Robert Redford obit: How the ‘sex symbol of the Seventies’ changed Hollywood

Redford, who passed away on September 16 (Tuesday) at the age of 89, had been a major presence in American film for almost 60 years, which is an incredible stretch by any measure. He started out young, moving from theatre into television during the 1960s, and then on Broadway. By the end of the decade, he had become a household name, and the 1970s made him a megastar. He was the top box-office draw for several years in the mid-70s.

He founded the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, which became a launching pad for American independent filmmakers and changed the industry. On top of that, he directed nine feature films himself, and in later years, reinvented his screen presence to play older, complex characters, finishing with The Old Man and the Gun in 2018 before announcing his retirement. Despite all of this, Redford has often been underrated by critics and in film studies.

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Restless beginnings, breakout roles

Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1936 and grew up in Los Angeles. His father worked as a milkman and later as an accountant; his mother, a Texan, loved books and music. Redford later described himself as a distracted student who preferred art and sports to the classroom. He played baseball and tennis seriously, but he was also drawn to painting. After a year at the University of Colorado, he left college, restless and unsure of his direction.

He travelled through Europe, spending time in Paris and Florence with a sketchbook, studying painting and absorbing a broader world. Returning to the United States, he moved to New York and enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He supported himself with odd jobs while taking acting classes and learning stagecraft. Those years of art study and travel influenced his visual sense and his interest in characters who live slightly outside the mainstream.

Redford began acting in television in the late 1950s and early 1960s, appearing in dramas such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and Playhouse 90. He brought an alert, watchful quality to even small roles, and casting directors noticed. He made his Broadway debut in 1963 in Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, playing the earnest young husband opposite Elizabeth Ashley. The play was a hit and ran for more than a year. When Hollywood adapted it for film in 1967, Redford reprised his role, starring with Jane Fonda. The movie showed his charm and precise comic timing and gave him his first taste of wide popularity.

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Through the early 1970s he became one of Hollywood’s most reliable leading men. He starred in Jeremiah Johnson (1972), about a solitary mountain trapper; The Way We Were (1973), a love story opposite Barbra Streisand; and The Sting (1973), a con-artist caper that reunited him with Newman and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. These films showed a range beyond his good looks. Redford could be laconic and inward in one role and sharply funny in the next, and audiences trusted the intelligence behind his performances.

Beyond stardom

Even at the height of his fame, Redford sought more control over the stories he told. He formed Wildwood Enterprises to develop projects that mattered to him. One of those was All the President’s Men (1976), the story of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovering the Watergate scandal. Redford produced the film and played Woodward, insisting on accuracy and a sober, unsensational approach. The film became a landmark political thriller and a model of journalistic drama.

His curiosity led him to directing. In 1980 he made his first film as a director, Ordinary People, a quiet, clear-eyed story of a family dealing with grief and guilt. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Redford. Critics were surprised by the delicacy of his direction and careful attention to behaviour and unspoken feeling.

He continued directing films that combined strong performances with a painter’s eye for landscape and light. A River Runs Through It (1992), based on Norman Maclean’s novella, explored family bonds and the pull of nature. Quiz Show (1994) examined the moral compromises of television. The Horse Whisperer (1998) blended a love of the American West with a sensitive study of trauma and healing. All showed the same patient style and respect for character.

Building Sundance

While acting and directing kept him busy, Redford was also creating a lasting institution. In 1969, he bought a small, struggling ski resort in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains and renamed it Sundance. At first it was simply a retreat, but he soon imagined a place where artists could work away from Hollywood’s pressures. In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute to support independent filmmakers with labs and workshops.

The annual Sundance Film Festival grew out of that vision. By the 1990s, it had become the most important platform for new American independent cinema. Films like Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992), and Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere (2012) all gained their first audiences at Sundance. Redford never tried to control the work; he wanted a space where diverse voices could experiment.

Advocacy and later work

Redford’s love of the outdoors made him a committed environmentalist; he worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups to protect wild lands and promote clean energy. He spoke out against coal plants and unsustainable development, often putting himself at odds with powerful business and political interests. He also supported Native American rights, women’s equality, and LGBTQ causes, using his fame to draw attention to issues that were often ignored. He understood that celebrity could be a tool if used with care and preparation.

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Redford married historian Lola Van Wagenen in 1958. They had four children: Scott, Shauna, David, and Amy. Their first child, Scott, died of sudden infant death syndrome, a loss Redford rarely discussed but which affected him immensely. He and Lola divorced in 1985 after nearly three decades together. In 2009, he married the German artist Sibylle Szaggars, and they remained together until his death. Friends often described him as private and thoughtful, more comfortable in nature than at Hollywood parties. He painted throughout his life and found peace in fly-fishing and long hikes in the Utah mountains.

Even as he grew older, Redford continued to take challenging roles. In All Is Lost (2013), he played a lone sailor struggling to survive after his boat is damaged at sea. The nearly wordless performance was widely praised for its focus and physicality. In The Old Man & the Gun (2018), based on a true story, he portrayed an aging bank robber who can’t resist one more heist, a part that allowed him to reflect lightly on his own career. He also appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and made a brief cameo in Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Redford announced retirement more than once, but he never fully stepped away from storytelling. He worked as a producer on projects such as the television series Dark Winds, which highlighted Native American characters and writers. Redford once said that the open landscapes of the American West taught him about freedom and responsibility; his art and his activism show what he learnt. Redford never stopped looking for what lay beyond the horizon, whether on a mountain trail or through a camera lens. Besides his body of work, he leaves behind a way of thinking about art, nature, and independence that will continue to inspire generations of actors and filmmakers.