The Twilight Zone was and still is one of the greatest examples of television in history. The show gave us plenty of great early-career performances from plenty of actors like Charles Bronson, William Shatner (twice), and more. There is one early season episode of The Twilight Zone that featured a very young Robert Redford as well. If you go all the way back to season 3 episode 16, the series gave us “Nothing In the Dark”. The Lamont Johnson-directed episode featured Gladys Cooper as Wanda Dunn, an elderly woman who’s fought with death thousands of times and always won. That is, until a wounded, 1000% charming Police officer, Harold Beldon comes knocking on her door.

The episode aired in 1962, two years into the career of Redford, before he was the Robert Redford we all know. His roles up to that point were bit parts on shows like Maverick, Perry Mason, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. People tuning in that night were in for a treat, with a look at who would become one of the most famous and influential actors of a generation. They also got a masterful performance from Cooper, who’s film credits go back to 1913. So it was the past, the present, and really the future of acting, engaging in a masterclass from The Twilight Zone.

The episode tells a story that we all can relate to. An elderly woman who is frightened of death huddles in an abandoned tenement building’s basement. A police officer is shot outside, and she’s reluctant to let him in because she’s seen death take the form of a man and kill someone by simply touching them. Despite her reservations, she lets him in. And the story goes from there.

Robert Redford Shows Off Some Early Charm

The episode has some really great work from Redford where you can see his talent shining through the screen. He’s charming, he’s mysterious, he’s handsome as HELL, once you get to the twist of the episode, it;’s an all-timer for the series. But when you think that it’s going to be one of those classic “be careful what you wish for”-type endings, it ends up leaving you on a much more poignant note. The story about an old tenement building being demolished to make way for the new is what life is about. The old are moved out, forgotten to make way for new things and new people. That’s what makes Redford’s performance here all the more powerful.

The ending moments of the episode are beautiful and definitely leave you thinking much more about life and how we view death. It’s this fearful thing, but in some cases, it does come in the form of a 1962-version of Robert Redford. I’ll leave you with the closing monologue from Rod Serling.

There was an old woman who lived in a room and, like all of us, was frightened of the dark, but who discovered in a minute last fragment of her life, that there was nothing in the dark that wasn’t there when the lights were on. Object lesson for the more frightened amongst us – in or out – of The Twilight Zone.

RIP Robert Redford.

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