Robert Redford, Oscar-Winning Actor, Director, and Environmental Advocate, Dies at 89
Robert Redford, the iconic actor and Academy Award-winning director who transcended Hollywood stardom to dedicate his life to storytelling, activism, and the Sundance Film Festival, has died at the age of 89.
His publicist, Cindi Berger, confirmed that Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home in Sundance, Utah, surrounded by family and loved ones. “He will be missed greatly,” Berger said in a statement, requesting privacy for the family.
Redford rose to fame with timeless roles in classics such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men,” later shifting behind the camera to direct acclaimed films including “Ordinary People”—which earned him an Oscar—and “A River Runs Through It.” Beyond the screen, he was celebrated as the founder of the Sundance Film Festival and a tireless advocate for environmental and social causes.
Robert Redford’s Legacy Beyond Hollywood
Redford’s lifelong commitment to the craft of storytelling extended far beyond his acting and directing. He founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to nurturing independent filmmakers and theater artists, best known for launching the world-renowned Sundance Film Festival.
A passionate environmentalist, Redford moved to Utah in 1961, where he spearheaded efforts to protect the state’s landscapes and the natural beauty of the American West.
Even in his later years, Redford remained active on screen. He reunited with Jane Fonda in the 2017 Netflix film “Our Souls at Night” and starred in “The Old Man & the Gun” (2018) at age 82. At the time, he called it his final acting role, though he resisted the idea of ever fully retiring from his craft.
Robert Redford on Life, Family, and Legacy
In a 2018 interview Sunday Morning, Robert Redford shared his personal view on retirement: “To me, retirement means stopping something or quitting something. There’s this life to lead—why not live it as much as you can, as long as you can?”
Two years later, in October 2020, Redford spoke , expressing deep concern about the lack of urgency around climate change while wildfires devastated the western United States.
That same month, tragedy struck when his 58-year-old son, David James Redford, passed away from cancer. David, the third of Redford’s four children with former wife Lola Van Wagenen, had carried forward his father’s passion as a filmmaker, activist, and philanthropist.
A Restless Beginning
Born in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, Redford grew up the son of a hardworking father who juggled jobs as a milkman and accountant before moving the family to a modest home in nearby Van Nuys.
Reflecting on those early years during a 2005 episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, Redford admitted, “I didn’t see him much.”
With no babysitter at home, young Robert spent countless hours in the local library’s children’s section, where he became captivated by books on Greek and Roman mythology. Despite this early love of stories, Redford confessed he was far from the model student.
Early Struggles and the Loss That Shaped Him
“I had no patience … I was not inspired,” Robert Redford once recalled of his school years. “It was more interesting to me to mess around and to adventure beyond the parameters that I was growing up in.”
Despite his restlessness, Redford found purpose in both arts and sports. In 1955, his athletic talent earned him a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado at Boulder. That same year, tragedy struck when his mother passed away.
“She was very young, she wasn’t even 40,” he said.
Redford often described his mother as the most supportive influence in his early life, more so than his father.
“My father came of age during the Depression and he was afraid to take chances … so he wanted the straight and narrow path for me, which I was just not meant to be on,” Redford explained. “My mother, no matter what I did, she was always forgiving and supportive and felt that I could do anything.
When I left and went to Colorado and she died, I realized I never had a chance to thank her.”
From Struggles to Stardom
After losing his scholarship at the University of Colorado, Robert Redford drifted into drinking and was eventually asked to leave school. Determined to pursue his passion for the arts, he worked as a roustabout for Standard Oil and saved enough money to study painting in Europe.
“(I) lived hand to mouth, but that was fine,” Redford later said of those years abroad. “I wanted that adventure. I wanted the experience of seeing what other cultures were like.”
When he returned to the United States, Redford enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Though shy and reserved at first, a perceptive teacher encouraged him to stick with acting after seeing his raw potential. By 1959, Redford landed his first role on Perry Mason and never looked back.
Breakthrough Roles and Family Life
Redford’s career took off in 1963 when he starred in Neil Simon’s Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park, a role he would later reprise on film alongside Jane Fonda. Around this time, he married historian Lola Van Wagenen. The couple endured tragedy when their first child, Scott, died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1959, but went on to raise three more children: Shauna (1960), David (1962), and Amy (1970).
By 1961, Redford had purchased land in Utah for just $500, where he built a cabin and began what would become a lifelong bond with nature. “I discovered how important nature was in my life, and I wanted to be where nature was extreme and everlasting,” he told CNN.
His breakout film role came in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid opposite Paul Newman. The movie’s success catapulted Redford into superstardom and cemented his enduring friendship with Newman, with whom he would reunite in 1973’s The Sting, an Oscar-winning classic.
Reluctant Hollywood Leading Man
Throughout the 1970s, Redford starred in some of the decade’s most defining films, including Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), and All the President’s Men (1976). His rugged looks and natural charisma made him a box office draw, but Redford admitted he often felt “trapped” by the label of romantic leading man.
“I didn’t see myself the way others saw me,” he once reflected. “It was flattering, but restrictive … so it took many years to break loose of that.”
The Director Emerges
Redford’s creative battles with studios laid the groundwork for his directing career. He made his directorial debut in 1980 with Ordinary People, a drama about grief and family dysfunction that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards and earned him the Oscar for Best Director.
He went on to direct critically acclaimed films such as A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), and The Horse Whisperer (1998), while continuing to act in hits like The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), and Indecent Proposal (1993).
The Birth of Sundance
In 1981, Redford founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting independent voices in film and theater. From this came the world-renowned Sundance Film Festival, which launched the careers of countless filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies, and Videotape), and Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station).
His dual legacies as a champion of independent cinema and as an environmental activist came together in Utah, where he built the Sundance community that still thrives today.
A Lasting Legacy
By the 2000s, Robert Redford had become more than just a movie star—he was a cultural icon. In 2002, he received an honorary Oscar recognizing his contributions to film. Even in his later years, he refused to slow down, starring in The Old Man & the Gun at age 82 and continuing his outspoken advocacy for climate change awareness.
“I want to make the most of what I’ve been given,” he told in 2015. “You keep pushing yourself forward, you try new things, and that’s invigorating.”
