Robert Redford and Paul Newman found something rare in Hollywood: A true and lasting friendship

Paul Newman and Robert Redford at the Westport Country Playhouse gala benefit dinner at the Hyatt Regency October 14, 2004 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Evan Agostini/Getty Images

After Paul Newman died of lung cancer at the age of 83 in 2008, Robert Redford talked to ABC about their longstanding friendship.

Its inception, he explained, was their starring together in the hit 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

“It was just that connection of playing those characters and the fun of it that really began the relationship,” Redford said at the time. “And then once the film started, once we went forward, we then discovered other similarities that just multiplied over time, a common ground that we both had between us, interests and so forth, and differences.”

“Butch Cassidy an