Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning actor and director whose performances and filmmaking helped define decades of American cinema, died in his sleep Tuesday at his home in Utah, outside Provo, The New York Times reported. He was 89.
Redford was among Hollywood’s leading men for decades, starring in films that ranged from blockbuster adventures to political dramas. His breakthrough came on Broadway in 1963 in Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, and his screen credits include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men. He won two Academy Awards over the course of his career, including an honorary Oscar in 2002, and in 2018 announced The Old Man and the Gun would be his final onscreen role.
Redford’s life and work were also shaped by long-ago illness and recurring private sorrow. At age 11 he contracted polio after swimming in the ocean and was bedridden for weeks. He later described the disease as part of the backdrop of his childhood, recalling the fear that the virus inspired before the widespread use of the Salk vaccine. He said he did not suffer paralysis and was spared use of an iron lung, but the experience left an impression that, he and those who wrote about him said, helped ignite a lifelong love of the outdoors.
After recovering, Redford’s mother took him to Yosemite National Park. He later said the trip was transformative, describing a feeling of wanting to be “in” the landscape rather than merely look at it. He worked two summers there as a teenager and narrated a 2016 documentary about the park. In 2014 he directed one of six short films in a series called Cathedrals of Culture, choosing the Salk Institute for Biological Studies as his subject and citing his personal connection to the era of the polio epidemic.
His early years also included risky behavior and a serious automobile crash. Awarded a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado, he was immersed in campus life and the motor-racing scene; he later recalled driving at high speed on the way to a drag race and surviving what he called a near-fatal crash. He lost his scholarship after the death of his mother, Martha, at age 40, an event he described as devastating and a turning point that led him into heavier drinking for a period.
Redford married Lola Van Wagenen and the couple had four children: Scott, Shauna, James and Amy. Their son Scott died of sudden infant death syndrome at 10 weeks old, a loss Redford said left a scar that never fully healed. Another son, James, who pursued filmmaking and transplant advocacy, died in 2020 at 58 from bile duct cancer. Family statements at the time said his life had been marked by chronic illness, including ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, and two liver transplants in the 1990s; he was survived by his wife and two children. The Redford family said in a statement, "The grief is immeasurable with the loss of a child. Jamie was a loving son, husband and father. His legacy lives on through his children, art, filmmaking and devoted passion to conservation and the environment."
On screen and behind the camera, Redford was known for a mix of charm, restlessness and a commitment to storytelling. His roles in mainstream hits and prestige pictures helped make him a cultural icon. He moved into directing and producing, and his influence extended into film festivals and conservation causes, themes echoed in his later work and public commentary.
Redford’s announcement that 2018’s The Old Man and the Gun would be his final acting role marked the end of a long screen career, though he continued to work in film and environmental projects. Colleagues, collaborators and cultural institutions have noted his contribution to American film and his efforts to support independent filmmaking.
Funeral arrangements and further family statements were not immediately released. Tributes from peers and public figures were expected as news of his death circulated.
Robert Redford’s life, as recounted in interviews and in a 2011 biography, mixed public success with private sorrow: boyhood illness, a formative encounter with wilderness, the pressures of fame, risky youth and the repeated loss of loved ones. Those elements were woven through a career that left a lasting imprint on American cinema and conservation advocacy.