made more than one film, some years, he made none. Some are classics, like Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and All the Presidents Men. Some are crap like The Electric Horseman and The Clearing. The number below each image indicates Redford's age at the time of release—beginning with his first onscreen role, at age 23 ... [warning: this is gonna be a long post!] Watch him grow old along with me? It happens to us all, sooner or later.

23

Jimmy Coleman

Maverick "Iron Hand" 1960

24

Baldwin Lane

The Naked City "Tombstone for a Derelict" 1961

25

Harold Beldon
Twilight Zone "Nothing in the Dark" 1962

26

David Chesterman
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour "A Tangled Web" 1963

27
Matthew Cordell
The Virginian "The Evil that Men Do" 1963

28

Captain Hank Wilson
Situation Hopeless but Not Serious 1965

29
Wade Lewis
Inside Daisy Clover 1966 

30
Owen Legate
This Property is Condemned 1966

31
Paul Bratter Barefoot in the Park 1967

33
Sundance
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969

34
Halsy Knox
Little Fauss and Big Halsy 1970

35
Bill McKay
The Candidate 1972

36
Hubbell
The Way We Were 1973

37
Johnny Hooker
The Sting 1973

38
Jay Gatsby
The Great Gatsby 1974

 39
Joseph Turner
Three Days of the Condor 1975

40
Bob Woodward
All the President's Men 1976

41
Major Cook
A Bridge Too Far  1977

43
Sonny
The Electric Horseman  1979

44
Henry Brubaker
Brubaker  1980

47
Ray Hobbs
The Natural  1984

48
Denys
Out of Africa  1985

49
Tom Logan
Legal Eagles  1986

54
Jack Weil
Havana  1991

55
Marty Bishop
Sneakers  1992

56
John Gage
Indecent Proposal  1993

59
Warren Justice
Up Close and Personal  1996

61
Tom Booker
The Horse Whisperer  1998

65
Norman Muir
Spy Game  2001

67
Wayne Hayes
The Clearing  2004

68
Einar Gilkyson
An Unfinished Life  2005

71
Professor Stephen Malley
Lions for Lambs  2007

76
Jim Grant
The Company You Keep  2012

77
Our Man
All is Lost  2013

78
Alexander Pierce
Captain America: The Winter Soldier  2014

79
Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods  2015

80
Dan Rather
Truth  2015

81
Louis
Our Souls at Night 2017

82
Forrest Tucker
The Old Man with the Gun 2018
Redford announces this is his last onscreen role.