Robert Redford, Oscar-winning filmmaker and the founder of the massively influential Sundance Institute, is dead.
In a statement to the New York Times, Cindi Berger of Rogers & Cowan PMK, a public relations agency, said the beloved actor and director died in his sleep at his home in Utah. He was 89.
For Ordinary People, his 1980 directorial debut starring Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore, Redford took home the Academy Award for Best Director. The widely acclaimed film, still cited as a personal favorite by a litany of filmmakers to this day, also scored Oscars for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor. The latter went to Timothy Hutton, who was just 20 years old at the time.
Before achieving well-earned Oscars glory as a director, Redford was known as a superstar of the highest order, a leading man’s leading man. In 1969’s antiheroes classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Redford, as the Sundance Kid, turned in one of his most celebrated performances alongside the late Paul Newman.
That character would go on to be immortalized with the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by Redford in 1981. For more than four decades, the Sundance Institute has worked diligently on its stated aim of “fostering new voices in American storytelling and championing independent stories for the screen,” an art-forward mission further exemplified by the Sundance Film Festival.
As an actor, Redford’s filmography was expansive, boasting no shortage of performances widely considered to be all-timers. Barefoot in the Park, Jeremiah Johnson (which spawned an ubiquitous meme), The Candidate, The Way We Were, The Sting, Three Days of the Condor, and All the President’s Men are but a few such examples.
All the President’s Men, specifically, which saw Redford paired with Dustin Hoffman for a forever-relevant tale of political corruption from the Nixon era, stands tall as one of the defining films of the 70s.
As a director, Redford followed up his Ordinary People acclaim with key titles including A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, The Horse Whisperer, and The Legend of Bagger Vance. With several of his directorial projects, Redford also took on lead roles, including in 2012’s The Company You Keep co-starring Shia LaBeouf.
Redford’s art was complemented by years of support for various activist causes, including but not limited to several op-eds criticizing the rise of Trumpism in American politics.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our founder and friend Robert Redford,” a Sundance Institute rep said in a statement shared with Complex on Tuesday. “Bob’s vision of a space and a platform for independent voices launched a movement that, over four decades later, has inspired generations of artists and redefined cinema in the U.S. and around the world. Beyond his enormous contributions to culture at large, we will miss his generosity, clarity of purpose, curiosity, rebellious spirit, and his love for the creative process. We are humbled to be among the stewards of his remarkable legacy, which will continue to guide the Institute in perpetuity.”
RIP to a true, unparalleled titan.