Robert Redford dies, aged 89

16 September 2025, 13:33 | Updated: 16 September 2025, 15:44

The Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actor has died at the age of 89.

World-renowned actor Robert Redford has died aged 89, a representative for the actor has confirmed.

In a statement, Robert was revealed to have died at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah – "the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved," earlier today.

"He will be missed greatly," his representative added.

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With a career in Hollywood spanning eight decades, Robert Redford was seen as one of the most talented and versatile stars of his generation.

In tributes paid to the star today (September 16), Robert was remembered as a "lion" of the industry, an "artistic gamechanger" and "terrific actor".

Born in Santa Monica, California on August 18, 1936, to parents Martha Redford and Charles Robert Redford, Redford was of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.

Robert grew up in Los Angeles and after leaving high school in 1954, he travelled and studied art in Europe before returning to the United States to enrol at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

As a young actor he made his Broadway stage debut in Tall Story in 1959, before a role on The Twilight Zone in 1962 marked his move into the small screen – the same year he earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the TV movie, The Voice of Charlie Pont.

But Hollywood beckoned, and soon Robert Redford was acting on the silver screen.

Redford won a Golden Globe for his performance in Inside Daisy Clover (1965), and went on to star opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – a hugely successful movie that made the 32-year-old actor an immediate star.

The 1970s saw him make an even bigger splash; he starred opposite Barbra Steisand in The Way We Were (1973), was nominated for an Oscar for his role opposite Paul Newman in The Sting (1973), and took the lead in the iconic movie, All the President's Men, in 1976.

Robert Redford turned his hand to directing in the 1980, with his debut movie Ordinary People winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Director.

The actor went on to play the lead in Out of Africa (1985) – which won seven Oscars – and Redford then received Best Director and Best Picture nominations in 1995 for Quiz Show.

In recent years, Redford has continued to clean up at the box office, with either acting or directorial roles in a plethora of highly successful films.

These include A River Runs Through It (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), The Horse Whisperer (1998), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), All Is Lost (2013) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and The Old Man & the Gun (2018).

And of course, since 1978 the actor was also involved in his Sundance Institute's Sundance Film Festival, which was originally called the Utah/US Film Festival until it was renamed after Redford's famous film in 1991.

August 2018 saw an 81-year-old Robert Redford announce his retirement from acting – a statement he retracted a month later, saying he "regretted" announcing his retirement because "you never know!"

The star's long career saw him win an Oscar and three nominations, a BAFTA, two Golden Globe Awards and seven nominations, the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He was awarded his second Oscar —for Lifetime Achievement—in 2002 and 2014 saw him named of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.

The legendary actor was married to first wife Lola Van Wagenen from 1958 to 1985 and the pair had four children, Scott, Shauna, David and Amy.

Redford married his second wife and longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars in Hamburg in 2009.

The pair had been together since the mid-1990s and lived together at Robert's home in Sundance, Utah.