Golden Boy: Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The death of Robert Redford has inspired more than the usual somber eulogies, and one dominant message is that Redford was "the last movie star" and that his passing is an elegy, marking the end of Hollywood's best way of getting the most people in front of screens. "A star is different from an actor," wrote Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal. "Stars always play themselves, while actors play characters. In an earlier day, one went to see a John Wayne or a Jane Russell movie, often not bothering to mention, or even learn, the movie's title. Redford, who...