While real-life lawbreakers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were friends, actor Paul Newman said that he had some resentment toward the young Robert Redford during filming.
Newman, as Robert LeRoy Parker, or “Butch Cassidy,” and Redford, as Harry Longabaugh, “Sundance Kid,” were convincing in their portrayals of the Wild West buddies, notorious criminals on the run from the law after a string of bank and train robberies.
The 1969 film about real-life outlaws won four Oscars and is regarded as one of the greatest Westerns ever filmed. Four years later, the two beautiful heartthrobs reunited for another caper picture, The Sting (1973).
Newman and Redford are both legends, and together they created magic. But have you ever wondered how Hollywood celebs got along off from the set?
Newman, who portrayed Butch when he was 44, admitted to wanting the role played by the younger Redford, who was 33 at the time.
In an interview with BBC’s Talking Pictures, Newman stated, “We have a lot of fun together, we bounce off each other real well.” He added, “I would have preferred to have played Sundance. I feel a little more comfortable with that cooled-out kind of quality. I suppose it’s the easier part!”
Redford was a rising star whose performance in the 1965 picture Inside Daisy Clover, co-starring Natalie Wood, earned him the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.
Newman had already achieved celebrity status with roles in films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Cool Hand Luke (1967).
After Steve McQueen turned down a role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid–he later turned down Dirty Harry (1971), The French Connection (1971), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)–Redford was cast, playing alongside Newman, who was winning honors for acting and directing.
The two celebrities weren’t actually friends at the time, according to Newman’s biography, “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir,” according to the BBC.
“You can’t depend on Redford. You’re never sure he’s going to be there. That’s simply discourteous.”
Claire Newman Soderlund, Newman’s youngest daughter, who he fathered with his second wife Joanne Woodward, stated she thinks their divergent work styles contributed to their conflicts.
She said, “My father was very much a stickler for timeliness and Bob, that was never really his strength. It was hard work for dad. He worked very hard at it because he wanted to be good and he wanted to be successful and Bob was more of a free spirit.”
When Newman ᴅɪᴇᴅ of lung disease in 2008, Redford, now 86, told ABC News, “It was just the connection of playing those characters and the fun of it that really began the relationship,” referring to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “And then once the film started, once we went forward, we then discovered other similarities that just multiplied over time, a common ground that we both had between us, interests and so forth, and differences.”
After portraying renowned outlaws and then cons in The Sting, Newman and Redford discussed collaborating on a third picture, but it never materialized.
It almost happened in A Walk in the Woods, the 2015 film version of Bill Bryson’s 1998 novel of the same title. In another buddy movie, the plot revolves around two out-of-shape older guys and their desire to travel the difficult Appalachian Trail.
Redford, who starred and produced the film, chose this script in 2005, with his real-life friend Newman in mind.
In an interview with Yahoo in 2015, Redford stated, “It started with Paul, because Paul and I had been looking for a third film to do together. A lot of time had gone by, and I just couldn’t find it. When I read this book… I thought of Paul right away.”
Redford, 79 at the time of the interview, claimed he submitted the book to Newman, who wasn’t sure he could handle the physical demands of the role, which was eventually handed to Nick Nolte.
Since their first picture, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the relationship between Newman and Redford, both highly acclaimed performers, has grown significantly.
The actors became like brothers and lived in Connecticut, only one mile apart, with close families.
Speaking after his friend ᴅɪᴇᴅ, Redford stated, “We both got to know each other’s flaws pretty well. Of course, I outweighed him on that front. But knowing each other’s flaws, we just played them to the hilt and we’d try to trick each other. We’d try to surprise each other, and it was so damn much fun that it became like–it became like a scenario unto itself.”
He added, “Paul really likes to have fun and he loves to laugh and he really especially loves to laugh at his own jokes, and some of them are just really awful. So the fact that he enjoyed them so much, you forget about the joke and you’d start to laugh with him because you’re so caught up in his enjoyment of them.”
Playing the timeless duo, Paul Newman and Robert Redford had incredible chemistry! Tell us what you think of their on-screen connection and real-life buddy love!
