Robert Redford died at 89 years old today. He was one of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men and a proud patron of the arts, founding the Sundance Film Festival. He was also a fan of sports cars and racing on the track. He even introduced his buddy Paul Newman to racing. Newman became obsessed with motorsports, winning his class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Daytona. But when Newman wouldn’t shut up about cars, Redford had to think of a prank to shut his buddy up.

Before Dwayne and Kevin, before George and Brad, there was Paul and Robert. Newman and Redford co-starred in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Their on-screen chemistry was one of the many things that made the Western an instant classic. They returned as Depression-era con artists in 1973’s The Sting (one of my favorite films ever). But the chemistry wasn’t just acting—the two also had one of the longest-running Hollywood bromances.

After Newman died, Redford said of his friend, “Mostly I’ll miss the fun we had.” He explains, “I used to race cars, and after he took this rare Porsche I owned for a drive, he began to get into racing.”

Robert Redford introduced Paul Newman to racing

To me, the wildest part of this story is that it was Robert Redford who inspired auto racing legend Paul Newman. Redford was 11 years younger than Newman, and their on-screen relationships always fell into mentor/mentee based on their age difference. But I guess Redford was into fast cars first.

The “rare Porsche” in question was likely Redford’s 1964 Porsche 904 GTS, an early supercar with a fiberglass body that Porsche had engineered for the track. It sold at auction in 2022 for $1.5 million. It was one of many classic Porsches in Redford’s collection.

Paul Newman ‘got really good’ at racing

Redford remembered that he had begun taking classes at race tracks to push his fast cars even faster. So Newman began to tag along. “He had incredible reflexes, and he got really good.”

How good? Paul Newman won the Sports Car Club of America National Championship in 1976, 1979, 1985, and 1986. He also finished second overall—and first in his class—in the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans.

There was only one problem with Newman turning Redford’s hobby into a full-blown second career. “He talked so much about it that I got sick of it.” Redford explained, “We played lots of pranks on each other.”

So Redford settled on the perfect prank would shut his friend up. “I had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to his porch for his 50th birthday.”

How do you have a car wreck delivered to a friend for his birthday? “I called a towing service and said, ‘Do you have any crushed automobiles? Do you have a Porsche?’ They said, ‘It’s funny you should mention that. We had a car fall off a track and land on a Porsche and crush it.’” Redford made sure to have the coupe fully gift-wrapped for dramatic effect.

Newman got sweet revenge for the Porsche prank

In true bromance fashion, Newman took the prank in silence and resolved to one-up Redford. The two had developed a strict, “You don’t talk about the pranks” code. You had to just grin and bear it. Redford had to actually call the towing company to confirm they’d dropped a junk Porsche on Newman’s back porch. Then he was forced to wait for the inevitable retribution.

“A couple of weeks later, I went into my rented house in Westport, Connecticut.” A gift was waited inside. “In the foyer was this…big wooden box.” The present wasn’t car-shaped, so Redford didn’t suspect a thing. “It took me about an hour-and-a-half to crowbar it open. And inside was…a big square block of metal.”

Newman had sent the car to a crusher, then back to Redford. “It dented the floor.”

Redford insisted on the last laugh

So what do you do with a crushed Porsche shell? If you’re Robert Redford in the midst of a prank war with Newman, you get creative. The longer Redford stared at the block of “molten metal” in his house, the more grotesque it seemed to him. And he slowly hatched a plan. He called a sculptor friend.

“I then had it turned into a really ugly sculpture and dropped into his garden.” Redford gleefully waited for an invite. “I went over to see it and it was horrible.”

But Newman didn’t bat an eye, touch the sculpture, or breathe a word about the prank war. “To this day, neither one of us has ever mentioned it.”

The world’s a bit dimmer now that these two stars from Hollywoods “Second Golden Age” have left us. But at least they left us with some of the best films in history. And some great stories.