{"id":231678,"date":"2025-09-16T15:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/231678\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:33:15","slug":"robert-redford-dies-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/231678\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Redford dies at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Redford,<\/a> the Hollywood golden boy who became an Oscar-winning director, liberal activist and godfather for independent cinema under the name of one of his best-loved characters, died Tuesday at 89.<\/p>\n

Redford died \u201cat his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah \u2014 the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,\u201d publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement. No cause of death was provided.<\/p>\n

After rising to stardom in the 1960s, Redford was one of the biggest stars of the \u201970s with such films as \u201cThe Candidate,\u201d \u201cAll the President\u2019s Men\u201d and \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d capping that decade with the best director Oscar for 1980\u2019s \u201cOrdinary People,\u201d which also won best picture in 1980. His wavy blond hair and boyish grin made him the most desired of leading men, but he worked hard to transcend his looks \u2014 whether through his political advocacy, his willingness to take on unglamorous roles or his dedication to providing a platform for low-budget movies.<\/p>\n

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\"Director<\/p>\n

Director Sydney Pollack, left, appears with actors Robert Redford, center, and Barbra Streisand during the filming of \u201cThe Way We Were\u201d in New York on Nov. 28, 1972. (AP Photo\/Marty Lederhandler, File)<\/p>\n

Director Sydney Pollack, left, appears with actors Robert Redford, center, and Barbra Streisand during the filming of \u201cThe Way We Were\u201d in New York on Nov. 28, 1972. (AP Photo\/Marty Lederhandler, File)<\/p>\n

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His roles ranged from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward to a mountain man in \u201cJeremiah Johnson\u201d to a double agent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his co-stars included Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. But his most famous screen partner was his old friend and fellow activist and practical joker Paul Newman,<\/a> their films a variation of their warm, teasing relationship off screen. Redford played the wily outlaw opposite Newman in 1969\u2019s \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,\u201d a box-office smash from which Redford\u2019s Sundance Institute and festival got its name. He also teamed with Newman on 1973\u2019s best picture Oscar winner, \u201cThe Sting,\u201d which earned Redford a best-actor nomination as a young con artist in 1930s Chicago.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Listen to Paul Newman and Robert Redford in \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Redford plays the wily outlaw opposite Newman\u2019s Butch Cassidy. <\/p>\n

Film roles after the \u201970s became more sporadic as Redford concentrated on directing and producing, and his new role as patriarch of the independent-film movement in the 1980s and \u201990s through his Sundance Institute. But he starred in 1985\u2019s best picture champion \u201cOut of Africa\u201d and in 2013 received some of the best reviews of his career as a shipwrecked sailor in \u201cAll is Lost,\u201d in which he was the film\u2019s only performer. In 2018, he was praised again in what he called his farewell movie, \u201cThe Old Man and the Gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just figure that I\u2019ve had a long career that I\u2019m very pleased with. It\u2019s been so long, ever since I was 21,\u201d he told The Associated Press shortly before the film came out.<\/a> \u201cI figure now as I\u2019m getting into my 80s, it\u2019s maybe time to move toward retirement and spend more time with my wife and family.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Robert Redford attends the premiere of \u201cThe Old Man and the Gun\u201d at the Paris Theater on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes\/Invision\/AP, File)<\/p>\n

Robert Redford attends the premiere of \u201cThe Old Man and the Gun\u201d at the Paris Theater on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes\/Invision\/AP, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Sundance is born<\/p>\n

Redford had watched Hollywood grow more cautious and controlling during the 1970s and wanted to recapture the creative spirit of the early part of the decade. Sundance was created to nurture new talent away from the pressures of Hollywood, the institute providing a training ground and the festival, based in Park City, Utah, where Redford had purchased land with the initial hope of opening a ski resort. Instead, Park City became a place of discovery for such previously unknown filmmakers as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson and Darren Aronofsky.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me, the word to be underscored is \u2018independence,\u2019\u201d Redford told the AP in 2018. \u201cI\u2019ve always believed in that word. That\u2019s what led to me eventually wanting to create a category that supported independent artists who weren\u2019t given a chance to be heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry was pretty well controlled by the mainstream, which I was a part of. But I saw other stories out there that weren\u2019t having a chance to be told and I thought, \u2018Well, maybe I can commit my energies to giving those people a chance.\u2019 As I look back on it, I feel very good about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

Robert Redford poses for a portrait during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 21, 2010. (AP Photo\/Carlo Allegri, File)<\/p>\n

