Robert Redford, Hollywood screen icon and the founder of the Sundance Film Festival that champions independent cinema, died on Tuesday at the age of 89 in Utah, US.
Redford died at his residence in the mountains near Provo, reported The New York Times.
According to Cindi Berger, chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, the actor and Oscar-winning director died in his sleep. Berger didn't disclose a specific cause.
"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," his representative confirmed to ABC News.
Redford made his feature film debut in an uncredited acting role with 1960's Tall Story. Two years later, he starred in War Hunt in which he played the role of Private Roy Loomis.
In his career spanning 60 years, he starred in films such as Barefoot In The Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President's Men and Ordinary People, and Indecent Proposal.
Redford also had an India connect. Ritesh Batra of The Lunchbox fame directed Redford in his 2017 romance drama Our Souls At Night, opposite his Barefoot in the Park co-star Jane Fonda.
He was only nominated once for best actor Oscar for The Sting in 1973. But Redford's first Oscar win came as a director in 1980 with Ordinary People. As a director, he also made films such as A River Runs Through It and Quiz Show.
When he received an honorary Oscar in 2002, the actor-filmmaker in his speech said, "I spent most of my life just focused on the road ahead, not looking back. But now tonight, I'm seeing in the rearview mirror that there is something I've not thought about much, called history".
An outspoken celebrity as a climate activist, Redford The Redford Center with his late son James in 2005.
There's an interesting story about how the Sundance Film Festival came to be.
Redford put together the financial proceeds of his acting success, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Downhill Racer, and bought a ski area on the east side of Mount Timpanogos northeast of Provo, Utah, called "Timp Haven"
He rechristened it "Sundance" after his Sundance Kid character. He and his former wife Lola, who was from Utah, built a home in the area in 1963. Redford then, in 1978, founded the Sundance Film Festival, which became the country's largest festival for independent films.
In 2018, Redford famously said he would be retiring after making The Old Man & the Gun, which also starred Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter and Tom Waits.
"Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I'll] move towards retirement after this 'cause I've been doing it since I was 21," he said at the time.
Just a month later, Redford said he regretted making a retirement announcement.
"I think it was a mistake to say that I was retiring because you never know. It did feel like it was time, maybe, to concentrate on another category," he said at the premiere of The Old Man & the Gun.
His last screen appearance was a cameo in the Marvel Studios' 2019 juggernaut Avengers: Endgame. As a producer, his last credit was the psychological thriller Dark Winds (2020-2025).
