Robert Redford, Iconic Actor And Director, Dead At 89

Legendary actor, director, and ardent environmentalist Robert Redford sadly died on September 16, 2025 (via NBC). He was 89 years old. Via his publicist, Redford died "in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly. The family requests privacy."

Robert Redford left a permanent mark not only in Hollywood with iconic, award-nominated-and-winning turns as an actor (1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1973's "The Sting") and director (1980's "Ordinary People," 1994's "Quiz Show"), but also in the world of environmentalism and philanthropy. Redford won lifetime achievement awards for films such as the Cecil B. DeMille award in 1994, and the Morelia Film Fest's Artistic Excellence Award in 2019, all the while remaining an ardent defender of the environment, the arts, and the merger of the two into new methods of awareness about the necessity of protecting Earth. "This is the only planet we've got," Rolling Stone quoted. "What could be more important than protecting it?"

Not one for mere armchair advocacy, Redford lived up to his active, rugged, face-the-world image. He was directly involved in lobbying for clean energy (per CNN), donated the 860-acre Redford Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve to the wildlife preservation society Utah Open Lands, was an active member of the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council (per Rolling Stone), founded the Redford Center to make activist films, and created the Sundance Film Institute as a launching pad for up-and-coming filmmakers (you know: the famed, annual Sundance Film Festival). 

He's even one of only a handful of civilians awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in this case from President Obama in 2016, as The Salt Lake Tribune recalls. 

Born Charles Robert Redford Jr. in 1936 in Santa Monica, California, Redford grew up in what he called on Men's Journal, "a Spanish-speaking part of Santa Monica, in a crackerbox home with a teeny strip of grass for a backyard." He spent more time daydreaming than anything else, saying he'd "lie in the grass somewhere and stare, and I'd think about being someplace else, living a different life." "I was a failure at everything I tried," he said, per Biography. He got fired from a job at Standard Oil that his father got him. Before that, he got fired from his job at a supermarket. He won a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado and "became the campus drunk and blew out before I could ever get going." He also got in trouble with the police for stealing hubcaps and sneaking into neighbor's pools. His mother passed away at 19.

In the end, Redford decided to move to Paris to pursue art, where he was "humiliated" by his insular upbringing and ignorance of global events. He moved back to New York, got married, and studied at the Pratt Institute for design before switching to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for acting. After doing a couple Broadway shows — he wanted to be a "serious" actor and knew nothing about Hollywood, as he says on Collider — he got work in television that swiftly transitioned to film with 1962's "War Hunt."

In 2018, Redford said that he was more or less retiring from acting with 2018's "The Old Man and The Gun," per the BBC. He seemingly wanted to end on a high note that resonated with the advice he received from renowned actress Ingrid Bergman back in 1963, "do only good work," as The Guardian cites. Aside from his continued environmentalist work, Redford wanted to turn his attention to producing and directing. 

Throughout his life, Redford adored the outdoors, as his self-written inscription on his Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah says, "Nature and creativity obey the same laws, to the same end: life." That land in Utah, which began with a two-acre plot bought for $500 after Redford trekked through the area, per Mother Earth News, epitomized Redford's career and growth. The name it bears, Sundance, is an homage to his breakout role in 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," which also reflects his Sundance Institute for up-and-coming filmmakers that he founded in 1980.

In his personal life, Redford was beset by tragedy numerous times, particularly when it came to his children. His first child Scott, as Biography noted, died at 5 months old of sudden infant death syndrome. In 2020, his son James died after at the age of 58 from liver cancer. Redford is survived by two other children, Shauna and Amy, per Closer Weekly, and his wife Sibylle Szaggars.