Robert Redford

June 27, 2011
Over his 50 year career, Robert Redford has become one of the most iconic names in the celebrity landscape. Admired for his work as an actor, director, and environmental activist, Redford has filled many roles. In Callan's biography, the scope of Redford's life and career are put into perspective, from his reckless childhood in Southern California to his attempt at college, theatrical training in New York, and slow rise to success. Throughout Redford is painted as a sincere artist, thoughtful man, and stubborn individualist. Callan does a superb job making readers feel like they're getting a special glimpse inside the mind of a superstar. However, the book quickly becomes repetitive. Redford seeks artistic validation/runs up against necessary commercial compromise: he rebels/he succeeds. While this is interesting in small doses, Callan goes into detail about nearly every single picture Redford was involved with. This is great for staunch fans, but a test of patience for everyone else. Redford is an excellent subject but Callan wagers that readers will be interested in every single time Sundance nearly went bankrupt, and at almost 500 pages, that's a dangerous wager.

February 15, 2010
The life and times of the Sundance Kid.

Biographer and novelist Callan (Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins: The Biography, 2009, etc.) marshals 14 years of self-conducted interviews with the star and his associates, generous excerpts from Redford's personal journals and copious research to compile a revealing portrait of Hollywood's greatest golden boy, Robert Redford. The author traces Redford's surprising past as a diffident juvenile delinquent and aspiring artist—he studied painting in Europe and initially pursued a career in animation before turning to acting. Callan dutifully details Redford's evolution as an actor and star, but gives equal weight to his careers as a political activist for environmental causes and founder of the independent film Mecca Sundance, a spectacular parcel of Utah landscape originally purchased by Redford to protect its natural beauty. The struggling young actor couldn't afford it but plunged ahead anyway, highlighting an ingrained stubbornness and force of will that would characterize all aspects of Redford's life. Difficult, uncompromising, autocratic and stubborn as a pack mule, Redford comes across as both a restless egotist and a heroically ahead-of-his-time champion of sustainable ecology and artistically progressive independent film. Callan offers intriguing insights into Redford's film legacy, limning his complicated friendship with director and frequent collaborator Sydney Pollack, his uncredited contributions to the shaping of such signature vehicles as The Candidate and All the President's Men, and Redford's directorial style, informed by both his painter's training and empathy with actors. The narrative repeatedly cites Redford's extremely precarious finances, complicated by the Herculean task of keeping Sundance viable. An all-American beautiful jock with a brutal iron will and the soul of a visionary tyrant, Redford, under Callan's gaze, emerges as a sui generis American figure.

A gripping, intimate treatment of one of cinema's last great iconic stars.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011
This comprehensive biography traces the life and career of one of America's most prolific and widely admired stars. Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, to a homemaker and a hardworking but often absent laborer father. Extremely close to his mother, he took childhood trips with her to the High Sierras, and El Capitan instilled in him a lifelong passion for the environment. After a fairly ordinary childhood, he attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship. College didn't work. After his mother's death in 1955, he wandered around Europe and America, eventually finding his way to New York City, where he enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He soon garnered small roles on television and in the theater. These experiences, combined with his good looks, soon led to movie roles. The financial success of Butch Cassidy enabled Redford to purchase property in Utah that eventually became the Sundance Institute. Callan reveals the complex man beneath the Hollywood persona.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)