Robert Redford poses for a portrait during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 21, 2010. (AP Photo\/Carlo Allegri, File)<\/p>\n

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Sundance was even criticized as buyers swarmed in looking for potential hits and celebrities overran the town each winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never, ever changed our policies for how we program our festival. It\u2019s always been built on diversity,\u201d Redford told the AP in 2004. \u201cThe fact is that the diversity has become commercial. Because independent films have achieved their own success, Hollywood, being just a business, is going to grab them. So when Hollywood grabs your films, they go, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s gone Hollywood.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2025, the festival had become so prominent that organizers decided they had outgrown Park City and approved relocating to Boulder, Colorado,<\/a> starting in 2027. Redford, who had attended the University of Colorado Boulder, issued a statement saying that \u201cchange is inevitable, we must always evolve and grow, which has been at the core of our survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redford\u2019s affinity for the outdoors was well captured in \u201cA River Runs Through It\u201d and other films and through his decades of advocacy for the environment, inspired in part by witnessing the transformation of Los Angeles into a city of smog and freeways. His activities ranged from lobbying for such legislation as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act to pushing for land conservation in Utah to serving on the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Listen to Robert Redford at the United Nations\n <\/p>\n

In 2015, Robert Redford told the U.N. it needed to deal with climate change.<\/p>\n

Redford was married twice, most recently to Sibylle Szaggars. He had four children, two of whom have died \u2014 Scott Anthony, who died in infancy, in 1959; and James Redford,<\/a> an activist and filmmaker who died in 2020.<\/p>\n

Redford\u2019s early life<\/p>\n

Robert Redford was born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on Aug. 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, a California boy whose blond good looks eased his way over an apprenticeship in television and live theater that eventually led to the big screen.<\/p>\n

Redford attended college on a baseball scholarship and would later star as a middle-aged slugger in 1984\u2019s \u201cThe Natural,\u201d the adaptation of Bernard Malamud\u2019s baseball novel. He had an early interest in drawing and painting, then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, debuting on Broadway in the late 1950s and moving into television on such shows as \u201cThe Twilight Zone,\u201d \u201cAlfred Hitchcock Presents\u201d and \u201cThe Untouchables.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Listen to Wilford Brimley and Robert Redford in \u2018The Natural\u2019\n <\/p>\n

Redford starred as a middle-aged slugger in the adaptation of Bernard Malamud\u2019s baseball novel. <\/p>\n

After scoring a Broadway lead in \u201cSunday in New York,\u201d Redford was cast by director Mike Nichols<\/a> in a production of Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cBarefoot in the Park,\u201d later starring with Fonda in the film version. Redford did miss out on one of Nichols\u2019 greatest successes, \u201cThe Graduate,\u201d released in 1967. Nichols had considered casting Redford in the part eventually played by Dustin Hoffman, but Redford seemed unable to relate to the socially awkward young man who ends up having an affair with one of his parents\u2019 friends.<\/p>\n

\"Actors<\/p>\n

\n Actors Robert Redford, Elizabeth Ashley, and Kurt Kaznar appear on opening night of their play “Barefoot in the Park” in New York on Oct. 23, 1963. (AP Photo\/Marty Lederhandler, File)\n <\/p>\n

Actors Robert Redford, Elizabeth Ashley, and Kurt Kaznar appear on opening night of their play “Barefoot in the Park” in New York on Oct. 23, 1963. (AP Photo\/Marty Lederhandler, File)<\/p>\n

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\"Actors<\/p>\n

\n Robert Redford and Jane Fonda hug at the photo call of the film “Our Souls at Night” during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 1, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan\/Invision\/AP, File)\n <\/p>\n

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda hug at the photo call of the film “Our Souls at Night” during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 1, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan\/Invision\/AP, File)<\/p>\n

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\u201cI said, \u2018You can\u2019t play it. You can never play a loser,\u2019\u201d Nichols said during a 2003 screening of the film in New York. \u201cAnd Redford said, \u2018What do you mean? Of course I can play a loser.\u2019 And I said, \u2018OK, have you ever struck out with a girl?\u2019 and he said, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 And he wasn\u2019t joking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indie champion, mainstream star<\/p>\n

