EXCLUSIVE: Inside Robert Redford's Lifelong Bromance With Paul Newman — Including Pranks They Never Spoke of and Final Movie They Never Got to Make
Redford and Newmans legendary bond included secret pranks and a lost final film.
Nov. 13 2025, Published 7:12 p.m. ET
Robert Redford's extraordinary, decades-long bond with Paul Newman is now at the center of renewed attention following Redford's death at 89, and RadarOnline.com can reveal new details about the pair's private friendship, including their unmade final film and the huge pranks they pulled on each other but never discussed.
Redford, who died in his sleep on September 16, spent more than half a century intertwined with chain-smoker Newman, who was killed by lung cancer in 2008 at the age of 83.
Newman Insisted on Redford for Butch Cassidy
Robert Redford formed a lifelong friendship with Paul Newman.
Though they appeared together in only two films, their partnership shaped both men's careers and created one of Hollywood's most enduring on- and off-screen friendships.
Their first collaboration, the 1969 western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, came after Newman insisted the then-lesser-known Redford be cast in the movie – an intervention Redford said changed everything.
"The studio didn't want me. I wasn't as well-known as he was," Redford said shortly after Newman's death.
He added: "But he said, 'I want to work with an actor,' and that was very complimentary to me, because that's, I think, how we both saw our profession – that acting was about craft, and we took it seriously, because we both came from the same background of theater in New York."
Friendship Built on Teasing and Pranks
Redford said Newman changed his entire career.
A producer who worked with the pair said their temperaments sometimes clashed, especially on the set of The Sting in 1973, the film that reunited them and went on to win eight Oscars.
"Paul was older, more established, and he didn't tolerate lateness," a source said. "He called Robert out one day – really let him have it – and that moment surprisingly pulled them closer. It set a tone of mutual respect neither ever forgot."
Friends added the dynamic between the pair quickly evolved into a private language of mischief. One longtime associate said: "Their friendship wasn't sentimental – it was built on teasing, on winding each other up. Robert loved needling Paul, and Paul loved firing back. It was like watching two brothers who know exactly which buttons to press."
Redford described one such prank during a 2014 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. He recalled phoning a towing company to obtain a destroyed Porsche, having it wrapped with a bow and delivered to car-mad Newman's Connecticut home for his 50th birthday.
"I started to get bored, because every time we got together, all he talked about was racing and cars," Redford said at the event. "So I decided to play a joke on him. I called a towing service and said, "Do you have any crushed automobiles? Do you have a Porsche?'"
Weeks later, Newman mailed the crushed car back – compressed into a cube.
Unspoken Language of Competition and Affection
Newman insisted Redford join him in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.'
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A former colleague said: "That exchange summed them up perfectly – competitive, affectionate, and both determined to outdo the other. They never mentioned the prank afterwards. They didn't need to."
Their closeness deepened when they became neighbors in Connecticut, spending years trying to find a third project that matched the energy of their earlier films. Redford said: "It was hard because we didn't want to duplicate anything. But we also wanted to try to find a project that would still have the relationship they had in the other two."
He developed the 2015 film A Walk in the Woods for the two of them, but Newman's declining health kept the reunion from happening.
Shortly before his death in 2008, Newman sent Redford a letter ending with the message: "You were the Sundance to my Cassidy – always."
The two actors searched for a third film to make together.
After receiving the news Newman had passed away, Redford said: "I've lost a true friend. My life, and this country, are better because of his presence."
