{"id":148091,"date":"2025-09-16T12:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148091\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T12:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:56:09","slug":"robert-redford-actor-director-environmentalist-dead-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148091\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Redford, actor, director, environmentalist, dead at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Robert Redford, the dashing actor and Oscar-winning director who eschewed his status as a Hollywood leading man to champion causes close to his heart, has died, according to his publicist Cindi Berger, Chairman and CEO of Rogers and Cowan PMK.\n <\/p>\n

\n He was 89.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRobert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah\u2013the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly,\u201d Berger said in a statement to CNN. \u201cThe family requests privacy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Known for his starring roles in \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\u201d and \u201cAll the President\u2019s Men,\u201d Redford also directed award-winning films such as \u201cOrdinary People\u201d and \u201cA River Runs Through It.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n His passion for the art of filmmaking led to his creation of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit that supports independent film and theater and is known for its annual Sundance Film Festival.\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford was also a dedicated environmentalist, moving to Utah in 1961 and leading efforts to preserve the natural landscape of the state and the American West.\n <\/p>\n

\"PARK<\/p>\n

\n Redford acted well into his later years, reuniting with Jane Fonda in the 2017 Netflix film \u201cOur Souls at Night.\u201d The following year, he starred in \u201cThe Old Man & the Gun\u201d at age 82, a film he said would be his last \u2013 although he said he would not consider retiring.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTo me, retirement means stopping something or quitting something,\u201d he told CBS Sunday Morning in 2018. \u201cThere\u2019s this life to lead, why not live it as much as you can as long as you can?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In October 2020, Redford voiced his concern about the lack of focus on climate change in the midst of devastating wildfires in the western United States, in an opinion piece he wrote for CNN<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n That same month, Redford\u2019s 58-year-old son<\/a> died from cancer.\n <\/p>\n

\n David James Redford \u2013 the third of four children born to Robert Redford and former wife Lola Van Wagenen \u2013 had followed in his father\u2019s footsteps as an activist, filmmaker and philanthropist.\n <\/p>\n

\n Born in Santa Monica, California, near Los Angeles, in 1936, Redford\u2019s father worked long hours as a milkman and an accountant, later moving the family to a larger home in nearby Van Nuys.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see him much,\u201d Redford recalled of his father, on \u201cInside the Actor\u2019s Studio\u201d in 2005.\n <\/p>\n

\n Because his family couldn\u2019t afford a babysitter, Redford spent hours in the children\u2019s section at the local library where he became fascinated with books on Greek and Roman mythology.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet Redford was hardly a model student.\n <\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI had no patience \u2026 I was not inspired,\u201d Redford recalled. \u201cIt was more interesting to me to mess around and to adventure beyond the parameters that I was growing up in.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Drawn to arts and sports \u2013 and a life outside of sprawling Los Angeles \u2013 Redford earned a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1955. That same year, his mother died.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe was very young, she wasn\u2019t even 40,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford said his mother was \u201calways very supportive (of my career)\u201d \u2014 more so than his dad.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy father came of age during the Depression and he was afraid to take chances \u2026 so he wanted the straight and narrow path for me, which I was just not meant to be on,\u201d he said. \u202f\u201cMy mother, no matter what I did, she was always forgiving and supportive and felt that I could do anything.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen I left and went to Colorado and she died, I realized I never had a chance to thank her.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford soon turned to drinking, lost his scholarship and eventually was asked to leave the university. He worked as a \u201croustabout\u201d for the Standard Oil Company and saved his earnings to continue his art studies in Europe.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201c(I) lived hand to mouth, but that was fine,\u201d Redford said of his time in Europe. \u201cI wanted that adventure. I wanted the experience of seeing what other cultures were like.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When he returned to the US, Redford began studying theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shy and closed off, Redford said he didn\u2019t fit in with the other drama students who were eager to show off their acting skills. After a performance in front of his class with a fellow student that ended in frustration and disaster, Redford said his teacher pulled him aside and encouraged him to stick with acting.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 1959, Redford graduated from the academy and got his first acting role on an episode of \u201cPerry Mason.\u201d His acting career was \u201cuphill from there,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n His big acting break came in 1963, when he starred in Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cBarefoot in the Park\u201d on Broadway \u2013 a role he would later reprise on the big screen with Jane Fonda.\n <\/p>\n

\n Around this time, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen and started a family. His first child, Scott, died from sudden infant death syndrome just a few months after his birth in 1959. Shauna was born in 1960, David in 1962, and Amy in 1970.\n <\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

