LOS ANGELES: Veteran Hollywood star Robert Redford has announced his retirement from acting, saying "The Old Man & The Gun" would be his last film.
The 81-year-old star said he is making good on his 2016 promise about hanging his boots as an actor.
"Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and (I'll) move towards retirement after this 'cause I've been doing it since I was 21. I thought, Well, that's enough. And why not go out with something that's very upbeat and positive?" Redford said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The Oscar-winner, who has had an illustrious and varied career as an actor, producer and director, said the story of "Old Man" further strengthened his desire to retire.
In the David Lowery-directed film, Redford plays Forrest Tucker, the real-life career criminal in love with his self-appointed job of robbing banks and breaking out of prison.
"To me, that was a wonderful character to play at this point in my life. The thing that really got me about him - which I hope the film shows - is he robbed 17 banks and he got caught 17 times and went to prison 17 times. But he also escaped 17 times. So it made me wonder: I wonder if he was not averse to getting caught so that he could enjoy the real thrill of his life, which is to escape?," Redford said.
He, however, did not clarify whether he is also retiring from directing. "We'll see about that," he said when asked about committing to future directing projects.
Redford won the best director Oscar for his 1980 film "Ordinary People". He has directed eight other films besides founding the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.
His most notable films as an actor include "The Sting", "Barefoot in the Park", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Way We Were", "All the President's Men"a and "All Is Lost".
He also starred in director Ritesh Batra's "Our Souls at Night" with Jane Fonda.