Robert Redford: The Biography _HOT_

Later on, Redford experimented with hashish and marijuana and got involved in the semi-legal if not illegal drag racing subculture that ran through Santa Barbara, California, in the early 1950s. On the way to one such race, Redford crashed his car while driving at 90 miles per hour and according to his biography, survived the incident but was "lucky to be alive."

Robert Redford: The Biography

According to his authorized biography, Robert Redford graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1954, with adequate grades but an impressive athletics resume. That earned him an acceptance to the University of Colorado at Boulder, which had a baseball program that impressed Redford, and there was chatter that he might earn himself a sports scholarship if he were to succeed on the field. But once classes began, Redford focused on studying art and dropped his baseball ambitions.

Robert Redford is among the most widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation, renowned for his iconic roles as the Sundance Kid, Bob Woodward and Jay Gatsby, and celebrated for his fierce commitment to environmental causes, independent filmmaking, and his Sundance Film Festival. Yet only now, in this revelatory biography written in close collaboration with the extraordinary actor and director himself, do we see the complex man beneath the Hollywood façade.

The actor debuted in theatre in 1959. The young actor was invited by one of the Broadway theaters. At the same time the cinema biography of Robert Redford began. At first he was invited to play in episodes of the series. But already in 1960s the actor appeared in the roles of the second plan in the series "Maverick", "Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock presents".

The turning point in the creative biography of Robert Redford was 1980. This year he became the founder of the cinema institute "Sundance" in Park City. Today it is an internationally respected educational institution, on the basis of which every year the most authoritative film festival of independent cinema is held.

In Michael Feeney Callan's new biography on Redford called Robert Redford: The Biography, Redford tells a story of how he and Pakula spent a month rewriting Goldman's script before shooting. Is he telling the truth? Another piece of investigative journalism says "No."

The Robert Redford who smiles out from the book jacket of Michael Callan's authorized biography is as golden and sunlit as the movie star of The Way We Were or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Redford inside its covers is more complicated, and more human.

Callan, an Irish journalist and novelist, spent 10 years working on the biography, interviewing Redford's friends, relatives and wary acquaintances, as well as analyzing his films. The project took as long as it did in part because the chronically late Redford often failed to show up for interviews and otherwise eluded Callan. The biography follows the actor and director from childhood until 2008, focusing primarily on his professional life.

GROSS: You know, a couple of years ago, there was a biography of you written by Michael Feeney Callan. And I was reading that and was really surprised to learn that, as a child, you had polio. I mean, you're such a physical person. You're so athletic and so physically fit. You needed to be in order to do "All Is Lost." And the thought of you being paralyzed for a while as a child was shocking to me.

GROSS: So anyway, so I figured, whoa, let's do a clip from "Route 66." And then I'm reading your biography, and I read this line on page 87 - and that you're saying to your agent, I'd rather rot than be remembered for "Route 66" (laughter).

The definitive biography of Robert Redford. He has appeared on stage and screen, in front of and behind the camera, earning Academy, Golden Globe, and other awards and nominations for his acting, directing, and producing. His Sundance Film Festival transformed the world of filmmaking. Robert Redford is among the widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation. But only now, with this revelatory biography, will we see behind the Hollywood façade to the surprising and complex man. Redford made available to Michael Feeney Callan his personal papers: journals, script notes, correspondence, hundreds of hours of taped interviews. Here is his family background and childhood, his rocky start in acting, the death of his son, his star-making relationship with director Sydney Pollack, the establishment of Sundance, his political involvement, artistic successes and failures, friendships and romances. Here is a revelation of a man whose iconic roles on screen (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Natural) and directorial brilliance (Ordinary People, Quiz Show) have both defined and obscured him.

Van Wagenen co-founded a Utah film festival that came to be known as Sundance Film Festival with Robert Redford and was the Sundance Institute's founding executive director, according to his biography page on the University of Utah website, where he was a part-time instructor until his recent resignation.

Texas TechUniversity PressTexas Tech University Press (TTUP) publishes a variety of titles each year ranging from nonfiction titles in natural history and the natural sciences to works in costume and textile history and all aspects of the Great Plains and the American west especially biography, history, memoir and travel. The press also publishes fiction, young adult and childrens titles, a mystery series and an annual poetry selection. 041b061a72