Hollywood has lost one of its greatest icons, as Academy Award-winning actor, director, and producer Robert Redford has passed away at the age of 89. Renowned for his magnetic screen presence in classics such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were, and The Sting, Redford rose to global stardom in the late 1960s and went on to redefine American cinema both in front of and behind the camera.
His publicist, Cindi Berger, CEO of Rogers & Cowan PMK, confirmed Redford’s death to CBS News, stating that he died peacefully on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at his home in Utah’s mountains, surrounded by loved ones. Details about the circumstances of his passing were not disclosed.
Tributes poured in from across the world. Barbra Streisand, his co-star in the 1973 romantic drama The Way We Were, described him as “one of the finest actors ever.” Reflecting on their time together, she wrote: “Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy. We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie.”
Robin Wright, who worked with Redford on The Conspirator (2010), also paid tribute during an interview on CBS Mornings Plus: “He was amazing. I mean, what an icon, and his body of work will live on forever. And to be able to be directed by an actor, that was fantastic, and that’s such a rarity. And he’s an icon that’s going to be greatly missed.”
Even President Trump paused to acknowledge the star’s cultural impact, telling reporters before leaving for the U.K.: “I’ll tell you, Robert Redford was great. He had a series of years that he was — there was nobody better.”
From Leading Man to Cultural Visionary
Redford’s career took off in 1969 with his pairing alongside Paul Newman in George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His blend of rugged charm and understated charisma quickly propelled him into the ranks of Hollywood’s top box office draws throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
His influence extended beyond acting. As founder of the Sundance Institute in 1981, Redford became a pioneer of independent cinema, providing a platform for emerging filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times once called him “a godfather to the American independent film movement.”
Despite his eventual reputation as a Hollywood powerhouse, Redford often recalled how uncertain his early career had been. Speaking to CBS’ Sunday Morning in 2006, he admitted: “I was so much the last choice” for his breakout role as the Sundance Kid, adding that the studio “tried everything to keep me out of the picture because I wasn’t known, compared to Paul [Newman].”
His perseverance paid off, as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid topped box office charts in 1969. Four years later, he reunited with Newman in The Sting, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and earned Redford an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
A Life of Storytelling and Impact
Over the next decade, Redford starred in a string of acclaimed films including The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, The Great Gatsby, Three Days of the Condor, and Brubaker. In 1976, he produced All the President’s Men, a political thriller about the Watergate scandal, which received eight Oscar nominations and cemented his reputation as a filmmaker unafraid to champion socially relevant stories.
In 1980, he stepped behind the camera to direct Ordinary People, a searing family drama that won the Academy Award for Best Picture and earned Redford the Oscar for Best Director. He would go on to direct several more films, including A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, The Horse Whisperer, and The Conspirator.
Even as his acting roles became more selective, Redford’s screen presence remained captivating. His later credits included Out of Africa, All Is Lost, Spy Game, and a surprise role in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame.
The Man Behind the Legend
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr. in Santa Monica, California, on August 18, 1936, he grew up in Van Nuys in a working-class neighborhood. Though originally pursuing art in Europe, his path shifted to acting when he trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Broadway roles and TV appearances in the early 1960s eventually led him to Hollywood, where his career skyrocketed.
Redford’s personal life was marked by both triumph and tragedy. He married historian Lola Van Wagenen in 1958, with whom he had four children, including filmmaker James Redford, who died in 2020. After their divorce in 1995, Redford married artist and environmental activist Sibylle Szaggars in 2009.
His lifetime of contributions earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, with President Obama praising his enduring influence on American culture: “His art and activism continue to shape our nation’s cultural heritage, inspiring millions to laugh, cry, think, and change.”
Legacy
Robert Redford was not only a Hollywood leading man but also a visionary who reshaped cinema and culture through his artistry, activism, and support of independent voices. Reflecting on his life in a 2018 interview with Sunday Morning, Redford quoted T.S. Eliot: “There’s only the trying. The rest is not our business.”
For Redford, the trying — whether on screen, behind the camera, or through Sundance — was his life’s work. And his legacy will continue to inspire generations to come.