Even as Redford championed low-budget independent filmmaking, he continued to star in mainstream Hollywood productions himself, scoring the occasional hit such as 2001\u2019s \u201cSpy Game,\u201d which co-starred Brad Pitt, an heir apparent to Redford\u2019s handsome legacy whom he had directed in \u201cA River Runs Through It.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, \u201cThe Blair Witch Project,\u201d \u201cGarden State,\u201d \u201cNapoleon Dynamite\u201d and other scrappy films that came out of Sundance sometimes made bigger waves \u2014 and more money \u2014 than some Redford-starring box-office duds like \u201cHavana,\u201d \u201cThe Last Castle\u201d and \u201cAn Unfinished Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redford also appeared in several political narratives. He satirized campaigning as an idealist running for U.S. senator in 1972\u2019s \u201cThe Candidate\u201d and uttered one of the more memorable closing lines, \u201cWhat do we do now?\u201d after his character manages to win. He starred as Woodward to Hoffman\u2019s Carl Bernstein<\/a> in 1976\u2019s \u201cAll the President\u2019s Men,\u201d the story of the Washington Post reporters whose Watergate investigation helped bring down President Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n

With 2007\u2019s \u201cLions for Lambs,\u201d Redford returned to directing in a saga of a congressman (Tom Cruise), a journalist (Meryl Streep) and an academic (Redford) whose lives intersect over the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to actor Robert Redford during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik, File)<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to actor Robert Redford during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik, File)<\/p>\n

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His biggest filmmaking triumph came with his directing debut on \u201cOrdinary People,\u201d which beat Martin Scorsese\u2019s classic \u201cRaging Bull\u201d at the Oscars. The film starred Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore as the repressed parents of a troubled young man, played by Timothy Hutton, in his big screen debut. Redford was praised for casting Moore in an unexpectedly serious role<\/a> and for his even-handed treatment of the characters, a quality that Roger Ebert believed set \u201cthe film apart from the sophisticated suburban soap opera it could easily have become.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Listen to Robert Redford talk awards at the Sundance Film Festival\n <\/p>\n

In 2016, Robert Redford said he did not make movies to win awards.<\/p>\n

Redford\u2019s other directing efforts included \u201cThe Horse Whisperer,\u201d \u201cThe Milagro Beanfield War\u201d and 1994\u2019s \u201cQuiz Show,\u201d the last of which also earned best picture and director Oscar nominations. In 2002, Redford received an honorary Oscar, with academy organizers citing him as \u201cactor, director, producer, creator of Sundance, inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of the outlaw has always been very appealing to me. If you look at some of the films, it\u2019s usually having to do with the outlaw sensibility, which I think has probably been my sensibility. I think I was just born with it,\u201d Redford said in 2018. \u201cFrom the time I was just a kid, I was always trying to break free of the bounds that I was stuck with, and always wanted to go outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to update Redford\u2019s birth year to 1936, not 1937.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalists Hillel Italie, Jake Coyle and Mallika Sen contributed to this report. Bob Thomas, a longtime Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, was the principal writer of this obituary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Redford, the Hollywood golden boy who became an Oscar-winning director, liberal activist and godfather for independent cinema…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":231679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7574,3881,124889,124879,1043,276,124881,1899,124885,96073,32723,171,57,124891,12298,224,83248,83820,25374,67370,53,124886,124887,12299,124888,124882,116180,29705,28967,124878,124880,124890,124883,58211,124884,11683,61,67,132,68,436,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-231678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-bernard-malamud","11":"tag-bob-woodward","12":"tag-brad-pitt","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-carl-bernstein","15":"tag-celebrity-deaths","16":"tag-cindi-berger","17":"tag-darren-aronofsky","18":"tag-dustin-hoffman","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-general-news","21":"tag-james-redford","22":"tag-jane-fonda","23":"tag-los-angeles","24":"tag-martin-scorsese","25":"tag-mary-tyler-moore","26":"tag-meryl-streep","27":"tag-mike-nichols","28":"tag-movies","29":"tag-natural-resources-defense-council","30":"tag-neil-simon","31":"tag-notable-deaths","32":"tag-park-city","33":"tag-paul-newman","34":"tag-paul-thomas-anderson","35":"tag-quentin-tarantino","36":"tag-richard-nixon","37":"tag-robert-redford","38":"tag-roger-ebert","39":"tag-scott-anthony","40":"tag-sibylle-szaggars","41":"tag-steven-soderbergh","42":"tag-timothy-hutton","43":"tag-tom-cruise","44":"tag-u-s-news","45":"tag-united-states","46":"tag-unitedstates","47":"tag-us","48":"tag-ut-state-wire","49":"tag-utah"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}