Robert Redford, the actor, Oscar-winning director and founder of the Sundance Film Festival, has died aged 89.
Best known for iconic roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Way We Were and All the Presidents' Men, Redford was a leading light of Hollywood for six decades as well as a prominent champion of liberal causes.
After early roles in television, Redford found film success in the late 1960s, acting alongside Jane Fonda in 1967's Barefoot in the Park before attaining leading man status.
He earned his only Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role as a prohibition-era conman in The Sting, and he remained a major star throughout the 70s, featuring in a string of New Hollywood classics.
In 1980, Redford made his directorial debut, helming the family drama Ordinary People, which won four Oscars, including Best Director for himself. Although never prolific, he would go on to direct acclaimed films such as A River Runs Through It and Quiz Show.
Immortalised on screen long ago, Redford's most lasting impact behind the camera will likely be his founding and stewardship of the Sundance Film Festival, which has over the past 40 years become a cradle of independent cinema in the US.
He founded the Sundance Institute, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the discovery and development of independent film artists, before taking over a struggling film festival in Utah three years later and naming it after the institute.
Taking place every January, Sundance has become one of the most high-profile festivals and marketplaces for independent film, helping to launch the careers of Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino among countless others.
In later years, Redford continued to produce and act, featuring in two Marvel films as well as films such as The Old Man & the Gun and All Is Lost.
He died at home in Utah surrounded by family, his publicist said in a statement.
Redford was paid $750,000 (or $6.5m) for his role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and he reportedly earned multi-million dollar pay cheques for A Bridge Too Far ($2m), The Electric Horseman ($3.5m), Indecent Proposal ($4m) and 2001's The Last Castle ($11m).
Over the years, Redford has sold a number of luxury properties across the US, including a wine country estate in Napa Valley for $7.5m in 2018, a Utah horse ranch for $4.9m in 2021, and the Sundance Mountain Resort to private equity in 2020.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, he has a net worth of $200m.
Photo: Robert Redford at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020. (Pic: Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
