How Robert Redford Went From Reluctant Movie Star to Indie Film Pioneer: ‘He Helped So Many New Voices Get Their Big Break’

“This glamour image can be a real handicap,” Robert Redford told The New York Times in 1974. “Image is crap.”

It was a blistering admission for one of the most popular movie stars on the planet. After all, Redford’s striking looks and magnetism had turned the likes of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Way We Were” into blockbusters, but they had also led critics to dismiss him as just another pretty face.

“He was an artist who was trapped in this incredibly handsome body,” says Phil Alden Robinson, who directed Redford in 1992’s “Sneakers.” “It can be hard to be taken seriously when you’re that good-looking.”

Redford, who died Sept. 16 at the age of 89, didn’t allow himself to be defined by Hollywood. Instead, he subverted his squeaky-clean persona in films like “The Candidate,” “Downhill Racer” and “All the President’s Men,” which looked critically at the media,…