Robert Redford to Retire From Acting

Robert Redford is making good on his 2016 claim that he’s retiring from acting. The 81-year-old movie star told Entertainment Weekly that the upcoming movie The Old Man & The Gun will be his final acting job.

“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21. I thought, Well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?” Redford said.

He said that the “framework” of his latest project helped bring him to the decision. In the film, set to be released via Fox Searchlight on Sept. 28, Redford plays Forrest Tucker, the real-life criminal in love with his lifestyle of robbing banks and breaking out of prison.

“To me, that was a wonderful character to play at this point in my life,” Redford said of Tucker, whose stickups spanned over 60 years. “The thing that really got me about him — which I hope the film shows — is he robbed 17 banks and he got caught 17 times and went to prison 17 times. But he also escaped 17 times. So it made me wonder: I wonder if he was not averse to getting caught so he that could enjoy the real thrill of his life, which is to escape?”

It seems as if the Oscar winner is keeping his options open when it comes to directing future projects, telling Entertainment Weekly that “we’ll see about that.” Redford won a Best Director Academy Award for 1980’s Ordinary People.

Produced by Redford, The Old Man & The Gun was directed by David Lowery and co-stars Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits and Casey Affleck.

Redford previously told his grandson, Dylan Redford, during a 2016 interview at Walker Art Center that he was thinking about retiring from the field in which he’s worked for nearly 60 years.

“I’m getting tired of acting. I’m an impatient person, so it’s hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take,” he said at the time. “I’ve got two acting projects in the works: Our Souls at Night, with Jane Fonda, a love story for older people who get a second chance in life, and Old Man with a Gun, a lighter piece with Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek. Once they’re done then I’m going to say, ‘Okay, that’s goodbye to all that,’ and then just focus on directing.”

Redford began his screen career in 1960, with guest appearances on Maverick and Perry Mason, among many others. He went on to become one of the most beloved actors of his generation and of the ’60s and ’70s. Other notable films from Redford include All The President’s Men, Out of Africa, The Sting, The Great Gatsby (1974) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

He established The Sundance Institute in Utah in 1981, where the Sundance Film Festival was born — named after his character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.