“Hollywood icon Robert Redford has died (Picture: Getty) Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker Robert Redford has died at the age of 89. The Hollywood star and campaigner, most famous for roles in films including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men, died early on Tuesday at his home in Utah.”, — write: metro.co.uk
Hollywood icon Robert Redford has died (Picture: Getty) Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker Robert Redford has died at the age of 89.
The Hollywood star and campaigner, most famous for roles in films including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men, died early on Tuesday at his home in Utah.
The New York Times was the first to report the news, announced in a statement by Cindi Berger, chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK.
She said: ‘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.’
No specific cause of death was given.
Redford was a force in the film industry for decades, as both a performer and director.
One of his most famous roles was opposite Paul Newman (R) in classic Western film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969 (Picture: Getty) 
He also made an impact playing a real-life journalist investigating the Watergate scandal in All the President’s Men (1976) (Picture: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock) He also founded the influential Sundance Film Festival via his Sundance Institute in 1978, and won one competitive Academy Award out of four nominations as a director for Ordinary People.
He received a nomination too for his performance in The Sting as well as nods for acting and directing Quiz Show before being awarded with an honorary Oscar in 2002.
Earlier this year he made a return to acting after a six-year hiatus with an onscreen cameo in psychological thriller TV show Dark Winds, which he also executive produced.
Prior to that he had last been seen as the unscrupulous Alexander Pierce, his Marvel Cinematic Universe role, in Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
Born in August 1936 in California, he attended the University of Colorado before he was kicked out for drinking, later travelling across Europe and studying painting before taking classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Redford first rose to prominence on the stage before breaking through into TV and film (Picture: Herbert Dorfman/Corbis via Getty Images) He quickly started working in theatre and made his Broadway debut in Tall Story in 1959.
Redford’s first breakout theatrical success was in the original cast of Barefoot in the Park in 1963 while he was also busy filming TV roles in the likes of Perry Mason, Dr Kildare, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.
His first movie role saw him reprise his part from Tall Story in the film version in 1960, before he appeared in War Hunt and then war comedy Situation Hopeless… But Not Serious with Alec Guinness, and 1965’s Inside Daisy Clover, which earned him a special Golden Globe for best new star.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- The Sting
- All the President’s Men
- Out of Africa
- Indecent Proposal
- A Bridge Too Far
- The Way We Were
- Inside Daisy Clover
- Lions for Lambs
- Avengers: Endgame
Playing the Sundance Kid a few years later forever cemented Redford’s onscreen persona as the amiable, smart and sometimes sarcastic good guy.
The Sting saw him pair up once more with co-star Paul Newman to repeat their previous box office success, while the 70s also brought him high-profile roles in The Way We Were opposite Barbara Streisand and The Great Gatsby with Mia Farrow and Sam Waterston.
The actor reteamed with Paul Newman for The Sting to recapture their earlier box office magic (Picture: Screen Archives/Getty Images) 
Other major films for him in the 70s included The Way We Were, opposite Barbra Streisand, before he added directing to his CV in 1980 (Picture: Screen Archives/Getty Images) After being one of the most bankable stars of the decade, he made his directorial debut very successfully with Ordinary People but picked and chose carefully which later films he would helm.
He won over Meryl Streep in Out of Africa in 1982 before boosting a young Brad Pitt’s career in A River Runs Through It in 1992 and enjoying one of his biggest-ever successes as suave billionaire John Gage in 1996’s Indecent Proposal, who offered Demi Moore’s Diana and Woody Harrelson’s David $1million for a night in her company.
Robert Redford was one of the last true Hollywood greats still with us.
A charming onscreen presence and a magnanimous friend to many, Redford was also a major presence in Hollywood as a filmmaker and founder, passionately championing independent cinema via Sundance Film Festival.
And it was this role which totally won me over as a teenager watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the first time – I fell hook, line and sinker for Redford’s laidback, sardonic but ultimately-good-guy Kid.
This part went on to define Redford’s career but he never rested on his laurels, moving into directing and taking on different challenges – including the Marvel Cinematic Universe – late into his life.
‘This is the kind of film I would love to have seen as a kid,’ he told the LA Times in 2013, simply, of his new and rather surprising direction towards the biggest blockbuster franchise of the moment.
Redford moved through life and Hollywood by his own rules, later shunning the limelight and living (largely) in retirement.
In tribute to him, I’ll be re-watching Butch Cassidy and some of my other favourites of his this week.
Streep was among the first to pay tribute to her collaborator and friend, saying in s statement: ‘One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.’
Jane Fonda, a longtime friend and collaborator said she can’t stop crying at the news. They first worked together in 1960’s Tall Story and were friends for decades.
In her tribute, Jane said: ‘It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.’
Later notable projects for Redford included the titular part in 1998’s The Horse Whisperer, based on Nicholas Evans’ novel, for which he also directed a young Scarlett Johansson and 2007’s Lions for Lambs with Streep once more and Tom Cruise.
Redford joined the MCU for 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and played his last major part in 2018’s The old Man & the Gun.
In 2008, Fonda reflected that she grew fonder of Redford with each film.
‘He is so handsome and just such a wonderful human being,’ she told People. She added: ‘Every movie I made with him, I developed a crush on him.’
Jane Fonda and Robert Redford’s relationship spanned many films and decades (Picture: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images) 
Fonda said she couldn’t stop crying at the news of his death (Picture: Stefania D’Alessandro/WireImage) Redford once said of his on-screen rapport with Fonda: ‘It’s easy. We’ve done many films over the years so it just worked out that way, that there was not a lot of discussion, we didn’t have to talk about a lot. Things just kind of fell into place between us, and there wasn’t much more to think about.’
Fans were overjoyed when Redford and Fonda reunited in 2017 ffor Netflix’s Our Souls at Night.
Their on-screen chemistry has been a feature of Hollywood films for decades, and outside of work their friendship remained strong until his death.
Meryl Streep was one of Redford’s first former co-stars to pay tribute (Picture: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic) 
Redford also chose to take a role in the MCY, a huge coup for the movie franchise (Picture: AP Photo/Marvel-Disney) The star was first married to Lola Van Wagenen in 1958, with whom he had four children: Scott, Shauna, David and Amy. Scott died of sudden infant death syndrome at two and a half months old in November 1959.
Redford and Van Wagenen were reported to have been living apart for a number of years in 1982 but no divorce was ever publicly announced.
In 2009, Redford married his longtime girlfriend, Sibylle Szaggars, in Hamburg, Germany.
She is a fine artist, whose official Instagram page was last updated with a piece for sale just yesterday afternoon.
With first wife Lola Van Wagenen. with whom he shared four children (Picture: Bret Lundberg/Getty Images) 
The star married his longtime girlfriend Sibylle Szaggars in 2009 (Picture: Getty) He was a longtime activist for environmentalism, Native American and LGBTQ+ rights and the arts, and led the anti-pipeline protest movement against TransCanada Corporation’s Keystone Pipeline.
In 2014, Redford and Pitzer College President Laura Skandera Trombley announced the college’s intention to divest fossil fuel stocks from its endowment, which made it the higher education institution with the largest endowment to make the pledge, having previously launched a sustainability Conservancy in Redford’s name.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
Arrow MORE: Robert Redford’s final onscreen appearance was this scene-stealing secret cameo
Arrow MORE: Uniqlo’s Windproof Blouson may have sold out, but we have found an alternative to see you through the transitional season
Arrow MORE: Mark Ronson says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs meeting left him ‘deeply unnerved’
