CDA x 2: Cardinale and Redford

Yesterday my mom alerted me to the death of Claudia Cardinale, age 87. She was a marvelous Italian movie star at her peak in the 60s. She's best known for Once Upon a Time in the West, The Leopard (a movie I loathe), and The Pink Panther. I love her small role as (of all things) a gorgeous young Italian movie star named Claudia in 8 1/2.

And last week she alerted me to the death of Robert Redford at the age of 89. I wrote his CDA but somehow it got stuck in my Drafts folder. This sort of thing has happened to all of us, no?

Redford was one of those handsome young movie actors who came up through theater and television. He did a lot of great movies, was a first class leading man, but I think his most lasting influence will be from founding Sundance. From my (slightly informed) perspective, he put independent films on the map, gave them a seat at the table, however you want to put it.

He was in so many great movies. I'll just list a few:

Barefoot in the Park

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Candidate

The Way We Were

The Sting

The Great Gatsby

All the President's Men

The Natural

Out of Africa

A River Runs Through It

I haven't seen many of is more recent movies. I'm going to highlight my favorite of his movies, Three Days of the Condor.

This preview really makes me want to see it again, especially now that I see that the boyfriend of my dreams, Max von Sydow, is in it. Yes, a few weeks ago I had a dream that Max von Sydow was my boyfriend, this era of von Sydow, when he was in his 50s. He was a good kisser.

A couple of other observations: does it send a chill up your spine to see the Twin Towers in a movie? I remember Faye Dunaway being remarkably natural and authentic in this movie. Though she probably did it in a very actorly way... And Cliff Robertson! Get a load of that hairdo. Lots of backcombing involved.

My favorite performance of Redford's was in a classic episode of The Twilight Zone, "Nothing in the Dark" (1962, season 3, episode 16). I'd post a clip but the clips I found either don't have Redford in them or they have spoilers. The whole series is streaming on Apple and Amazon Prime - - I encourage you to watch it all (as I did a few years ago) or at least just that one episode. Redford is a dewy 26 years old, impossibly handsome, and gives such an extraordinary performance. Opposite the great Gladys Cooper, no less.

I always wonder about the contemporaries of celebrities when I do a CDA. I wonder who called Jane Fonda to tell her.