Academics became an afterthought during Robert Redford’s time at the University of Colorado Boulder, as he spent ample time drinking, riding motorcycles, and drag racing, per NPR. The actor earned a somewhat nefarious reputation around campus. “Redford had become beloved in the drinking circles but was regarded as a loose cannon,” author Michael Feeney Callan wrote in “Robert Redford: The Biography” (via Express). His days at the college were numbered. “The University of Colorado had made it clear he wasn’t welcome back,” Callan added.
That tumultuous time in Redford’s life coincided with the death of his mother, which happened when he was an 18-year-old freshman, as revealed to NPR in 2018. According to the “The Sting” star, he was very close with his mother. Redford’s habit of partying late into the night did not mesh well with his responsibilities. “I lost my (baseball) scholarship pretty quick after I discovered drinking,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1990.
With his mother dead, and after being kicked out of school, Redford embarked on a journey of self-discovery. He went to Europe to pursue his first passion: art. “I think in a way when that happened I was kind of freed up in terms of family responsibilities. I’m sad but I’m free,” he revealed to Esquire in 2017. Personally, Redford struggled. “I was a mess. I was somewhat in trouble socially,” he admitted to the LA Times. Although that mindset allowed him to take risks which paid off.
