Screen legend Faye Dunaway issued an eloquent tribute to her former co-star Robert Redford after his death Tuesday at his Utah home. He was 89.
Dunaway told the Daily Mail that Redford embodied the phrase "Le vrai elegance American"—the true American elegance (misattributed to Alexis de Tocqueville)—in every way: physically, emotionally, artistically, the Oscar-winner, 84, said. "He was a heartfelt American original. I am proud and fortunate to have called him a colleague and a friend." They starred together in 1975's Three Days of Condor, a Sydney Pollack-directed spy thriller in which Redford's CIA agent character kidnaps Dunaway's, before the two become lovers.
Redford rose to fame in the 1960s and became one of the era's biggest stars in the 1970s with The Candidate and All the President's Men. He won the Best Director Oscar for Ordinary People (1980), which also won Best Picture.
Following his death, The New Yorker called Redford's work with Dunaway 'the most touching, and the most unsettled, in all of Redford’s work.' Film critic Anthony Lane wrote that he wishes the pair had made further films together.
Dunaway's own career was built on iconic roles such as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Chinatown (1974), and Network (1976), for which she won the Best Actress Oscar. She has remained a prominent figure in cinema, including her participation in the 2024 HBO documentary Faye, which examined her legendary career.