Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Sept. 16 death of actor Robert Redford sparked a slew of warm memories for local residents, Duke McGuire and Robert Rich III, both of whom acted in "The Natural".
Redford starred as the mysterious ballplayer, Roy Hobbs, for the fictional New York Knights in the film.
McGuire, himself, a local baseball legend and longtime voice of the Buffalo Bisons, was hired to serve as one of the Knights' players. He had several scenes with Redford.
Rich, who was 15 during the 1983 filming of the movie - much of which was shot in Buffalo and other Western New York locations - played Hobbs' son. His most famous scene came at the end of "The Natural" with Rich and Redford having a father-and-son game of catch.
Both Rich and McGuire described Redford and much of the rest of the cast that included Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Darren McGavin as regular, "down-to-earth" people.
McGuire said he was impressed with Redford's baseball abilities.
"He was pretty good," McGuire said. "You could tell he played baseball before."
However, in the reality versus fiction department, while Hobbs' character had no problem hitting homeruns in the movie, it was just the opposite for Redford.
During warm-up batting practice, the players had an informal homerun derby. Several of Redford's hits made into War Memorial Stadium's outfield, but none went over the wall.
"He tried and tried," McGuire recalled. "But, he couldn't hit the wall. Some did get deep into the outfield, though and you could tell that Bob's (Redford's) swing was good."
Rich said his one regret is that as a teenager, he didn't truly appreciate doing scenes with Redford and Close.
"Looking back, it was surreal," Rich said. "I probably should have appreciated it more than I did, but I was a teenager. What can you say?"
Rich and his father, Robert Rich Jr., Rich Products Corp. chairman, did forge a friendship with Redford - and some of the other actors. Redford frequently invited the father-and-son tandem to many of his fundraising events.
"We still talked about playing catch in the farm field," Bob Rich III said.