Robert Redford, Hollywood’s former golden boy and star of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, has died aged 89.
The actor and Oscar-winning director’s death was confirmed in a statement by Cindi Berger, chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK. She said that Redford died in his sleep at home in Utah, “surrounded by those he loved”. A specific cause of death was not disclosed.
Redford was a screen idol, and at the height of his fame in the Sixties and Seventies had a global reputation both as a respected actor and a sex symbol, with his sandy blonde hair, megawatt smile and romantic roles opposite stars from Jane Fonda to Barbara Streisand.
Born in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, he moved to New York in the Fifties with hopes of being a painter, but found himself drawn to acting instead. In 1967, he got his big screen breakthrough with a role playing a newlywed opposite Fonda in the romcom Barefoot in the Park.
Across a six-decade career, Redford made more than 50 movies. He said his two favourites were his collaborations with Paul Newman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
Redford was 32 when he starred in the former, playing the Sundance Kid, in what would become the most famous role of his career. The brilliant buddy movie told the story of Wild West outlaws Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), who are on the run from the authorities after a series of train robberies.
The Sting, in which Redford played a conman, came four years later. Surprisingly, it earned him his only ever Oscar nomination. While the film won seven Academy Awards, Redford lost out to Save the Tiger star Jack Lemmon.
Other acting highlights over the course of his career include playing a skier in Downhill Racer (1969), a young Democrat hopeful in The Candidate (1972), and as an investigative journalist in Watergate drama All the President’s Men (1976).
In 1980, he made his directorial film debut with Ordinary People, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture – Redford received the Best Director prize.
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He continued directing films such as A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), The Legend of Bagger Vance (1998), Lions for Lambs (2007), The Conspirator (2010), and The Company You Keep (2012). Redford directed many huge stars, from Meryl Streep and Scarlett Johansson to Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron.
In 2002 he received the Academy Honorary Award as an “actor, director, producer, creator of Sundance, inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere”.
With his Hollywood earnings, Redford bought land in a ski area in Utah called Timp Haven. He renamed the place Sundance, after his film character, and went on to create the Sundance Film Festival, celebrating independent films.
He also founded the Sundance Institute, Sundance Cinemas, Sundance Catalog, and the Sundance Channel.
In 2018, Redford announced he would retire from acting following the release of his final film The Old Man and The Gun.
The then-81-year-old told Entertainment Weekly: “Never say never but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting. I’ll move towards retirement after this ‘cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21. I thought, well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?”
The Old Man and The Gun saw Redford star alongside Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tom Waits and Sissy Spacek as the real-life Forrest Tucker, a career criminal and notorious prison escape artist.
Speaking to The Independent in 2016 about being seen as a sex symbol, especially in the Sixties and Seventies, he said: “How could you not like it? I liked it a lot. I wasn’t expecting it and it just happened around a couple of films. At first I was very flattered, I thought: ‘Gee, this really feels good.’ Then I got nervous about what it would do to my life if I really went into it.”
He explained that he decided to seek solace in solitude: “That’s why I bought the land in Utah. It was a retreat where I would go away so I could have time with nature and raise my family and not ever get tied into that. But it hasn’t been easy.”
Redford was an activist throughout most of his career, predominantly fighting for environmental causes.
He used his status to raise awareness about clean energy, and was on the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council for decades.
He also lent his name and funding to a wildlife preserve in Utah.
Speaking with Rolling Stone about his activism in 2021, Redford said: “I was attending a conference in Denver, in 1989, where there was a presentation by two scientists who explained Earth’s temperatures were rising — they called it global warming. They explained what would happen if we ignored this threat.
“That moment was my wake-up call. I knew they were speaking the truth. Because one thing we’ve learned is that time waits for no one. I realised that when there’s something you have to do, you better act, and act quickly.”
Redford married his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, in 1958. The couple had four children together: Scott, Shauna, David and Amy. Scott died of sudden death syndrome when he was just 10 weeks old.
It is thought that they divorced in 1985. In the Nineties, Redford met Sibylle Szaggars, and she moved in with him at his home in Sundance. They got married in 2009.
He is survived by Szaggars, his three children and seven grandchildren.
