Robert Redford passes away at 89, leaving behind a remarkable legacy that shaped his life from an early age.
The reins have been hung up by Robert Redford. According to his publicist, the actor, whose on-screen career lasted over 70 years, passed away on September 16 at the age of 89. Redford died in his Utah home in Sundance, a "place he loved, surrounded by those he loved," as per his spokesperson.
Since his debut on television in 1960, the on-screen titan has received a plethora of honors, including three Golden Globes, an Academy Award for directing Ordinary People in 1980, a BAFTA for his leading performance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, and a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
After making his cinematic debut in 1962's War Hunt, Redford would go on to star in other films, including Sneakers, Out of Africa, Jeremiah Johnson, The Candidate, The Hot Rock, Three Days of the Condor, and All the President's Men.
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His roles in Avengers: Endgame, Pete's Dragon, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier will also be well-known to younger fans.
In addition, Redford directed and produced other movies for many years. Redford directed films including A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, and Lions for Lambs in addition to his first feature film, Ordinary People, which was also named Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
But Sundance, which began as a piece of property the actor purchased in Utah in the 1960s to stop it from being built, went on to become one of the actor's most enduring legacies: the Sundance Film Festival.
The Utah-based event, which is still the biggest independent film festival in the US, has hosted the premiere of many films since its founding in 1978.
Redford's off-screen career would be shaped by his passion for the natural world and his determination to protect it. The actor, a lifetime supporter of the environment, created The Redford Center, a nonprofit that uses movies to promote environmental solutions, and was a member of the board of the Natural Recourses Defense Council.
“I realized how important the environment was for me, and how important it was to sustain it, the predominant thinking came from people who saw it in a different way,” in a 2024 interview with Orion, Redford informed one of his seven grandchildren, Conor Schlosser. “They saw the environment as something to destroy so they could build, something they could develop. So very early on, when I realized the importance of the environment, I also realized that I was going to have to play a role in protecting it, and it might not be easy.”
