Actor, director, and producer Robert Redford – one of Hollywood’s most enduring leading men and the driving force behind the Sundance Institute – has died at the age of 89, his publicist confirmed. RNZ reported.
Redford passed away at his home in Sundance, Utah, surrounded by family, according to Cindi Berger, CEO of Rogers & Cowan PMK. No cause of death was disclosed.
Once dismissed early in his career as “just another California blond,” Redford’s rugged charm and striking good looks helped make him one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood for more than five decades. His body of work ranged from sweeping romances such as Out of Africa, to politically charged dramas like The Candidate and All the President’s Men. He also took on edgier roles, portraying flawed and complex men in films such as The Electric Horseman and Indecent Proposal.
Beyond acting, Redford’s legacy was cemented with the creation of the Sundance Institute and its film festival in the 1970s. Long before independent film became fashionable, Sundance provided a platform for emerging filmmakers and helped redefine the landscape of American cinema.
Redford never won an Academy Award for acting, but his directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980), secured both Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. In 2001, he received an honorary Oscar for his lifetime contribution to film.
Despite his many successes, Redford was perhaps best remembered for his collaborations with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973), both of which became classics. Though their on-screen chemistry was legendary, the pair never reunited on film before Newman’s death in 2008.
Born in Santa Monica, California, on 18 August 1937, Redford grew up in a working-class family. Initially pursuing baseball, he lost his scholarship and later studied painting in Europe and New York before turning to acting. He began his career on Broadway and television before breaking through in Barefoot in the Park (1967) with Jane Fonda.
Over the years, Redford balanced his film career with environmental activism, supporting organisations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation. Though he often expressed liberal views, he never entered politics, once remarking, “Some people have analysis. I have Utah.”
A deeply private man, Redford lived much of his later life on his Utah retreat. He was married twice – first to Lola Van Wagenen for more than two decades, and later, in 2009, to German artist Sibylle Szaggars.
Redford continued acting well into his 80s, reuniting with Fonda in Our Souls at Night (2017). At the time, he suggested it would be one of his final roles, as he intended to devote more time to directing and his first love: art.
Robert Redford’s career embodied both Hollywood stardom and the independent spirit he tirelessly championed, leaving behind a legacy that reshaped modern cinema.