Who played Andy in "The Shawshank Redemption"?

Tim Robbins played Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption.

Andy is a banker sentenced to life imprisonment at Shawshank State Penitentiary after being convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, crimes he maintains he did not commit. Inside prison, his financial expertise earns him influence with the guards and the corrupt warden Samuel Norton, while his friendship with Ellis “Red” Redding becomes the emotional center of the story.

Robbins’s performance presents Andy as quiet, calculating, and resilient rather than conventionally heroic. The character uses patience and specialized knowledge to survive prison life, secretly working for officials while preserving hope of eventual freedom. Morgan Freeman played Red, making the two actors the film’s central pairing.

The 1994 film was written and directed by Frank Darabont and adapted from Stephen King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Although it performed modestly at first, it became widely celebrated through television broadcasts, home video, and repeated critical recognition. A common mix-up is attributing Andy’s role to Freeman, who instead played Red, the film’s narrator and Andy’s closest friend.