Inside Robert Redford And Paul Newmans Lifelong Bromance

Although they appeared collectively in solely two movies, their partnership formed each males’s careers and created certainly one of Hollywood’s most enduring on- and off-screen friendships.

Their first collaboration, the 1969 western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child, got here after Newman insisted the then-lesser-known Redford be solid within the film – an intervention Redford mentioned modified the whole lot.

“The studio did not need me. I wasn’t as well-known as he was,” Redford mentioned shortly after Newman’s loss of life.

He added: “However he mentioned, ‘I need to work with an actor,’ and that was very complimentary to me, as a result of that is, I believe, how we each noticed our career – that performing was about craft, and we took it severely, as a result of we each got here from the identical background of theater in New York.”

A producer who labored with the pair mentioned their temperaments generally clashed, particularly on the set of The Sting in 1973, the movie that reunited them and went on to win eight Oscars.

“Paul was older, extra established, and he did not tolerate lateness,” a supply mentioned. “He referred to as Robert out in the future – actually let him have it – and that second surprisingly pulled them nearer. It set a tone of mutual respect neither ever forgot.”

Pals added the dynamic between the pair rapidly advanced into a non-public language of mischief. One longtime affiliate mentioned: “Their friendship wasn’t sentimental – it was constructed on teasing, on winding one another up. Robert cherished needling Paul, and Paul cherished firing again. It was like watching two brothers who know precisely which buttons to press.”

Redford described one such prank throughout a 2014 look on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. He recalled phoning a towing firm to acquire a destroyed Porsche, having it wrapped with a bow and delivered to car-mad Newman’s Connecticut residence for his fiftieth birthday.

“I began to get bored, as a result of each time we received collectively, all he talked about was racing and vehicles,” Redford mentioned on the occasion. “So I made a decision to play a joke on him. I referred to as a towing service and mentioned, “Do you’ve any crushed cars? Do you’ve a Porsche?'”

Weeks later, Newman mailed the crushed automotive again – compressed right into a dice.

A former colleague mentioned: “That alternate summed them up completely – aggressive, affectionate, and each decided to outdo the opposite. They by no means talked about the prank afterwards. They did not have to.”

Their closeness deepened once they grew to become neighbors in Connecticut, spending years looking for a 3rd mission that matched the vitality of their earlier movies. Redford mentioned: “It was arduous as a result of we did not need to duplicate something. However we additionally needed to attempt to discover a mission that may nonetheless have the connection they’d within the different two.”

He developed the 2015 movie A Stroll within the Woods for the 2 of them, however Newman’s declining well being stored the reunion from occurring.

Shortly earlier than his loss of life in 2008, Newman despatched Redford a letter ending with the message: “You have been the Sundance to my Cassidy – all the time.”

After receiving the information Newman had handed away, Redford mentioned: “I’ve misplaced a real good friend. My life, and this nation, are higher due to his presence.”