WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 - During the 1970's, Robert Redford's career in film took off, in part, with two roles with distinct connections to the nation's capital - as a Senate candidate for whom winning was everything in "The Candidate" and as Bob Woodward, a reporter trying to crack the Watergate scandal, in "All the President's Men."
Mr. Redford returned to Washington on Sunday night to be saluted, along with the other recipients of this year's Kennedy Center Honors, for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.
Mr. Redford was among five honorees, along with the singers Tony Bennett and Tina Turner, the actress Julie Harris and the ballerina Suzanne Farrell. At a dinner on Saturday night for the recipients, the host, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said, "I quit music because of people like our honorees - people who define the difference between what is good and what is great."
Ms. Rice, who studied to be a concert pianist, said: "Our songs and our dance and our films and our literature offer a window into the American soul, into our long and wondrous experience as a nation. Our hard times and our good times have been expressed in the arts. In the lifetime achievements of our honorees alone, we see the full nature of America's character."
Among the 250 guests in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department were Vanessa Williams, Tyne Daly, Kid Rock and Caroline Kennedy.
The honors, in their 28th year, have evolved into a celebration of culture and the arts with receptions at the White House and the State Department and a gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The show will be broadcast on Dec. 27 on CBS.
"Each of these honorees, in a lifetime of achievement, has set a standard of excellence that is admired throughout the world," President Bush said at a White House reception on Sunday before the gala in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center.
The awards show featured film biographies of this year's recipients and tributes from entertainment figures like Paul Newman, Glenn Close, Willie Nelson and Beyoncé Knowles.
In a career that spanned five decades, Ms. Turner, 66, has sold 50 million albums. She has won seven Grammy awards, and her hits include "Private Dancer" and "What's Love Got to Do With It."
Ms. Farrell, 60, danced at the first Honors gala in 1978, when the honorees included Fred Astaire and the choreographer George Balanchine. Mr. Balanchine hand-picked Ms. Farrell for his company, the New York City Ballet, when she was 16. She danced only leading roles after her debut season.
Mr. Bennett, 79, had his first singing job at the age of 10, on stage with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York at the 1936 opening of the Triborough Bridge. Since opening for Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village in 1949, he has collaborated with musicians like Count Basie, Elvis Costello and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Ms. Harris, 80, has won five Tony awards, more than any other actor, and holds a record 10 nominations. She starred in the stage adaptation of Carson McCullers's "Member of the Wedding," and received an Oscar nomination for the film adaptation. She was also on the television show "Knots Landing."
