Robert Redford, Legendary Actor, Director, and Cinephile, Dead at 89

Robert Redford, the award-winning actor known for films like All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Natural, and director of Ordinary People, has died at age of 89.

The New York Times reports that Redford died in his sleep at his home at his home in Utah early Tuesday morning.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on August 18th, 1936 in Santa Monica, California. He briefly studied at the University of Colorado Boulder before moving to New York City, where he studied at the Pratt Institute and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He began his acting career in theater, making his Broadway debut in Tall Story in 1959. In 1963, he starred alongside Elizabeth Ashley in the original Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park. 

Redford began guest starring on television shows like The Twilight Zone, Naked City, The Untouchables, Rescue 8, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the 1960s. In 1962, he was nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont.

Much like his Broadway debut, Redford’s first movie role was a small part in the 1960 film adaptation of Tall Story. Soon enough, he began appearing alongside Hollywood’s biggest stars: Alec Guinness in Situation Hopeless … But Not Serious, Natalie Wood in Inside Daisy Clover, Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando in This Property Is Condemned. Redford and Fonda would collaborate again in the 1967 film adaptation of Barefoot in the Park. In 1969, he starred in George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which helped cement him as a leading man.

Redford starred in a slew of classic films in the 1970s. In 1972, he portrayed the titular mountain main in the western Jeremiah Johnson, while 1973 saw him star alongside Barbra Streisand in the romantic drama The Way We Were and reunite with Paul Newman in the crime caper The Sting. Redford was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the latter. The next year, he portrayed Jay Gatsby in Jack Clayton’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby. 

In 1976, Redford played the Woodword to Dustin Hoffman’s Bernstein in Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men, the dramatic retelling of the Watergate scandal. He also served as executive producer for the film, which earned eight Academy Award nominations.

In 1980, Redford made his directorial debut with Ordinary People, a tale of an upper class family dealing with the aftermath of a son’s death. A critical success, Redford won Best Director for the film, while the movie itself won Best Picture. He reunited with This Property Is Condemned director Sydney Pollack for 1985’s Out of Africa, an Oscar-sweeping film that also starred Meryl Streep.

Redford’s success continued in the 1990s. He directed 1992’s A River Runs Through It, which brought a young Brad Pitt to prominence, and in 1993, he suggested the infamous Indecent Proposal. Two decades later, he starred as Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, officially entering the canon of one of the 21st century’s biggest franchises.

Redford worked consistently almost up until his death. In 2015, he portrayed Dan Rather in James Vanderbilt’s historical political drama Truth, and in 2017, he reunited with Jane Fonda for the fourth time to appear in the Netflix film Our Souls at Night. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his work in 2018’s The Old Man & the Gun, which would end up being his final role besides a brief cameo in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. He announced his retirement from acting in 2018, after both films had been shot. Still, he continued to work as a producer: in 2021, he and George R.R. Martin produced the AMC crime drama Dark Winds.

Ever the cinephile, Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival in 1978, which became America’s largest festival for independent films. The name, of course, was a nod to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Sundance Institute, Sundance Cinemas, Sundance Catalog, Sundance Productions, and the Sundance Channel followed. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996, while President Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom 20 years later.