The Sundance Kid is back.
Robert Redford, 88, appeared onscreen for the first time in six years with a cameo in the AMC / AMC+ show “Dark Winds.”
Along with George R. R. Martin, 76, who wrote the books on which “Game of Thrones” is based, the legendary actor is an executive producer on “Dark Winds,” and both men made cameos in the Season 3 premiere on Sunday night.
Redford and Martin appeared in the episode as jail inmates playing chess. Martin’s character put Redford’s in checkmate, aided by the series main character, Navajo tribal police officer Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon).
According to Vulture, Redford and Martin’s scene was shot on a closed set at Redford’s request.
The show follows Navajo police officers in the ‘70s. The episode’s director, Chris Eyre, told Vulture that the idea for Martin and Redford to cameo has been “in the air since the first season,” but “just to be sitting there going, Oh, I’m gonna direct Robert Redford, struck fear in me.”
He added, “Bob is so kind and he was so nice on the day, and so was George. But I remember Zahn turning to me when we were about to start shooting and he goes, ‘You’re doing a scene with Robert Redford, that’s incredible,’ and I said, ‘Zahn, will you be quiet? You’re making me nervous.’”
Before this cameo, Redford’s last onscreen appearance was in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” reprising his role from 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
Redford announced his retirement before one of his final movies, 2018’s “The Old Man & The Gun,” but at the premiere he told Variety that announcing his retirement “was a mistake.”
“I should never have said that,” he explained. “If I’m going to retire, I should just slip quietly away from acting, but I shouldn’t be talking about it because I think it draws too much attention in the wrong way. I want to be focused on this film and the cast.”
The “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” star is a Hollywood icon, known for movies such as 1976’s “All the President’s Men” and 1973’s “The Way We Were.” In recent years, he’s worked more on directing, the Sundance Institute – which he co-founded in 1981 – and producing shows such as “Dark Winds” and “The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses.”
During a 2018 interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Redford said “never say never” to the idea of acting again.
He added: “In my mind, I’m pretty committed to retiring from acting, and moving but not stopping — just moving into new territory as a director and producer.”
Redford said the future of Sundance — which operates the Sundance Film Festival, filmmaking labs at the Sundance resort, music and playwrights’ labs, and artist support for independent filmmakers worldwide — “is going to be in the hands of my children.”
Redford had four children with his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, who he was married to from 1958 until the ‘80s: Scott, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at just two months old, Shauna, 64, filmmaker James, who died of cancer at age 58 in 2020, and actress and filmmaker Amy, 54.
Since 2009, he’s been married to Sibylle Szaggars.
In 2022, “Dark Winds” star McClarnon told The Post that Redford and Martin are “wonderful human beings.”
“I spent the weekend with Robert, and it was a dream come true to sit and have conversations with him,” the “Westworld” actor added. “He was a personal hero of mine growing up. In ‘Little Fauss and Big Halsy,’ that 1970 movie that Robert Redford was in, he was kind of a ladies’ man and he used to carry around a toothbrush in his mouth. And my parents couldn’t get that toothbrush out of my mouth when I was 5 years old. He was a huge inspiration to me growing up.”
The following year, McClarnon told the Post that he saw both Martin and Redford while filming “Dark Winds.”
“I saw George quite a bit. He’d come up to the set [in Santa Fe, NM]. We also had quite a few dinners together,” McClarnon said.
“Bob got up to the set a few times and said hello to everybody. I spoke to him on the phone a few times, and we had a couple dinners. But he’s getting up there in age… It’s kind of hard for him to get around these days.”
“Dark Winds” Season 3 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC and AMC+.