\n As his acting career was taking off, Redford and his family moved to Utah in 1961 where he bought two acres of land for just $500<\/a> and built a cabin himself.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI discovered how important nature was in my life, and I wanted to be where nature was extreme and where I thought it could maybe be everlasting,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford made a name for himself as a leading man in 1969 when he starred opposite Paul Newman \u2013 already a major star \u2013 in \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.\u201d The Western about a pair of outlaws won four Academy Awards.\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford said he \u201cwill forever be indebted\u201d to Newman, whom he credited with helping him get the role. The two actors had great on-screen chemistry, became lifelong friends and reunited in \u201cThe Sting\u201d in 1973, which won the Academy Award for best picture.\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford starred in a string of hit movies throughout the 1970s: \u201cJeremiah Johnson\u201d; \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d co-starring Barbra Streisand; \u201cThe Great Gatsby\u201d; and with Dustin Hoffman in 1976\u2019s \u201cAll The President\u2019s Men,\u201d about the Watergate scandal.\n <\/p>\n

\n Teaming up with director Sydney Pollack on \u201cJeremiah Johnson,\u201d Redford fought with the studio to get the film made the way he wanted \u2013 a precursor to his career as a director and his support for independent filmmaking.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was a battle from the get-go,\u201d Redford told \u201cInside The Actor\u2019s Studio.\u201d \u201cThey (the studio) said \u2026 \u2018You\u2019ve got $4 million, put it in the bank in Salt Lake City, you can shoot wherever you want, but that\u2019s it. If it goes over, it comes out of your hide.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n With spare dialogue and stunning scenery, the film tells the story of a Mexican War veteran who has left the battlefield to survive as a trapper in the American West.\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n It was released more than three years after it was made because, according to Redford, the studio\u2019s sales chief thought the film was \u201cso unusual\u201d that it wouldn\u2019t find an audience.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cJeremiah Johnson\u201d ended up grossing nearly $45 million. It wasn\u2019t the only time Redford\u2019s passion for the art of filmmaking put him at odds with the studios that funded his work.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe sad thing you have to work against, as a filmmaker, is held opinions about what works or doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Redford said. \u201cSports movies don\u2019t work, political movies don\u2019t work, movies about the press don\u2019t work \u2013 so I\u2019ve done three of them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Sutherland<\/p>\n

\n Redford made his directing debut in 1980 with \u201cOrdinary People,\u201d a drama about an unhappy suburban family which earned the Academy Award for Best Picture and another one for him as best director. He continued starring in hit films such as \u201cThe Natural\u201d in 1984, which tapped into his passion for baseball, and 1993\u2019s \u201cAn Indecent Proposal,\u201d which paired him with a much younger Demi Moore.\n <\/p>\n

\n He later directed the 1993 film \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d which won three Academy Awards, 1994\u2019s \u201cQuiz Show\u201d and \u201cThe Horse Whisperer\u201d in 1998, which he also starred in.\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Ruggedly handsome, Redford was often cast as the romantic leading man in films such as \u201cOut of Africa\u201d in 1985, but he wasn\u2019t always comfortable with the label and feared being typecast.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see myself the way others saw me and I was feeling kind of trapped because I couldn\u2019t go outside the box of \u2026 good-looking leading man,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very flattering, but it was feeling restrictive \u2026 so it took many years to break loose of that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Redford\u2019s passion for the environment and independent filmmaking merged when he founded the Sundance Institute in 1981. \u202fThe nonprofit supports \u201crisk-taking and new voices in American film\u201d as well as theater, and Redford\u2019s Sundance resort in a canyon above Provo, Utah, hosts annual workshops for playwrights and screenwriters.\n <\/p>\n

\n Each year Redford\u2019s institute holds the Sundance Film Festival in Utah \u2013 the largest annual showcase in the United States for independent film. Many young filmmakers got their big breaks at Sundance, including Steven Soderbergh with \u201cSex, Lies, and Videotape\u201d in 1989, Quentin Tarantino with \u201cReservoir Dogs\u201d in 1992 and Ryan Coogler with 2013\u2019s \u201cFruitvale Station.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Actor<\/p>\n

\n Redford\u2019s lifelong impact on the film industry was recognized in 2002 with an honorary Oscar.\n <\/p>\n

\n In his later years, Redford never lost his passion for storytelling through film and remained an outspoken champion of environmental causes.<\/a> He frequently demurred when asked about retiring.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI want to make the most of what I\u2019ve been given,\u201d Redford told CNN\u2019s Christiane Amanpour in 2015. \u201cYou keep pushing yourself forward, you try new things and that\u2019s invigorating.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Robert Redford, the dashing actor and Oscar-winning director who eschewed his status as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-148091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}