Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning actor and director who died Tuesday morning at age 89, was remembered by neighbors in Tiburon, California, as a gracious presence who loved local trails and the natural world but who bore a persistent sorrow after the 2020 death of his son.
Residents and staff at bayside restaurants described Redford, who lived in the affluent San Francisco Peninsula town for several years with his wife, artist Sibylle Szaggars, as personable and attentive to people around him. A waiter at a Tiburon restaurant told the Daily Mail that Redford would sit weekly at the same table with his wife and friends, speak with staff and ask about their lives, but that "there was an intense sadness to him" following his son's death.
James Redford, one of Robert Redford's four children with his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, died of cancer in October 2020 at age 58. James had long battled primary sclerosing cholangitis, underwent two liver transplants in the 1990s and founded the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness. He directed a 1999 documentary, The Kindness of Strangers, focused on organ donors and recipients.
Neighbors recalled Redford's fondness for hiking and local flora. One acquaintance said Redford "walked the trails all the time and knew the name of every flower and plant," and another said he would often greet people strolling Tiburon's Main Street. Locals said the town's informal privacy norms meant residents typically waved rather than sought autographs or photographs.
Redford and Van Wagenen had four children: Scott, Shauna, James and Amy. Their firstborn, Scott, died of sudden infant death syndrome at two months old after his birth in September 1959. Redford has spoken in past interviews about the lasting effect of that early loss on his life.
The Tiburon house Redford maintained was a split-level cottage built in 1968, about 2,824 square feet on a roughly 0.2-acre lot, set among tall redwood trees and overlooking Keil Cove and Angel Island. The property, tucked on a cul-de-sac on the Tiburon Peninsula, was listed for sale in December 2024 for $4.15 million after Redford had bought it in 2020 for $3.1 million. It later sold for $4.65 million, according to the listing agent.
Redford, who made several films with Bay Area ties, filmed part of the 1972 political drama The Candidate in the region and set and filmed the 1992 thriller Sneakers there. In 2009 he narrated a four-part KQED documentary series, Saving the Bay, about the San Francisco Bay's maritime ecology.
Before leaving the Bay Area last year, locals said Redford told them he wanted to relocate to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in part because of Szaggars's interest in the art community; Szaggars operates the Sibylle Szaggars Redford Fine Art gallery. Redford also owned a Napa Valley estate for many years, which he listed in 2018 and sold in 2019.
Redford's publicist, Cindi Berger, said he died at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah, "the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved." Neighbors in Tiburon said they would miss his steady presence and recalled him as a "class act" who preferred quiet appreciation of community and nature to celebrity displays.
Redford's long career spanned acting, directing and film advocacy; he founded the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, institutions that helped launch independent filmmakers. In Tiburon, neighbors said, he was less a movie star than a regular who enjoyed walks, conversation and the views of the bay.