Robert Redford, famed actor and director, dead at 89

Actor turned director and activist Robert Redford, one of Hollywood's most well-known leading men and an influential supporter of independent film, has died at the age of 89.

His publicist Cindi Berger confirmed the death to CBC News on Tuesday, saying he passed away in his home in Sundance in the mountains of Utah, "the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved."

Redford made hearts beat faster in romantic roles such as Out of Africa, got political in The Candidate and All the President's Men and skewered his golden-boy image in roles like the alcoholic ex-rodeo champ in The Electric Horseman and middle-aged millionaire who offers to buy sex in Indecent Proposal.

He used the millions he made to launch the Sundance Institute and Festival in the 1970s, promoting independent filmmaking long before small and quirky were fashionable.

A representative for the Sundance Institute expressed their sadness at the loss of their "founder and friend."

"Bob's vision of a space and a platform for independent voices launched a movement that, over four decades later, has inspired generations of artists and redefined cinema in the U.S. and around the world," the statement read. "Beyond his enormous contributions to culture at large, we will miss his generosity, clarity of purpose, curiosity, rebellious spirit, and his love for the creative process."

He never won the best actor Oscar, but Redford's first outing as a director — the 1980 family drama Ordinary People — won Oscars for best picture and best director.

Redford remained best known for the two early movies he made with Paul Newman: the 1969 western caper Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting (1973), both of which became classics.

Redford rose to prominence for his role as the Sundance Kid, but never became comfortable with his celebrity status, or the male starlet role that followed him into his 60s.

"People have been so busy relating to how I look, it's a miracle I didn't become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm. It's not easy being Robert Redford," he once told New York magazine.

Michael Feeny Callan, Redford's friend and biographer, told CBC News Network that Redford unveiled himself one layer at a time — which is why documenting his life took 15 years.

WATCH | Robert Redford's biographer on the famed actor's work and effortless charisma:

Hear Robert Redford's biographer Michael Feeney Callan talk to CBC's Heather Hiscox about the actor's art — and the legacy of a man who was always on the move and 'poetic by nature.'

"He said very early on, 'We'll do this in two bits. There will be the celebrity of me, and there'll be the me me," Feeny Callan said.

"He was very good at compartmentalizing his life."

Intensely private, he bought land in remote Utah in the early 1970s as his family retreat and enjoyed a level of privacy unknown to most superstars. He was married for more than 25 years to his first wife, before their divorce in 1985. In 2009, he married for a second time, to German artist and longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars.

Redford used his star status to seek out challenging film projects and to quietly champion environmental causes such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation.

A dedicated climate activist, Redford founded the Redford Center in 2005 with the help of his son James Redford, which aims to use films to motivate climate action. The actor-director also wrote for CNN in 2020 amid wildfires in California about how he felt the climate crisis wasn't being taken seriously enough.

In 2013, Redford also derided the Keystone XL pipeline in a video aimed at the White House, prompting former Alberta premier Alison Redford to criticize the anti-pipeline campaigns.

WATCH | Redford vs. Redford over Keystone XL:

Robert Redford spoke out against the Keystone XL pipeline in a recent video, prompting Premier Redford to say celebrities lack credibility.

In 2020, Redford endorsed then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and called his Republican opponent Donald Trump divisive. He called Trump's administration "dictator-like" in another op-ed for NBC in 2019.

Tributes to the actor-director poured out on Tuesday.

Meryl Streep, who starred alongside Redford in Out Of Africa in 1985, paid tribute to her friend in a statement to CBC News.

"One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend," she said.

Actress Marlee Matlin credited Sundance in part for the popularity of CODA, the 2021 movie she starred in. "A genius has passed," she said on X.

And Ron Howard, filmmaker co-founder of Imagine Entertainment, called him "a tremendously influential cultural figure" on X, especially for his championing of independent cinema.

Born in the Los Angeles beach city of Santa Monica on Aug. 18, 1937, to what he described as a "lower working class family," Redford landed a college baseball scholarship but lost it after spending too much time partying.

Deciding he wanted to be an artist, Redford moved to Italy and later New York to study painting. He enrolled in drama school to try his hand at theatrical set design. Feeny Callan said Redford was initially skeptical of a career in front of the camera.

"The idea of being an actor had never been in his game plan," Feeny Callan said. "By osmosis, celebrity happened to him."

But he was persuaded to take to the stage and by 1959 he was a full time performer on Broadway and later found work on television.

Redford made his movie debut in 1962 in a low budget film called Warhunt, but first won attention in Barefoot in the Park, opposite Jane Fonda.

From the 1980s he devoted more time to producing films and to the establishment of the Sundance Institute — a year-round workshop for aspiring filmmakers — and the Sundance Festival, which has become one of the most influential independent film showcases in the world.

In 2001, he won an honorary, or lifetime achievement, Oscar.

Redford remained active in films as an actor and producer right up to the end of his life. In 2017, he reunited with Fonda for the Netflix drama Our Souls at Night, a romance between a widow and widower.

"I live for sex scenes with him," Fonda told journalists when the film premiered in Venice. "He's a great kisser so it was fun to kiss him in my 20s and to kiss him again in my almost 80s."

Fonda said Tuesday the news of Redford's passing was extremely emotional. "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," Fonda said in a statement to CBC News.