The Great Gatsby: Robert Redford

Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby does a lot of posing around, looking vacantly into space – something that, admittedly, adds to the character’s mystery whenever he is seen from a distance. But once the camera gets closer, missing from the star’s performance is that mix of obsessive passion and hickish ruggedness described in Fitzgerald’s novel – and which Leonardo DiCaprio would successfully bring to his own portrayal of Jay Gatsby nearly four decades later.