Robert Redford

Info

Full Name: Charles Robert Redford Jr.
Date of birth: August 18, 1936
Location: Santa Monica, California
Country: USA
Height: 1,79m
Died at: 89 years old (September 16, 2025)

Robert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025. Their last recorded film was in 2019, and their first in 1961. They were active for 58 years, appearing in 44 films that averaged a rating of 7.0/10.

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Biography

On 16 September 2025, cinema lost one of its last giants. Robert Redford died in his sleep, aged 89, at his home in the mountains of Utah, in the very refuge that gave its name to his most enduring creation: Sundance. A legendary actor, an Oscar winning director and a tireless activist, he was far more than Hollywood's definitive golden boy. He changed the rules of independent film forever.

The golden boy who wanted to paint

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born in Santa Monica, California, on 18 August 1936 and grew up in Van Nuys. He won a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, lost it through heavy drinking and ended up roaming Europe dreaming of becoming a painter. Back in New York he studied at the Pratt Institute and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the doorway that led him to Broadway and television.

His first big hit was the comedy 'Barefoot in the Park' (1967), opposite Jane Fonda, but the star was truly born with the Sundance Kid in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969), where he and Paul Newman formed one of the mythical pairings in film history.

The superstar of the seventies

The following decade belonged to him. He strung together 'The Candidate' and 'Jeremiah Johnson' (1972), reunited with Newman in 'The Sting' (1973), the box office smash that earned him his only acting Oscar nomination, romanced Barbra Streisand in 'The Way We Were' (1973) and played the title role in 'The Great Gatsby' (1974), as well as leading the thriller 'Three Days of the Condor' (1975).

In 'All the President's Men' (1976) he and Dustin Hoffman played the reporters who uncovered Watergate, a project Redford himself drove as producer. In the eighties he starred in 'The Natural' (1984) and shared his most cherished screen romance with Meryl Streep in 'Out of Africa' (1985), directed by Sydney Pollack, his director of choice.

An Oscar at the first attempt as director

In 1980 he surprised the world by stepping behind the camera. His debut, 'Ordinary People', a spare, devastating family drama, won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. He went on to make films as fine as 'A River Runs Through It' (1992), which launched Brad Pitt, 'Quiz Show' (1994), 'The Horse Whisperer' (1998), which he also starred in, 'Lions for Lambs' (2007) and 'The Conspirator' (2010). The Academy gave him an honorary Oscar in 2002.

Nor did he slow down as an actor: he was the tempting millionaire of 'Indecent Proposal' (1993) and the veteran CIA officer of 'Spy Game' (2001), once again alongside Brad Pitt.

Sundance, the independent film revolution

Even so, his deepest legacy lies beyond his filmography. With his earnings from Butch Cassidy he bought land in the Utah mountains, named it Sundance and founded the Sundance Institute there in 1981. Its festival grew into the world's foremost showcase for independent cinema and the launch pad for filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino.

A committed environmentalist decades before it was fashionable, he served as a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council and in 2016 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. He never stopped acting: he astonished audiences almost without dialogue in 'All Is Lost' (2013), crossed into blockbusters as the villain Alexander Pierce in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (2014) and 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019), reunited with Jane Fonda in 'Our Souls at Night' (2017) and bowed out with 'The Old Man and the Gun' (2018), opposite Casey Affleck.

A life also marked by loss

Behind the golden image there was plenty of pain. In 1958 he married the historian Lola Van Wagenen, with whom he had four children: the first, Scott, died at barely two and a half months, and James, a filmmaker and activist, died of cancer in 2020. He is survived by his daughters Shauna and Amy, the latter a film director. After divorcing in the eighties, in 2009 he married the German artist Sibylle Szaggars, his companion to the end.

Redford left as he had lived his final years: quietly, in his Utah mountains, far from the Hollywood he had helped reinvent. The golden boy of American cinema will also be remembered, perhaps above all, as the father of modern independent film.