Robert Redford is a distinguished actor, producer, director, champion of independent film, and committed environmentalist. He won the Best Director Academy Award for his feature-directing debut, Ordinary People. He also earned Oscar nominations for directing Quiz Show and for his performance in The Sting. He was bestowed an honorary Academy Award for his achievements as an actor, director, producer, and creator of the Sundance Film Festival. As a young man, he switched from art school to acting and landed a series of Broadway and television roles. His feature film debut was War Hunt in 1961. His breakthrough as a star came in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, first on Broadway and then in the 1967 screen version. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid followed in 1969, and the rest is history. He has executive produced all of the American MYSTERY! Special adaptations of Tony Hillerman's work, including A Thief of Time, Coyote Waits, and Skinwalkers.