Robert Redford’s career spanned 60 years and was as varied as his roles. Not only was he one of Hollywood’s most handsome actors in the 1970s, but he was also an Oscar-winning director and a key promoter of independent cinema in the 1980s with the creation of the Sundance Festival.
His death on Tuesday, at the age of 89, confirmed by Cindi Berger, the head of the firm Rogers & Cowan PMK who handled the advertising of the actor and director, saddens Redford’s many fans in emblematic films such as The Sting, “All the Presidents Men,” Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Great Gatsby and The Natural, among many others.
These are the milestones of his personal life, his family, his awards, and his most famous films.
His personal life and family
Born in Santa Monica, California, on August 18, 1936, Redford was the son of Charles Redford Sr., an accountant, and Martha Harta Redford, a housewife.
Redford was twice married, first to Lola Van Wagene, from September 1958 to 1985, from whom he divorced and with whom he had four children: Amy, David James, Shauna, and Scott. In July 2009, the actor married Sibylle Szaggars, with whom he has been married to the present day.
The star studied at the University of Colorado and then studied in New York, which would be definitive for his vocation: at the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
As a child, Redford had polio, which didn’t stop him from practicing baseball at the University of Colorado. He also worked in California’s oil fields to make money before moving to Europe to study painting.
Alongside his career as an actor and director, Redford is remembered for being the founder of Sundance Village, Sundance Institute, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Redford Center, which sponsored underrepresented cinema.
He was also a lifelong environmentalist, as he struggled to preserve nearly 700,000 hectares of nature in Utah, until they were declared a protected site by presidential decree in 1996, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Park, which is twice the size of Yosemite National Park.
Redford and his first wife, Lola, built their home in Utah themselves. Both were enthusiastic about outdoor activities and sports, such as water and snow skiing, horseback riding, tennis, American football, and baseball.
The star was nominated for four Oscar awards, obtaining the best director in 1981 for the film “Ordinary People.” As a performer, he was only nominated once, for best lead actor in 1974 for The Sting. In 2002, he received an honorary Oscar award for his contribution to independent film with the foundation of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Independent Film Festival.
Essential films
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
It was Redford’s first big box office hit, thanks in part to screen chemistry with his co-star, Paul Newman. The film had seven Oscar nominations and won four, including the best screenplay. And he gave the actor the name he would then use to identify the independent film and film festival.
The Sting (1973)
For this film, he received his first Oscar nomination, and it also proved a great box office success, pairing him back with Paul Newman. The Sting won the Oscar for Best Film.
The Great Gatsby (1974)
This failed adaptation of the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald consolidated Redford as one of Hollywood’s most handsome and quoted actors.
All the President’s Men. (1976)
One of the key political thrillers of cinema, based on the real story of journalists in The Washington Post who exposed the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Redford played journalist Bob Woodward.
Ordinary People. (1980)
It was the debut in Redford’s direction, an intense family drama for which he won an Oscar award for best director.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
This film is a curiosity, as it represents Redford’s rare foray into a Marvel superhero film, in which he also plays a villain, which is also a rarity.
Timeline of his life
- 1959: First role on Broadway as one of the college basketball players in the “Tall Story.” The film version premiered in 1960 with Redford repeating his role.
- May 1962: His first accredited film, “War Hunt,” is released.
- 1963: Appears in Neil Simon’s work Barefoot in the Park. He reprises his role in the film in 1967.
- 1969: Starts the film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
- 1973: Starts the movie As We Were.
- 1974: Pays US$450,000 for the cinematic rights of “All the President’s Men” and then produces and stars in the film.
- 1981: Wins the Oscar for Best Director for Ordinary People.
- 1981 – Founds the Sundance Institute near Park City, Utah.
- 1985: Starting the film “Out of Africa.”
- 2002: Receives an honorary Oscar for “Actor, director, producer, creator, creator of Sundance, inspiration for independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere.”
- 2005: Honored by the Kennedy Center.
- 2010: Receives the Knight’s distinction from the Legion of Honor of the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.
- November 22, 2016: Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Barack Obama.
- 2017: Starring in the film “Our Souls at Night.”
- 2018: Starring in the film “The Old Man & the Gun” about bank robber Forrest Tucker.
- October 16, 2020: Your son James dies of cancer.
- September 16, 2025: Dies while sleeping at his home in Utah.
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