It was slow going, however, as Redford’s first five films (beginning with War Hunt) failed to attract audiences, although his performance opposite Natalie Wood in Inside Daisy Clover (1965) earned him a Golden Globe Award for the most promising male newcomer. Discouraged, Redford spent the next two years in Europe pondering his next professional move.

In 1967, Redford returned to Hollywood, where he reprised his role in a film version of Barefoot in the Park, costarring Jane Fonda. The film was a box office hit, reviving Redford’s career and earning him a good deal of attention from audiences and filmmakers alike. Even so, Redford had to fight for the role that would make him a bona fide star. At first rejected by the head of Twentieth-Century Fox for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Redford won the part after negotiations with other, more well-known actors fell through and the producer gave in to pressure from the film’s director, George Roy Hill, and star, Paul Newman. Redford’s sly performance undoubtedly added to the overall excellence of the film, which became the top-grossing hit of the year and won four Academy Awards, including one for Best Original Screenplay.

As a newly anointed Hollywood golden boy, Redford also earned critical praise that same year for Downhill Racer and Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, although neither film connected with audiences in the same way as Butch Cassidy. While Redford had several more relative disappointments over the next three years, he hit it big in 1973, starring in two blockbusters—The Way We Were, costarring Barbra Streisand, and The Sting, which reunited him with Hill and Newman. The latter film received 10 Academy Award nominations (including one for Redford as Best Actor) and won in several major categories, including Best Director and Best Picture.

In 1974, Redford played the title character in Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s much-loved novel, The Great Gatsby, costarring Mia Farrow and Sam Waterston. His success continued throughout the decade, with starring roles in Three Days of the Condor and The Great Waldo Pepper (both 1975) and a turn as the star and producer of the acclaimed All the President’s Men (1976), costarring Dustin Hoffman. He finished out the decade with The Electric Horsemen (1979), which reteamed him with his Barefoot in the Park costar, Jane Fonda.

For all his success as an actor, Redford won his first (and so far only) Academy Award as a director, for the emotional family drama Ordinary People (1980). He appeared in only 10 films over the next two decades.