Robert Redford’s enduring legacy: From Sundance to Saratoga
- NYS Writers Institute
- Sep 18, 2025
- 2 min read
On September 16, 2025, the world bid farewell to Robert Redford, an icon whose influence transcended the silver screen. Actor, director, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Institute, Redford leaves behind a legacy that reshaped American cinema and championed independent voices.
But for those in Albany, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs, a connection to Redford lives on in his movies filmed in our own backyard.
Redford starred alongside Barbra Streisand in "The Way We Were" (1973), with scenes filmed a year earlier at Union College in Schenectady and Ballston Spa.
NYS Senator Jim Tedisco, a Union College student at the time, was hired as an extra. In a 2023 story in the Albany Times Union, by Paul Grondahl, Tedisco and others remember the filming:
“I love the movie and watched it many times. It was the experience of a lifetime,” recalled Jim Tedisco, a 1972 Union graduate hired as a wardrobe manager with Bob Pezzano, his roommate and basketball team co-captain. Both graduated three months before filming began, but lived locally and took the assignment.
Their former coach Gary Walters tapped them for the $50-a-day job. “We felt rich,” said Tedisco, now a Republican state senator who represents Schenectady and Saratoga counties.
“Redford was a wonderful guy, very friendly, and joked around with us,” Tedisco said.
Pezzano remembered that Redford tossed a football or Frisbee with student extras during breaks from filming, unlike Streisand, who seemed aloof and went back to her trailer during downtime on the set. Read the story
Redford returned to the region for "The Horse Whisperer," a 1998 movie based on Nicholas Evans' 1995 novel, with scenes filmed at the Saratoga Race Track, Ballston Spa, and Hadley. Although he had already directed several films, this was the first time Robert Redford directed a film that he also starred in.