Hollywood was stunned to wake up on Tuesday, September 16 to confirmation that Robert Redford, star of All the President’s Men, The Sting, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, has passed away. News of Redford’s death was confirmed to The New York Times who noted that no official cause of death had been confirmed. Cindi Berger of Rogers & Cowan PMK agency announced that Redford died in his sleep while “at his home in Utah.” He was 89.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Charles Robert Redford Jr., like many actors of his era, got his start on television, appearing on western shows like Maverick and The Deputy, plus staples of the era The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. After transitioning into feature film work, his first the 1962 war movie, War Hunt, it didn’t take long for Redford to make a splash in Hollywood. In 1966 he starred alongside Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda in The Chase, which arrived just three years before his breakout role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The 1969 crime movie would go on to win four Academy Awards and be nominated for Best Picture, and years later become the namesake for the Redford-founded Sundance Institute.
Redford’s career was truly just beginning after the arrival of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid though as the years that follow would see him star in Jeremiah Johnson (an adventure film you’ve almost certainly seen in modern memes), The Candidate, and even a feature film adaptation of The Great Gatsby in the title role. The same era however would also become the point when Redford’s career solidified and he starred in the roles that would define him.
After being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Lead Actor in The Sting, Redford’s following projects would take a darker turn. Starting with 1975’s Three Days of the Condor and continuing in 1976’s All the President’s Men, Redford solidified his status as a leading man by proving his range. Those two political thrillers would not only become foundational movies of the decade, but two of Redford’s biggest. Furthermore they would pave the way for Redford’s eventual arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, perhaps a place that younger fans know him from the best.
Dramatic and tense thrillers were just one piece of the larger Redford puzzle however, with the actor blazing new trails for himself in the 1980s by starring in films like The Natural and Out of Africa, plus winning his only Academy Award for directing 1980’s Ordinary People. This decade would also become the point when his Sundance Institute would take over managing the US Film Festival in Park City, Utah, renaming it the Sundance Film Festival. Redford’s commitment to fostering new voices and spotlighting independent filmmakers through the institute and film festival would prove to be one of his biggest lasting legacies. Sundance became a notable springboard for the start of many careers in Hollywood including Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more.
Though Redford would continue to direct and act throughout the 2000s, appearing alongside Brad Pitt in Spy Game and directing Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance, there’s one role that may have been some younger fans’ first exposure to Redford. 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier not only thrust Chris Evans’ WWII era into the modern era, but sent him from a classic war movie to a modern political thriller. At the center of that was Redford as Alexander Pierce, secretary of the World Security Council but secretly leading HYDRA’s infiltration into SHIELD and even wielding The Winter Soldier himself as a weapon. Redford’s landmark roles in Three Days of the Condor and All the President’s Men were key reason he was chosen for the part because of the similar tones across the films, which they shared with The Winter Soldier.
In 2019, five years after his initial appearance, Redford reprised his role for a brief cameo in Avengers: Endgame. His time on screen came during a sequence where the Avengers have traveled back to 2012 and the events of their first movie, revealing how Redford’s character fit into the bigger scope of the MCU and was present before his first actual appearance.
This is a developing story, it will be updated.
