'One of the lions has passed': Tributes pour in for film legend Robert Redford who has died aged 89

LAST UPDATE | 6 hrs ago

TRIBUTES HAVE POURED in from across Hollywood following the death of legendary American actor and director Robert Redford at the age of 89. 

A publicist confirmed his death in a statement to The New York Times. Cindi Berger of publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK said the film legend died in his sleep at his home in the mountains outside Provo in Utah. 

One of the biggest film stars of the 1970s, Redford was best known for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, he won numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globes and a BAFTA. He went on to produce and direct several feature films, and became synonymous with independent cinema after founding the Sundance Film Festival. 

This afternoon, tributes to Redford have begun to pour in from Los Angeles led Meryl Streep, who starred opposite him in the 1985 romantic drama Out Of Africa and the 2007 war film Lions For Lambs, which Redford also directed.

“One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend,” she said in a statement. 

Fellow actor-activist Jane Fonda, who like Redford made her film debut in 1960′s “Tall Story,” and reunited with him seven years later for “Barefoot in the Park,” mourned “a beautiful person in every way.”

“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying… He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for,” she said.

Barbra Streisand said every day with Redford on the set of “The Way We Were” was “exciting, intense and pure joy,” and hailed “one of the finest actors ever.”

‘A genius has passed’

Actress Marlee Matlin, one of the stars of Oscar-winning film Coda, which premiered at Redford’s Sundance film festival in 2021, wrote on X:

“Our film, Coda, came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance. And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed.”

In a post on Instagram, actress Jamie Lee Curtis shared a photo of Redford, writing: “A LIFE! FAMILY• ART• TRANSFORMATION • ADVOCACY• CREATION• LEGACY. Thank you Robert Redford.”

Director Ron Howard hailed Redford as “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.”

Writer Stephen King said Redford was “part of a new and exciting Hollywood in the 70s and 80s”. 

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Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, the US state when Redford lived and established the festival, wrote: “Decades ago, Robert Redford came to Utah and fell in love with this place.

“He cherished our landscapes and built a legacy that made Utah a home for storytelling and creativity. Through Sundance and his devotion to conservation, he shared Utah with the world. Today we honor his life, his vision, and his lasting contribution to our state.”

Born in 1936, Redford grew up in California. He made his Broadway debut in his early 20s, coming to fame in the 1960s. 

Redford featured as the male lead in countless popular films across the 60s and 70s, including This Property is Condemned with Natalie Wood, Barefoot in the Park with Jane Fonda, The Way We Were with Barbra Streisand. 

Partnership with Paul Newman

In the 1974 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby he played Jay Gatsby, and starred as Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward opposite Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein in All The President’s Men, a 1976 film depicting the Watergate scandal. 

His most famous screen partner was his old friend and fellow activist and practical joker Paul Newman, their films a variation of their warm, teasing relationship off screen.

Redford played the wily outlaw opposite Newman in 1969’s Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, a box-office smash from which Redford’s Sundance Institute and festival got its name.

He also teamed with Newman on 1973’s best picture Oscar winner The Sting, which earned Redford a best-actor nomination as a young con artist in 1930s Chicago.

He branched into directing later on his career. His directorial debut Ordinary People (1980) won him an Academy Award. A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show and The Horse Whisperer are among his better-known works as a director.

More recently he made an appearance in two Avengers’ films: Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014, and Avengers: Endgame in 2019. He played the lead in 2018 film The Old Man & the Gun, which depicted the life of career criminal Forrest Tucker.

Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981, and overtook a struggling Utah film festival in 1984 – renaming it after the institute and creating the Sundance Festival, one of the most prolific and respected in the film world today.

The festival has helped launched the careers of directors including Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh and provided a launchpad for films such as Reservoir Dogs, Sex, Lies And Videotape, The Blair Witch Project and Little Miss Sunshine.

Redford carried on acting throughout his career, with notable roles in The Natural, Out Of Africa and blockbuster Indecent Proposal, in which he starred opposite Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson.

He was also a passionate environmentalist and climate activist and founded The Redford Centre, an environmental non-profit that produces films and provides grants to filmmakers who direct films that touch on climate change and the environment, with his late son James in 2005.

In 2002, Redford received an honorary Oscar, with academy organisers citing him as “actor, director, producer, creator of Sundance, inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere”.

With reporting from Jane Moore and Press Association

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