Robert Redford — the heartthrob-handsome actor who personified “movie star” in the 1960s and 1970s in such films as “Barefoot in the Park,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “The Way We Were” and “All the President’s Men” before becoming an Academy Award-winning director and founder of the Sundance Institute — died Tuesday at age 89.
His death, at his home in the mountains near Provo, Utah, was announced by his publicist, who did not give a cause.
Publicist Cindi Berger told The New York Times that Redford died in his sleep, adding he was in “the place he loved surrounded by those he loved.”
Tributes poured in Tuesday, including from director Ron Howard, who praised Redford’s impact on generations of filmmakers.
“#RIP & thank you Robert Redford, a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices made as an actor/producer/director & for launching the Sundance Film Festival which supercharged America’s Independent Film movement. Artistic Gamechanger,” Howard wrote on X.
Actress Jane Fonda, who co-starred with Redford in “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Electric Horseman” and “Our Souls at Night,” said his death left her heartbroken.
“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for,” Fonda said in a statement.
Singer and actress Barbra Streisand, who starred opposite Redford in the 1973 romantic drama “The Way We Were,” shared a remembrance on social media.
“Every day on the set of (“The Way We Were”) was exciting, intense and pure joy. We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie. Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting — and one of the finest actors ever. … He was one of a kind and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him,” Streisand wrote on Instagram.
Author Stephen King also reflected on Redford’s passing, noting his influence on a changing Hollywood.
“Robert Redford has passed away. He was part of a new and exciting Hollywood in the 70s and 80s. Hard to believe he was 89,” King wrote on X.
Actress Octavia Spencer praised Redford for his mix of artistry and advocacy.
“From Butch Cassidy to Sundance, he blended art and activism in ways few have. His quiet strength will live in every frame he directed, every festival he championed and every artist he encouraged,” Spencer wrote on Instagram.
Director James Gunn remembered Redford as the definitive Hollywood leading man.
“I grew up with his movies: his quiet, unforced performances and ever-present grace. He was THE movie star, and will be greatly missed,” Gunn wrote on Instagram.
Redford was born Aug. 18, 1936 in Santa Monica and attended Van Nuys High School, graduating in 1954 before setting off for Europe to pursue life as an painter and artist — and then embarking on a legendary six-decade acting career in the late 1950s.
His acting gigs began in television with guest roles in such staples of the era as “Maverick,” “Playhouse 90,” “Perry Mason,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Twilight Zone.”
He made his Broadway debut in 1959 in “Tall Story,” and hit it big on The Great White Way in 1963 in the Neil Simon play “Barefoot in the Park” — reprising that role in the 1967 film version in a co-starring role with Jane Fonda that began a string of mega-hits that vaulted Redford to the pinnacle of Hollywood stardom and success.
Those films included 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” playing the Sundance Kid alongside fellow icon Paul Newman in a turn that would later give name to Redford’s groundbreaking, career-making indie film festival, Sundance.
A string of hits followed, including “Downhill Racer”; “Jeremiah Johnson”; “The Candidate”; “The Way We Were”; “The Sting,” again with Newman; “The Great Gatsby”; The Electric Horseman”; “The Great Waldo Pepper”; “Three Days of the Condor”; “All the President’s Men” with Dustin Hoffman; “The Natural”; and “Out of Africa” with Meryl Streep.
“One of the lions has passed,” Streep said in a statement. “Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
The blond-haired box-office magnet then made another name for himself as a serious-minded, critically acclaimed director of films that often bucked popular Hollywood trends and tackled heavy subjects such as suicide and grief (“Ordinary People”), corruption and greed (“Quiz Show”).
But his serious themes predated those directorial efforts, including his co-star turn as Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men.”
He won the best-director Oscar for his first directorial effort, 1980’s “Ordinary People,” which took three Academy Awards in all, including Best Picture.
Other notable directing endeavors included 1988’s “The Milagro Beanfield War,” 1992’s “A River Runs Through It,” 1994’s “Quiz Show,” about the game-show scandal in the 1950s, 1998’s “The Horse Whisperer,” in which he also starred, and 2000’s “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”
Besides his 1980 Oscar win for directing “Ordinary People,” he was nominated for an Academy Award for director for “Quiz Show.”
He was nominated for best actor in 1973’s “The Sting,” playing aspiring grifter Johnny Hooker — his only career acting nod — but won an honorary Oscar in 2002.
Over his career, Redford would amass six Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute to foster independent filmmakers and give their work a showcase. The Institute took over an earlier Utah film festival and renamed it the Sundance Film Festival, which Tuesday is one of the premier cinema showcases in the world.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our founder and friend Robert Redford,” the Sundance Institute said in a statement. “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 U.S. 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.”
Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux commented as well, writing on X: “Forever the cowboy, the fugitive, the candidate, the prisoner, the Great Gatsby, the con man, the student, the playboy, the loner, the cryptographer, the soldier, the reporter, the rodeo champion, the lover, the baseball star, the sailor, the horse whisperer. Redford was more than a legend: he was a role model. Forever Robert Redford, the electric horseman who loved freedom.”
Redford was also an activist for environmental causes.
“His unwavering commitment to protecting our planet and inspiring change matched his immense talent,” actor Leonardo DiCaprio said. “His impact will endure for generations to come.”
In 2018 Redford announced he would be retiring from acting, following “The Old Man & The Gun,” a western that screened at the Telluride Film Festival.
At the time, he said he “can’t last forever” and that he “put my soul and heart into it over the years.”
“I thought, `That’s enough. Why don’t you quit while you’re a little bit ahead? Don’t wait for the bell to toll. Just get out,”’ he said at the time.” So I felt my time had come and I couldn’t think of a better project to go out on than this film.”
But later that year, he had second thoughts about retiring, telling People magazine, “I think it was a mistake to say that I was retiring because you never know. It did feel like it was time maybe, to concentrate on another category.”
In fact, he would work again on “Buttons, A New Musical Film,” as a narrator in 2018, followed by roles in “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, “Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia” in 2020 and finally, this year, the AMC show “Dark Winds,” a crime drama set in the 1970s about Navajo Tribal Police officers.