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The Sundance Kid is going to receive the nation's highest civilian honor.
Robert Redford — the actor, director, producer, environmental activist and founder of the Sundance Institute — is one of 21 people set to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Wednesday.
In a statement, President Barack Obama said the medal is "a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from, have the opportunity to change this country for the better."
The recipients, he added, "have helped push America forward, inspiring millions of people around the world along the way."
Redford, 80, started his acting career in New York in the 1950s, landing in Hollywood in 1960 and doing TV for a couple of years before his movie debut in "War Hunt" (1962). His star-making role came in the 1969 Western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," from which Redford got the name for his Utah ski resort, the nonprofit arts group he created, the annual film festival in Park City, a catalog store business and a TV channel.
After a string of hits in the 1970s — including "The Candidate" (1972), "The Sting" (1973), "The Way We Were" (1973), "Three Days of the Condor" (1975) and "All the President's Men" (1976) — Redford made his directing debut, the family drama "Ordinary People" (1980), which won four Oscars, including best picture and director. The next year, he founded the Sundance Institute, a workshop and launchpad for independent film.
Other movies on Redford's résumé include "The Natural" (1984), "Out of Africa" (1985), "A River Runs Through It" (1992), "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), "Spy Game" (2001), "All Is Lost" (2013), "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014) and this year's "Pete's Dragon." In an interview for Minneapolis' Walker Art Center last weekend, Redford said he aims to retire from acting after his next two projects are done, to focus on directing.
Redford, Utah Film Commission director Virginia Pearce said in a statement, "had a vision of the cultural and creative impact independent film could have on the world, and I see it as an enormous gift that he chose to base Sundance Institute in Utah. Having Sundance in our backyard continues to leave an indelible mark on our community and I can't imagine Utah without it."
The other medal recipients announced Wednesday are: actors Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Cicely Tyson; basketball legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan; comedian Ellen DeGeneres; physicist Richard Garwin; philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates; architect Frank Gehry; NASA software creator Margaret H. Hamilton; artist Maya Lin; former Federal Communications Commission chairman Newt Minow; "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels; college president Eduardo Padrón; singers Diana Ross and Bruce Springsteen; sportscaster Vin Scully; and posthumous awards for Native American advocate Elouise Cobell and software pioneer Grace Hopper.
Medals will be awarded Tuesday in a ceremony at the White House.
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