Robert Redford is irresistible in so many ways. He's neither an especially versatile nor rounded actor but he's so palpably passionate and principled - not to mention flame-ignitingly attractive - that it's hard not to find him appealing.
As a young man, the all-rounder won a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado but dropped out to go to Europe and, on his return, took up acting in New York.
He appeared in the first Broadway production of Neil Simon's Barefoot In The Park and starred opposite Jane Fonda in the film version in 1967 which set him on the road to stardom, a place that was affirmed two years later when he played opposite Paul Newman in the perennially popular Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.
Much of his best and most popular work was in the 1970s - The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), All The President's Men (1976).
In 1980, he moved behind the camera for the first time, directing the emotional drama Ordinary People and netting an Oscar in the process.
During the 80s, he established The Sundance Institute in Utah, a centre for independent film-makers, and became choosier about his films, devoting much of his time to other interests - politics and environmental issues.
