A superstar of American cinema across six decades, Robert Redford, an actor and director, passed away in his home last Tuesday, surrounded by family and loved ones. He was born and raised in Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley area. Following high school in California, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for a year and a half. He spent time traveling in Europe before attending the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study painting. This is where he was first exposed to art and theatre. It was then, in 1959, that he made his Broadway debut and began booking small roles.

His career took off in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the Fall of 1972, “The Way We Were” was filmed at Union College. Redford played an all-American college boy with a genuine and sympathetic side alongside Barbra Streisand as an outspoken peace-loving communist. The two were fast lovers on screen and quickly enamored the campus and the entire country alike. He continued to star in blockbuster films until 1980, when he began directing, a role he maintained into the 2000s. Following this, he retired to his home in Sundance, Utah, where he is known for founding the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.