Robert Redford once played a weird role in a key Indiana election

Robert Redford was annoyed.

That's the message the Hollywood star conveyed in a telegram to Dan Quayle's campaign offices. It was November 1980, and the future vice president was in the guts of a Senate campaign against Indiana stalwart Birch Bayh, a difficult assignment for a relative political newcomer.

But he had one thing working in his favor. For some reason, people kept saying Quayle looked like Redford – one of the most handsome men to ever live.

The comparison was ... a stretch. But it had stuck around for years. In 1976, when Quayle was running for the U.S. House, an Allen County GOP operative quipped "how can you vote against a candidate who looks like Robert Redford?" Four years later, that became an unofficial campaign rallying cry, with the media bringing up the supposed re