Robert Redford death latest: Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand and others mourn Hollywood icon – UK Times

Horror author Stephen King wrote on X: “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.”

Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and the upcoming The Running Man, saluted Redford for his work as an actor, filmmaker and beyond.

“Robert Redford was so much more than just a movie star. He was a great actor, director, and producer, and—through the creation of the Sundance Film Festival and the founding of the Sundance Institute—a tireless champion of independent cinema,” Wright wrote on Instagram.

“He supported countless fledgling filmmakers and helped launch many remarkable careers. But also… boy, what a movie star he was. Stunningly handsome and a wonderfully naturalistic actor, he moved effortlessly between drama and comedy. He chose his projects with intelligence, using his marquee power to champion groundbreaking scripts and often finding ways to play against his matinee-idol image.”

CNN host Christiane Amanpour, who interviewed Redford, said of the actor: “Amid so much global sadness and violence, let us remember a man, an actor, an activist: Robert Redford, who spent his whole career digging deep and making us think.“

Marlee Matlin, who starred in 2022 Oscar Best Picture winner CODA, credits Redford with drawing attention to the film.

She wrote on X: “Our film, CODA, came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance. And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed. RIP Robert.”

From Dusk till Dawn and Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez has joined the tributes to Redford, writing on X:

“I grew up on Robert Redford films, he was the massive superstar of my youth. So to have El Mariachi accepted into his Sundance Film Festival — the most important and prestigious independent film festival in the world — remains one of the biggest highlights of my life.

“His sanctuary in Park City was like a dream: You fly in, meet Redford, present your film, and hope good things would follow.

“The greatest honor I’ve ever had and will ever have was being awarded at Sundance. Thank you, Mr. Redford. Your vision and independent spirit forever changed my life.”

James Wood has honored his co-star and mentor, recounting the first time they worked together.

“My first studio movie was The Way We Were,” the Casino actor said on X. He played Barbra Streisand’s love interest in the 1973 romance.

“Like everyone else I was dazzled by Bob and Barbara. They were both terrific to me and I learned a lot from them both,” he added.

He recalled when “Bob used to hide in my trailer so they’d stop pulling at him every five minutes.”

“We would sit and talk about the difference between theatre and movie acting, and his advice went a long way in my life,” he continued.

“Years later he came to a New York stage performance, and I remember he wrote a personal note to every one in the cast. He knew the impact he had on people, especially his fellow artists, and he used it graciously at every opportunity.”

Describing him as an “incredibly giving and lovely man,” Wood expressed his gratitude for “the short time and chats we had together. Thank you, Bob, and may you rest in peace.”

Glenn Close starred with Redford in the 1984 sports film The Natural and they became lifelong friends.

In an appearance on CNN, Close said she was still in “shock” and “denial”.

“He was a great friend,” she added. “I learned a lot from him. He had the heart and soul of an artist, a true artist. He was always very authentic in his passions, which was Native Americans and their art, the environment, and the Sundance Institute.

“In fact, after The Natural he invited me to be on the board of Sundance, which I was on for 16 years. He came every single summer to those workshops, working alongside new talent and new voices. In an industry that is labelled as selfish and self-serving, he was a man who put his money and his life into what he believed in, which was giving back.”

Alec Baldwin has posted an emotional tribute to Robert Redford, citing him as an acting great and revealing that he received a letter from the star after his trial for the accidental death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins concluded.

“‘I’m so sorry for what you had to go through,’” Baldwin recalled Redford writing. “I had the loveliest letter from Robert Redford.”

Listen to his full tribute to Redford here:

Julianne Moore has remembered being starstruck by Redford during their first encounter.

“He was the first movie star that I ever loved,” the Oscar-winning Still Alice star said in an Instagram post.

“My sister sent me this photo this morning from #sundance,” Moore added of an old photo of her looking at Redford adoringly. “It was very hard for me to behave normally in his presence. #RIP Robert Redford We will all miss you.”

One of Robert Redford’s most celebrated roles was playing the journalist Bob Woodward in the Watergate thriller All The President’s Men.

Today, Woodward paid tribute to Redford in a statement:

“Robert Redford was genuine, a noble and principled force for good who fought successfully to find and communicate the truth. Over 50 years of friendship, he always said what he was going to do and then did it. He urged Carl Bernstein and myself to tell the Watergate story through the eyes and experiences of our reporting and the relations between the two of us. That resulted in our book “All the President’s Men” and later the movie in 1976. His impact and influence on my life cannot be overstated. I loved him, and admired him — for his friendship, his fiery independence, and the way he used any platform he had to help make the world better, fairer, brighter for others.

“He will be remembered as one of the great storytellers in our country’s history. He elevated stories beyond the mainstream. He not only cared about the environment, but he took all conceivable actions to protect it.

“I interviewed him several times over the last 10 years about the state of this country and recorded them with his permission. Here are some quotes that show the Redford I knew and loved.

“On New Year’s Eve 2021, Redford said he had rewatched All the President’s Men a few days prior. ‘I was just taken aback by how appropriate it was, how timely it was and how little has really changed. We don’t have Nixon anymore, we have Trump.’

“‘You know time waits for no one,’ Redford said. ‘Time moves on and you have to move on with it or get lost behind. And I thought, well, at my age — at the age I’m at, 85, at one time there was a long road ahead of me and now that road is a lot shorter and I don’t have a lot of time to mess around. So you do the best you can with what you’ve got left… We have to do something that changes the scenario, changes the dialogue. Just like we did many years ago with Watergate.’

“‘We live in a country where we can’t call ourselves the United States of America,’ Redford said. ‘We just can’t. We’re the Divided States of America because of the political parties and they’re so robust in their anxieties…’

“In September 2022, I told Redford my reporting showed that Trump was trying to destroy democracy. ‘He doesn’t understand it,’ Redford said. ‘So it’s easy for him to destroy it. It is easy to destroy something you don’t understand. You can claim it doesn’t exist.’

“About himself he said, ‘I think I just have an outlaw sensibility. I’ve always been independent. I’ve always wanted to stay free. Freedom is very important to me. I didn’t want to go anywhere, do anything where my freedom was going to be thwarted. And of course, when you’re that focused on freedom, you’re also focused on independence. So I wanted to be independent.’

“In an earlier 2019 interview with Redford, he said, ‘One last thing before we go on about why I am the way I am. Not wanting to be pinned down, not wanting to be corralled. I was totally free as a child. I was totally free… Those were the earlier years that kind of define why I think there’s some part of me still that way. Not wanting to be pulled into a group situation, wanting to maintain some independence.’

“Godspeed, Robert Redford.”