Lion of the screen

Star was a leading man in every way

- BY ANNA POINTER

ROBERT Redford embodied an America the world could, and did, fall in love with.

Now he has left us, that vision of America seems even further in the distant past.

Throughout the last third of the 20th century and well into the 21st, he leant his natural nobility, intelligence and bottomless radiant charm to a huge range of characters.

From a big-hearted grifter in The Sting to a stricken sailor in All Is Lost, he brought an effortless grace and an aristocrat bearing to a rich cast of mainly lovable Americans.

Their good looks often couldn't save them from bad luck. But Redford routinely imbued his characters with an optimistic humour.

Of Mancunian and Irish stock, but pure blond Californian through and through, he was so handsome you might have struggled to believe he was the underdog if he wasn't so damn good at convincing you.