勞勃·瑞福本名 Charles Robert Redford Jr.，1936 年出生於加州聖塔莫尼卡，父親是一名記帳員。他在洛杉磯附近的工人階級社區長大，年少時熱愛希臘神話與各種故事，也是個不太安分的學生——曾因行為問題與棒球獎學金被撤銷，一度前往科羅拉多大學就讀，但很快輟學，轉往歐洲遊歷，靠繪畫維生，同時思考自己真正想做的事。

Robert Redford — born Charles Robert Redford Jr. — was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, the son of an accountant. He grew up in working-class neighborhoods around Los Angeles, an avid reader of Greek mythology as a child and a restless student — he lost a baseball scholarship over behavioral issues, briefly attended the University of Colorado, then dropped out to travel through Europe, supporting himself by painting while figuring out what he actually wanted to do with his life.

返回美國後，他進入紐約的 Pratt Institute 學習美術與舞台設計，卻意外被表演課吸引，最終轉往美國戲劇藝術學院（American Academy of Dramatic Arts）。1950 年代末，他開始在百老匯與電視圈嶄露頭角，陸續出現在《Alfred Hitchcock Presents》《陰陽魔界》等經典選集劇集中，累積演出經驗。

Back in the U.S., he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York to study fine art and set design, but found himself drawn to acting classes instead, eventually transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the late 1950s, he began building a reputation on Broadway and television, appearing in classic anthology series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.

1969 年，瑞福迎來生涯真正的轉捩點——與保羅·紐曼合作主演《虎豹小霸王》，飾演槍法神準卻幽默風趣的 Sundance Kid。這部片不僅讓他一夕成名，那個角色的名字更成為他日後創辦電影機構的命名靈感（日舞影展 Sundance Film Festival）。1970 年代，他陸續主演《英雄本色》《往日情懷》《刺激》《英雄不流淚》《大陰謀》等作品，幾乎每一部都成為時代經典，讓他成為那個十年好萊塢最具票房號召力也最受尊敬的男演員之一。

1969 marked Redford's true turning point — starring opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the sharp-shooting, wisecracking Sundance Kid. The film made him an overnight star, and that character's name would later inspire the name of the institute and festival he founded (Sundance). Throughout the 1970s, he starred in Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, The Sting, Three Days of the Condor, and All the President's Men — nearly every one becoming a defining film of its era, making him one of the decade's most bankable and respected leading men.

與同輩許多演員不同，瑞福始終對純粹的明星光環感到不安。他刻意挑選具有社會意識、政治批判性或道德複雜度的劇本——《大陰謀》讓他飾演揭發水門案的記者 Bob Woodward，是他將個人政治關懷與演員身分結合得最徹底的一次示範。這種對「有意義的故事」的堅持，最終也促使他走向導演之路。

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Redford was always uneasy with pure movie-star glamour. He deliberately sought out scripts with social conscience, political critique, or moral complexity — All the President's Men, in which he played Watergate-exposing journalist Bob Woodward, remains the fullest demonstration of merging his personal political concerns with his identity as an actor. This insistence on "stories that mattered" would eventually lead him toward directing.

1981 年，瑞福在猶他州的日舞度假村創辦了日舞協會（Sundance Institute），起心動念非常單純——他想為那些被主流片廠體系拒於門外的獨立創作者，提供一個能安心發展原創作品的空間。最初的形式是邀請新銳導演與資深業界人士齊聚一堂的實驗室（Labs），讓創作者能在沒有商業壓力的環境下打磨劇本與初剪。

In 1981, Redford founded the Sundance Institute at his resort in Utah, with a simple motivation: to create a space where independent creators shut out of the mainstream studio system could safely develop original work. It began as labs bringing emerging directors together with industry veterans, allowing filmmakers to refine scripts and rough cuts free from commercial pressure.

日舞協會後來發展出的日舞影展（Sundance Film Festival），最終成為全球獨立電影最重要的展示與交易平台，捧紅了昆汀·塔倫提諾、史蒂芬·索德柏、保羅·湯瑪斯·安德森等日後撐起好萊塢半邊天的導演。瑞福對此曾坦言：「這件事後來的成長規模，遠遠超乎我當初的想像。」對他而言，這不只是一個副業或慈善計畫，而是他用畢生累積的明星光環與資源，回饋給那些沒有機會被聽見的聲音——這份遺產，某種程度上比他任何一部主演的電影都更深遠。

The Sundance Institute's festival eventually became the world's most important showcase and marketplace for independent film, launching directors like Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Thomas Anderson who would go on to reshape half of Hollywood. Redford himself admitted: "It grew far beyond my imagination." For him, this was never a side project or charity — it was his way of using a lifetime's accumulated star power and resources to give voice to those who otherwise wouldn't be heard. In some ways, this legacy runs deeper than any film he ever starred in.

