Keep an eye out for Gene Hackman as the team coach.

But the best part about it is the producers wisely changed the ending. In the book, Roy takes the bribe and throws the game. I know there was something Malamud was trying to say about America, but in the movies in 1984, nobody wanted to hear it. We still wanted baseball stories that uplifted us, that had heroes, that were, in some sense, pure.

I think we still do want those kinds of movies, but it hasn’t been what we’ve been getting, with few exceptions.

Downhill Racer. Never heard of it. 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, so there’s that.

https://www.wsj.com/sports/robert-redford-downhill-racer-64685d21

And just seeing that TommyJay already mentioned.

Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen come to mind.

Others are more versatile, such as Dustin Hoffman, Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine.

I’m sure both lists can be more extensively filled out. Actresses are a bit trickier for me to sort.

Then again, as audience members, we are also obligated to bring some suspension of belief or of reality, and ignore that we are purposefully being “deceived!” Sometimes the plot line or writing just does not carry that suspension well, either. With CGI, etc., that level of suspension can get pretty exotic, especially for sci fi stories.
Some versions of historical representations or historical personages are also pretty difficult to achieve. The hardness and harshness of real life for those times probably cannot be fully felt or replicated, in any case.

That’s the curse of all popular actors and actresses once past the “new hire” phase of their careers, where they haven’t yet gotten an established presence in the minds of the viewers.
Of course, some people then come to SEE “Robert Redford” and don’t care if his character fits a now-familiar stereotype, and a lot of times the studios (more common in the past eras, I think) won’t let them take parts against the money-making type they’ve established in their early productions.

Some great actors can get past that limitation

I think theater actors have a better chance of playing more divergent parts.

That said, I think Redford brought a lot of skill to each of his roles, even though the plots and characters had a “family resemblance,” putting across the intent of the script with his acting, as did all the really great popular stars.