Hollywood icon and dedicated environmentalist Robert Redford died Tuesday morning at his home in Utah. He was 89.
Known for such classic films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men and The Way We Were, Redford was also the creator of the Sundance Film Festival.
Redford, born in Santa Monica Aug. 18, 1936, was the go-to leading man in 1960s and 1970s. As an actor, he made over 70 films, and he directed nine.
Redford’s career brought him to Vancouver a few times over the years.
Included on his very deep resume are the Hollywood North-shot movies 2005’s An Unfinished Life from director Lasse Hallström and 2012’s The Company You Keep, which Redford both starred in and directed.
The political thriller The Company You Keep, also starred Shia LaBeouf and Susan Sarandon, was filmed in various locations around Vancouver, including UBC and the Hotel Georgia, as well as locations in Langley, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.
The drama An Unfinished Life, which also starred Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman, was filmed mostly in the Kamloops area, with some additional shooting done in Vancouver and Alberta.
No cause of death has been given. A statement from Redford’s publicist, said he died in his sleep at his home “in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly. The family requests privacy.”
Stars rushed to remember Redford in statements and posts.
“I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way,” said Jane Fonda, a co-star of Redford’s most notably in Barefoot in the Park, in a statement on Tuesday.
Meryl Streep, who starred alongside Redford in Out of Africa, said in a statement: “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
Aside from his high-wattage onscreen career that stretched over six decades, Redford was a highly accomplished filmmaker, earning the best director Academy Award in 1980 for the family drama Ordinary People. That film was the first of his nine directorial efforts.
Redford also earned an honorary Oscar prize in 2002, as well as three Golden Globe Awards, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award lifetime achievement honour in 1994. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Redford the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Robert Redford and Paul Newman in a still from the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford passed away at his home in Utah on Sept. 16.
After success on the New York stage and various guest spots on TV shows, Redford’s career went to a whole new level in 1969 when he starred alongside Paul Newman in director George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That high wattage partnership between Newman and Redford was revisited in 1973’s The Sting. Redford’s resume also includes Jeremiah Johnson, The Candidate, The Great Gatsby, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Electric Horseman, The Natural and Out of Africa.
Redford’s leading role as a gentlemanly bank robber in David Lowery’s 2018 character study, The Old Man & the Gun was his last role.
“I just figure that I’ve had a long career that I’m very pleased with. It’s been so long, ever since I was 21. I figure now as I’m getting into my 80s, it’s maybe time to move toward retirement and spend more time with my wife and family,” Redford told The Associated Press in 2018.
He is survived by his wife, Sibylle Szaggars, and two children from a previous marriage to Lola Van Wagenen — Shauna Jean Redford and Amy Hart Redford. Redford and his first wife lost two sons: Scott Anthony Redford, born in 1959, died as an infant from sudden infant death syndrome and David James Redford died of cancer in 2020.
The Sundance Film Festival, named for Redford’s most iconic characters, grew from a cool indie darling to a film industry juggernaut that helped to launch the careers of filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Soderbergh.
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