瑞福是好萊塢最早、也最持久的環保運動人士之一，早在 1970 年代便積極參與反對猶他州興建燃煤發電廠與過度開發的抗爭。他曾公開表示：「我認為環境應該被歸類為國家安全的一環。捍衛我們的資源，跟捍衛國防一樣重要，否則還有什麼值得捍衛？」這句話後來成為他環保理念最廣為流傳的宣言。

Redford was one of Hollywood's earliest and most enduring environmental activists, actively opposing coal-plant construction and overdevelopment in Utah as far back as the 1970s. He famously stated: "I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?" — a line that became the most widely cited articulation of his environmental philosophy.

他長期擔任自然資源保護委員會（NRDC）的董事會成員，並在氣候變遷議題上持續發聲，晚年更多次呼籲全球加速脫離化石燃料。對瑞福而言，環境保護與他創辦日舞協會的初衷有著相同的核心精神——保護那些容易被強權與資本忽視、卻珍貴無比的事物，無論是獨立創作者的聲音，或是猶他州的荒野山巒。

He served for decades on the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and remained a vocal presence on climate change, repeatedly calling in his later years for the world to accelerate its move away from fossil fuels. For Redford, environmental protection and his founding of Sundance shared the same core spirit — safeguarding things easily overlooked by power and capital yet immeasurably precious, whether the voices of independent creators or the wild mountains of Utah.

瑞福與第一任妻子 Lola Van Wagenen 育有的長子 Scott 出生數月後便因嬰兒猝死症夭折，這段傷痛讓兩人的婚姻承受了長年壓力，最終於 1985 年結束近三十年的婚姻。2020 年，他的次子 Jamie 因癌症過世，享年 58 歲——白髮人送黑髮人的悲痛，讓瑞福晚年多次公開表示，家庭的傷痛遠比任何一座獎盃都更深刻地形塑了他。

Redford's eldest son with first wife Lola Van Wagenen, Scott, died of SIDS just months after birth — a loss that placed lasting strain on their marriage, which ended in 1985 after nearly three decades. In 2020, his son Jamie died of cancer at age 58. Losing a child late in life led Redford to state publicly on several occasions that family grief shaped him far more profoundly than any award ever could.

2025 年 9 月 16 日，瑞福於猶他州日舞（Sundance）自宅中辭世，享壽 89 歲。根據其發言人的聲明，他是在睡夢中安詳離世，身邊圍繞著他所愛的人，地點正是他一生摯愛的猶他山區——那個他親手打造了日舞協會、也長年投入環境保護運動的地方。官方聲明並未公開具體死因，僅以「在他最愛的地方安詳離世」描述這最後一刻。

On September 16, 2025, Redford died at his home in Sundance, Utah, at age 89. According to his publicist's statement, he died peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by loved ones, in the Utah mountains he loved most — the very place where he built the Sundance Institute and devoted decades to environmental activism. No specific cause of death was made public; the official statement simply described him passing peacefully in "the place he loved."

他的辭世讓好萊塢與獨立電影圈同聲哀悼——不只是失去一位橫跨半世紀的銀幕巨星，更是失去了那位親手為無數獨立創作者打開大門的守護者。從《虎豹小霸王》裡瀟灑的槍手，到《凡夫俗子》裡沉靜克制的導演，再到日舞影展裡那位始終溫和卻堅定的創辦人，瑞福用近七十年的時間，重新定義了「電影人」這個身分可以承載的重量。

His passing was mourned across Hollywood and the independent film world alike — not just the loss of a screen legend spanning half a century, but of the guardian who personally opened doors for countless independent creators. From the dashing gunslinger of Butch Cassidy to the quietly restrained director of Ordinary People to the ever-gentle yet resolute founder of Sundance, Redford spent nearly seventy years redefining just how much weight the identity of "a filmmaker" could carry.