Hollywood actor and Oscar-winning director Robert Redford, known for films including Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, All The President’s Men and The Sting, has died at the age of 89.
Redford, who was also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the US, died on Tuesday morning.
In a statement, his representative said he was “surrounded by those he loved”, at home in “the place he loved” in the mountains of Utah. “He will be missed greatly,” she added.
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, he attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship before abandoning sport to study art in Europe. He later returned to the US to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
He made his debut on Broadway in the late 1950s before moving into television, with appearances in shows such as The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Untouchables.
Rising to stardom in the 1960s, Redford became a go-to leading man in Hollywood and a defining star of the following decade, headlining films including The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were and the political thriller Three Days of the Condor.
He worked assiduously to transcend being typecast for his all-American good looks, through his environmental and political advocacy and a willingness to take on complex, unglamorous roles.
But it was his role as the wily outlaw the Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy in the 1969 film, that cemented his icon status. The pair became one of cinema’s most famous screen partnerships, starring opposite each other again in the Best Picture winner The Sting a few years later, and remained close friends off-screen.
As well as his starring roles, Redford was an accomplished filmmaker, winning the Oscar for best director for his debut behind the camera, Ordinary People, in 1981. He had four Academy Award nominations in total – the first for acting for his performance in The Sting – as well as an honorary prize in 2002 for his “revolutionising” impact on filmmaking.
In a career spanning seven decades, he also received three Golden Globe Awards, including the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement honour in 1994.
In the 1990s and 2000s, his film credits included Indecent Proposal, The Last Castle and Spy Game. He also helmed acclaimed films as a director, including A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show and The Legend Of Bagger Vance. In 1998, he both starred in and directed The Horse Whisperer.
In his later years, Redford took on a critically lauded, near-silent role in All Is Lost, a 2013 survival story that featured virtually no other characters and barely any dialogue. His performance earned a standing ovation after the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2018, he received acclaim again in what he called his farewell movie, The Old Man And The Gun.
His most profound legacy lives on in the Sundance Institute and Festival, which he founded in 1981. It grew from a small workshop into the cornerstone of independent cinema, providing a vital launching pad for filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Darren Aronofsky.
In 2016, former President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the US government’s highest civilian honour – saying at the time that Americans “admire Bob not just for his remarkable acting, but for having figured out what to do next”.
Robert Redford leaves behind his wife, the artist Sibylle Szaggars, and two daughters from his first marriage – Shauna, a painter, and Amy, an actress and director.
He was previously married to Lola Van Wagenen. One of their children, Scott, died at the age of two months from sudden infant death syndrome. Another son, James, a documentary filmmaker, died of cancer in 2020.
Robert Redford’s Last Interview
‘One of the lions has passed’
Tributes have been shared across social media following the announcement of Redford’s death.
Meryl Streep, who starred in Out Of Africa and Lions For Lambs opposite Redford, said: “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
Filmmaker Ron Howard described Redford as “a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices” he made as an actor, producer and director, and said Sundance had been a “gamechanger”.
Marlee Matlin, star of the Oscar-winning CODA, said the film “came to the attention of everyone” because of the Sundance Festival. “Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed,” she said.
“He was part of a new and exciting Hollywood in the 70s and 80s,” wrote author Stephen King. “Hard to believe he was 89.”
Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, wrote: “Decades ago, Robert Redford came to Utah and fell in love with this place. He cherished our landscapes and built a legacy that made Utah a home for storytelling and creativity. Through Sundance and his devotion to conservation, he shared Utah with the world. Today we honour his life, his vision, and his lasting contribution to our state.”
In a statement, the Sundance Institute said: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our founder and friend Robert Redford. Bob’s vision of a space and a platform for independent voices launched a movement that, over four decades later, has inspired generations of artists and redefined cinema in the US and around the world.
“Beyond his enormous contributions to culture at large, we will miss his generosity, clarity of purpose, curiosity, rebellious spirit, and his love for the creative process. We are humbled to be among the stewards of his remarkable legacy, which will continue to guide the Institute in perpetuity.”
