Robert Redford, Iconic Star Of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ And ‘The Natural’ Is Dead At 89
Oscar-winning actor, director, and undisputed superstar of the silver screen throughout the past six decades, Robert Redford, died on Tuesday at the age of 89.
First reported by The New York Times, Redford took his last ride at his home outside of Provo, Utah. The announcement was made by his longtime publicist, Cindi Berger, Chairman and CEO of Rogers and Cowan PMK.
“Robert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah–the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly,” Berger said in the statement. “The family requests privacy.”
Born in Santa Monica on Aug. 18, 1936, Charles Robert Redford, Jr., grew up in the poor section of town with his accountant father, homemaker mother, and paternal stepbrother. He attended Van Nuys High School with future Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, and on top of being a jock, he was already beginning to cultivate the bad boy image that would become his trademark as an adult.
“I was always about breaking the rules,” Redford told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “I wanted to be away from Los Angeles because I felt it was going to the dogs. I was just getting more and more anxious about wanting out. I didn’t want to be wherever I was. And I felt a certain suffocation. I felt things were closing in around me, and it made me anxious. I wanted to be free.”
He attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship, but then he left after a year and a half. Reports vary on whether he dropped out voluntarily or if he was expelled for partying too hard on campus and letting his grades slip below passing. Regardless of the reason, this compelled him to travel Europe before returning stateside in New York to study painting at the Pratt Institute and acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
After graduating, Redford made his Broadway debut with the production Tall Story in 1959 as a basketball player named Myers. His breakthrough stage performance came in 1963 when he starred alongside Elizabeth Ashley in Neil Simon’s rom-com play, Barefoot in the Park. While that was happening, his chiseled looks and strong screen presence earned him guest star gigs on classic shows such as Maverick, The Untouchables, Dr. Kildare, Perry Mason, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also played a rather gentlemanly incarnation of the Grim Reaper in the “Nothing in the Dark” episode of Rod Serling’s groundbreaking series, The Twilight Zone.
Coming full circle, two-fold, his big screen debut was in the film adaptation of Tall Story (1960,) reprising his Broadway role, and he would do the same thing for Barefoot in the Park in 1967, which once again served as his breakout role. When he teamed with Paul Newman to rob locomotives in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Robert Redford embedded himself in Hollywood history as the good guy with a mean streak.
Redford went on to dominate the 1970s with one box-office hit after another such as Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), the acclaimed political thriller All The President’s Men (1976), and he received his first (and only) Oscar nomination for acting when he reunited with Paul Newman for the eternally celebrated Chicago caper classic, The Sting (1973).
He made his directorial debut in 1980 with the poignant drama, Ordinary People, starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton. The film was a critical success that won four Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (Alvin Sargent), and the 20-year-old Hutton became the youngest recipient in Academy history for Best Supporting Actor. Redford earned a 2nd Best Director nomination for Quiz Show (1994) at the 67th Academy Awards, but this was also the year that Forrest Gump swept every awards ceremony, leaving all moviegoers within running distance of average intelligence forever puzzled on how that happened.
Along with continuing to direct, Redford maintained a presence onscreen and starred in movies like The Natural (1984), Indecent Proposal (1993), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Spy Game (2001). Most younger viewers recognize him from the MCU as a re-imagined Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and a brief cameo in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Redford was also the founder of the Sundance Institute, which is known for the Sundance Film Festival that promotes independent films and filmmakers, as well as an environmental activist for many decades. Tributes to the film legend have been flooding social media since the announcement, including send-offs from his friends and peers. Out of Africa co-star Meryl Streep issued a brief statement to Variety. “One of the lions has passed,” she said. “Rest in peace, my lovely friend.”
Actress Marlee Matlin, who starred alongside Redford in Coda (2021), paid tribute on her X account: “Our film, CODA. Came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance. And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed. RIP Robert,” her tweet reads.
Actor and director Ronny Howard also went to X to lament the fallen star. “#RIP & thank you [Robert Redford], a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices made as an actor/producer/director & for launching the Sundance Film Festival which supercharged America’s Independent Film movement. Artistic Gamechanger,” Howard wrote.
The official cause of death has not yet been announced, but 89 years is still an amazing run, and slipping away in the comfort of one’s own bed is always the best way to go. Below are the final moments of that Twilight Zone episode, and one of his most underrated performances:
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