Robert Redford Dies: Hollywood Icon & Sundance Pioneer Was 89
Robert Redford, the acting idol best known for roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men, has died. He was 89.
In a statement, Cindi Berger, chief executive of publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, said Redford died in his sleep early Tuesday morning at his home in Utah.
“Robert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah, the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly. The family requests privacy,” Berger said.
As an actor, Redford’s most well-known roles include some of new Hollywood’s most classic titles, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, and Three Days of the Condor. He won the Academy Award for Best Director in 1980 with his directorial debut Ordinary People.
In 1981, Redford launched the Sundance Institute on a plot of land he purchased years before in the Utah mountains. The first edition served as a lab for 17 independent filmmakers to develop their original projects in the company of such advisors as Sydney Pollack and Waldo Salt. Gregory Nava’s El Norte becomes the first lab-supported film to be produced.
In 1985, the Sundance Institute assumed control of the 1985 U.S. Film Festival, renaming it the Sundance Film Festival, and expanded it into the two-week event we know today. Filmmakers who passed through the Sundance labs or competition strands include Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Paul Thomas Anderson and Kevin Smith.
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