Robert Redford says he's retiring from acting

Screen legend Robert Redford has reiterated that at age 81, he is retiring from acting following the release next month of the lighthearted crime drama "The Old Man & the Gun."  

"Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I will ] move towards retirement after this 'cause I've been doing it since I was 21," the actor, producer and Oscar-winning director told Entertainment Weekly in an article posted Monday.  "I thought, Well, that's enough. And why not go out with something that's very upbeat and positive?"

In a 2016 interview accompanying a retrospective at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, Redford -- star of "The Sting," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "All the President's Men" and other classic films -- said, "I'm getting tired of acting. I'm an impatient person, so it's hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take." Following "The Old Man & the Gun," also starring fellow Oscar-winners Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck, "I'm going to say, 'Okay, that's goodbye to all that,' and then just focus on directing.”

Redford’s films as director include "Ordinary People” (1980), "A River Runs Through It" (1992), "Quiz Show"” (1994) and "The Horse Whisperer" (1998).

Directed by David Lowery, "The Old Man & the Gun," is the fact-based story of the late Forrest Tucker -- no relation to the actor with the same name -- a lifelong bank-robber who was captured multiple times in a more than 65-year career and escaped incarceration  18 times by his count, including from San Quentin State Prison in California.