Robert Redford announces retirement from acting

Robert Redford is ready for his last (sun)dance.

The storied actor is rounding off his 60-year career with the upcoming film The Old Man & The Gun, he told Entertainment Weekly. There's a chance the 81-year-old will pick up some directing gigs, and he promised to "never say never" about acting again, but Redford told EW he's pretty set on going out with this "upbeat and positive" film.

Redford's role in The Old Man & The Gun, which is scheduled for a late September release, isn't too different from his actual life. Redford stars as longtime criminal Forrest Tucker, who is similarly closing a 60-year career with one last bank robbery. Tucker was a "wonderful character to play at this point in my life," and the "framework" of his story led Redford to choose this as his last film, he told EW.

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Redford has been acting since he was 21, famously starring alongside Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and with Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men. He also nabbed the Best Director trophy at the 1980 Academy Awards for Ordinary People. In 1969, he founded the Sundance Film Festival for independent movies.