Robert Redford, famed actor and director, dead at 89

Robert Redford, the legendary actor, director, and producer who embodied classic Hollywood charm while championing independent cinema through the Sundance Institute, has died at the age of 89.

His publicist, Cindi Berger, confirmed to CBC News that Redford passed away peacefully at his home in Sundance, Utah — “the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved.”

Redford became a household name with his striking looks and memorable performances in films like Out of Africa, The Candidate, and All the President’s Men. He often challenged his own screen image, taking on complex roles such as the troubled former rodeo star in The Electric Horseman and the morally conflicted millionaire in Indecent Proposal.

Beyond acting, Redford was a driving force behind independent film. In the late 1970s, he used his wealth and influence to launch the Sundance Institute and later the Sundance Film Festival — now one of the world’s premier platforms for independent filmmakers.

Although he never won an Oscar for acting, Redford’s directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980), won both Best Picture and Best Director. His collaborations with Paul Newman — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973) — remain classics, and the former propelled him to stardom.

Despite his fame, Redford often expressed discomfort with celebrity. “People have been so busy relating to how I look, it’s a miracle I didn’t become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm,” he once told New York magazine. “It’s not easy being Robert Redford.”

Fiercely private, Redford retreated from the Hollywood spotlight in the early 1970s, buying land in remote Utah where he built a family retreat. He was married to his first wife for over 25 years before their divorce in 1985. In 2009, he married German artist and longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars.

Redford also used his platform for activism, supporting environmental causes like the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation. In 2005, he and his son James founded The Redford Center, which uses film to inspire climate action. He spoke out regularly on environmental issues, including voicing opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Though never a political candidate, Redford was outspoken on national issues. In a 2017 interview with Esquire, during Donald Trump’s presidency, he described politics as being in a “very dark place” and suggested the president should “quit for our benefit.”

Born on August 18, 1937, in Santa Monica, California, Redford came from modest beginnings. He earned a baseball scholarship to college but lost it due to partying. He then turned to art, studying in Italy and New York, before finding his way to acting. What started as a pursuit of theatrical set design led to a career on Broadway by 1959 and a transition to film shortly after.

Redford’s film debut came in 1962 with Warhunt, but his breakout role was opposite Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park. He famously turned down The Graduate, feeling he wasn’t believable as a naïve college student, and instead held out for Butch Cassidy — a decision that helped define his career.

In the 1980s, he shifted focus to producing and directing, while continuing to nurture independent film through Sundance. In 2001, he received an honorary Academy Award for his lifetime contributions to cinema.

Even in his later years, Redford remained active. In 2017, he reunited with Jane Fonda in the Netflix film Our Souls at Night, a tender romance between two lonely widowers. At the Venice premiere, Fonda joked, “He’s a great kisser, so it was fun to kiss him in my 20s and to kiss him again in my almost 80s.”

Redford called the film one of his last on-screen appearances, signaling a return to his first love — art — and a step back from the spotlight that had followed him for decades.

Original Source