Robert Redford's Final Acting Credit Was A Cameo Opposite George R. R. Martin
Robert Redford, who died at 89 on September 16, 2025, was a true titan of the film industry. And while he also had TV roles in his résumé, he spent most of his career both in front of and behind the camera on movie productions instead. As such, you generally didn't expect to see him on the small screen ... much less sharing a scene with someone like George R. R. Martin. Not only is Martin not an actor by trade, but he's also best known as the writer whose works have been adapted into HBO's fantasy juggernaut "Game of Thrones" and its two spin-offs, "House of the Dragon" and "A Knight of Seven Kingdoms" – none of which exactly seem like Redford-style projects.
Still, Redford lived life by his own rules, and on March 9, 2025, said rules indeed led to him appearing opposite Martin onscreen for roughly half a minute. This unlikely but delightful meeting takes place in "Dark Winds" season 3, episode 1, titled "Ye'iitsoh (Big Monster)." The AMC Western noir about Navajo Tribal Police upholding the law in the 1970s opened its third season with an episode that briefly showed the two giants of their respective fields playing prisoners who enjoy a quiet game of chess, with Martin's character ultimately winning.
"Dark Winds" star Zahn McClarnon, who also appears in the scene, was understandably glad about the unlikely opportunity to work with Redford, who contemplated retiring from acting in 2016 and hadn't been seen in front of the camera since his "Avengers: Endgame" cameo in 2019. "I never thought I could get to a place in my life where I would actually know Robert Redford, let alone be in a scene with him," McClarnon told Vulture.
Redford and Martin's Dark Winds cameo was originally supposed to be far stranger
The thing to remember here is that Martin and Redford were both fans of the Tony Hillerman book series "Dark Winds" is based on and producers of the show, so it made sense for them to appear onscreen at some point. The plans to make this happen took quite a long time and originally involved a far more outlandish season 2 storyline where the pair would play two Men in Black who arrived to investigate a UFO crash.
Redford was actually the person who put forth the idea of some sort of cameo, and the idea was bouncing around since the show's conception. The Men in Black appearance was actually all lined up, but a series of strange occurrences — which included Martin actually meeting the screen legend he would have to act with, as well as an incident with the sheep that were supposed to play aliens – intervened. As showrunner John Wirth told Vulture:
"Bob was trying to talk George into it on set. He said, 'I'll do it if George does it.' Then Zahn McClarnon and me, executive producer Jim Chory, star Kiowa Gordon, we were all there trying to convince George to say yes. And George would not say yes. We had already gone quite a ways downstream on this. We were building the 'Men in Black' suits for each of these guys. That ended up being fairly costly. We were getting the 'Men in Black' truck. We had the sheep. Then there was some panic because the sheep had been attacked by coyotes and very nearly died, so they could not appear on-camera. It just got nuts."
Martin may have been hesitant to film the cameo because of a Song of Ice and Fire joke, but Redford threw one in anyway
As amazing as it is to think that Redford was completely down with lending his talents to playing a Man in Black who's out to investigate alien sheep, it was indeed Martin who pumped the brakes — and Wirth eventually found out why this may have been. While the showrunner joked that Martin might have been simply nervous to realize in practice that his screen partner would be one of the most photogenic and charismatic actors in history, he also heard that the reason might have been somewhat more personal. As Wirth told Vulture:
"I had seen George on some late-night talk show, and they had done a skit about him being unable to finish the most recent ['A Song of Ice and Fire'] books. It was a very funny bit. So, I had written a line in this little scene about that, just an allusion to finishing something. I guess George had taken it to be making fun of his inability to finish this novel, so he said no."
By the time the chess scene was filmed, Wirth had learned his lesson, and the scene wasn't even supposed to have any dialog until Redford decided to insert some. As it happens, the line he chose was not dissimilar with the idea Wirth had been tinkering with: "George, the whole world is waiting," he said. "Make a move."
After McClarnon's Joe Leaphorn chimes in and gives "George" the winning move, Redford glances at the officer and delivers the final line of his final role: "Thanks a lot." Thanks a lot indeed, Mr. Redford.