By Anjali Sharma
NEW YORK –Robert Redford, actor, filmmaker, founder of Sundance died peacefully in his sleep early Tuesday morning at his home in Utah, according to his publicist Cindi Berger, as per media reports.
Redford, the legendary actor and filmmaker career spanned more than six decades has passed away at the age of 89, was the brightest stars of Hollywood.
He was a symbol of a particular golden age of Hollywood. His charm, his thoughtful performances, and his choice of projects made him one of the most admired figures in the industry.
From the buddy classic ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ to the political drama ‘All the President’s Men’, his filmography is a map of American cinema’s most important moments.
In 1980, he stepped behind the camera with ‘Ordinary People’, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and earned him the Best Director Oscar.
Redford was born in 1936 in Santa Monica, California Redford’s journey to fame was not instant.
In the late 1950s, he worked steadily in television, appeared in shows like ‘Perry Mason’, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’.
He also built his stage career in New York, where he performed in ‘Tall Story’ and Neil Simon’s ‘Barefoot in the Park’.
Redford made his movie debut in ‘War Hunt’ (1962), where he also met Sydney Pollack, a young actor-turned-director who would become one of his closest collaborators. Their partnership gave cinema gems like ‘The Way We Were’ and the Oscar-winning ‘Out of Africa’.
The turning point came in 1969 with ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’. Paired with Paul Newman, Redford played the Sundance Kid, and the film became the highest-grossing movie of that year.
Their on-screen chemistry was so strong that they reunited for ‘The Sting’ in 1973, another classic that cemented Redford’s superstar status.
Throughout the 1970s, he picked roles that reflected his sharp sense of the times. ‘The Candidate’ (1972) explored politics with rare honesty, while ‘All the President’s Men’ (1976) brought the Watergate scandal to life.
Redford never drifted far from the screen as he got older.
He charmed audiences in ‘A Walk in the Woods’ (2015) and gave a moving performance in ‘The Old Man & the Gun’ (2018), which he had suggested might be his farewell role. Fans were surprised when he made a cameo as Alexander Pierce in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019).
Redford also worked as a producer, most recently the AMC thriller series ‘Dark Winds’.
He founded the Sundance Institute and Film Festival, which became a platform for independent filmmakers around the world. That legacy alone would have been enough to secure his place in history.
Redford’s personal life had both joy and sorrow.
His first wife, historian Lola Van Wagenen, he had four children: Shauna, James, Amy, and Scott, who tragically passed away as an infant.
He later married artist Sibylle Szaggars in 2009, and they remained together until Redford’s death.
