Legendary actor Robert Redford, prominent figure in cinema as the Prototypical Leading Man, passes away at 89.
Robert Redford, a leading actor and director, has died at the age of 89. His death was confirmed by Cindi Berger, the chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, who stated that he died in his sleep in Utah.
Born on Aug. 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, Redford began his acting career after discovering his passion at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. He gained early experience on Broadway, then moved in the 1960s from stage to screen with roles in TV series and films, making his film debut in 1962 with "War Hunt." His major breakthrough came in 1967 with "Barefoot in the Park," leading to numerous classic films throughout the 1970s.
Redford's parents were Charles Redford, a milkman who later became an accountant for Standard Oil, and the former Martha Hart. He attended Van Nuys High School, where one of his classmates was child star Natalie Wood. In the early 1950s, the family moved to Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.
Redford's romantic roles and his physical attributes, including his megawatt smile, blue eyes, and strawberry-blonde hair, made him a heartthrob for many. Butch Cassidy and All the President's Men are both on the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest American movies of all time, with Redford starring in both. Other hit movies throughout the 1960s to the 2000s included Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973), All the President's Men (1976), and The Natural (1984).
In the early 1950s, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen, with whom he had four children. One of them, a baby boy named Scott, died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1959. Another son, James, a filmmaker, died in 2020. Their other children are Shauna, a painter, and Amy, an actor. Redford and Van Wagenen divorced in 1985. In 2009, Redford married his longtime companion, Sibylle Szaggars.
Redford turned to directing in mid-career and won an Academy Award for his first film, Ordinary People (1980). He continued to direct civic-minded films reflecting his political interests, such as Lions for Lambs (2007) and The Company You Keep (2012). Late in his career, he earned renewed acclaim for one of his final works, All Is Lost (2013), in which he played a stranded, unnamed and mostly silent yachtsman adrift at sea.
Revenue from the Sundance Mountain Resort, a ski facility near Provo, helped finance the Sundance Institute, which grew into the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent movie festival in the US. Redford's connection with Utah started with a $500 purchase of two acres of land in 1961, which grew to include the Sundance Mountain Resort. The Sundance Film Festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 after 40 years in Utah.
After leaving the University of Colorado, Redford worked in the California oil fields before using his savings to travel to Europe, where he studied art in Paris and Florence. His seven-film collaboration with director Sydney Pollack included Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973) and Three Days of the Condor (1975).
Redford never won an acting Oscar, but he received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2002 for his impact on independent films through his Sundance Film Festival. His legacy as an actor and director will continue to inspire future generations.
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