By Abb Jones
The Reelness

Oscar-winning director and actor Robert Redford, whose matinee idol good looks landed him in a multitude of iconic films, and whose business savvy behind the camera led to his founding of the world-famous Sundance Film Festival, has died at his home in Sundance, Utah at the age of 89.

Following a string of hit acting performances in the 1960s and 70s that included Barefoot in the Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby and All the President’s Men, Redford would begin a career behind the camera, winning two Oscars – for Best Picture and Best Director – in his directorial debut in 1980’s Ordinary People, which starred Timothy Hutton as the emotionally troubled younger son of an upper class American family disintegrating after the tragic boating death of their eldest son. The devastating drama is widely considered one of the best films of its decade.

Redford would later appear back in front of the camera again in other films, more notably, Brubaker, Best Picture Oscar winner Out of Africa, The Natural, A River Runs Through It and 2013’s All Is Lost, before announcing his retirement from acting in August 2018.

Redford was married twice, first to historian, film documentarian and political activist Lola Van Wagenen, from 1958 to 1985, and most recently, in 2009, to longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars. Redford was a lifelong supporter of environmentalism, Native American rights, LGTBQ+ rights and the arts.

Redford is survived by both his former and current wife and daughters Shauna and Amy. His two sons, Scott and James, died respectively in 1959 at age 2.5 months, of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), and October 2020, at age 58, of bile duct cancer.