Infotainment
Hollywood Icon Robert Redford Dies at 89
LOS ANGELES: Robert Redford, the tousle-haired Hollywood heartthrob who became one of cinema’s most enduring stars before turning to Oscar-winning directing and launching the iconic Sundance Film Festival, passed away on Tuesday at his home in Utah. He was 89.
His publicist at Rogers & Cowan PMK confirmed the news, saying Redford died peacefully in his sleep. No specific cause of death was disclosed.
“For him, living here was of his own choice,” the firm’s chief executive said. “He loved being with his family in the mountains of Utah, and that is where he passed.”
Redford’s breakthrough came in 1969 when he starred opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, cementing his place as a global screen legend. Four years later, he again teamed with Newman in The Sting (1973), earning his only Academy Award nomination for best actor.
He went on to win the Academy Award for best director with his debut film Ordinary People (1980) and later received an honorary Oscar in 2002. “Robert Redford’s work as an actor, director and producer always represents the man himself: the intellectual, the artist, the cowboy,” Barbra Streisand said while presenting him the award.
In 1985, Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival, which grew into the premier platform for independent filmmakers, launching the careers of directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and Jim Jarmusch.
A lifelong environmentalist, Redford was a prominent advocate for preserving Utah’s landscapes and natural resources. He balanced activism with his film career, becoming a symbol of both Hollywood glamour and political conscience.
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Personal life
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, he was the son of an accountant. Redford married historian Lola Van Wagenen in 1958, with whom he had four children; one died in infancy. In 2009, he married German artist Sibylle Szaggars, who survives him.
