Hollywood Star Robert Redford Has Died

As a charming rogue, Robert Redford once became a leading Hollywood star. In the comedy "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), he robbed trains and banks alongside Paul Newman. But the actor was not content with the image of a Hollywood heartthrob and became one of the defining actors of his generation, a successful producer, and a supporter of independent cinema. Now, Robert Redford has died at the age of 89 in his adopted home of Utah.

Reactions to the Death of Robert Redford

US President Donald Trump paid tribute to the deceased in front of the media in Washington. "Robert Redford was great," said Trump. For a time, there was "no one better." In Trump's view, Redford made "seven or eight great films": "There was a period when he was the hottest. I thought he was great."

"One of the lions has left us," quoted the management of Hollywood actress Meryl Streep: "Rest in peace, my dear friend." Writer Stephen King wrote: "In the 70s and 80s, he was part of a new and exciting Hollywood. Hard to believe he was 89." Actress Rosie O'Donnell wrote on Instagram: "Oh Hubbell - we will never be the same - good night Bob - what a legacy." She was referring to the romantic film "The Way We Were," in which Redford starred alongside Barbra Streisand - his character in the film is named Hubbell Gardiner.

The last film of the Hollywood icon remains the superhero spectacle "Avengers: Endgame" (2019), in which he was able to showcase his villainous side as Agent Alexander Pierce as a farewell to the dream factory. After that, Redford indeed did not step in front of the camera again. By then, he had already secured the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, which he received in 2017 at the age of 81 at the Venice Film Festival.

Rocky Start for the Future Hollywood Star

However, the rise of the Californian, born on August 18, 1936, to the Hollywood star ranks was rather rocky. Born in Santa Monica as the son of a milkman, Redford grew up in humble circumstances. A sports scholarship granted him access to the University of Colorado. The young Redford hitchhiked through Europe, sold self-painted pictures, and eventually made his way to a New York acting school through detours.

After films like "Barefoot in the Park" with Jane Fonda and the western comedy "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," the handsome man with steel-blue eyes, a chiseled face, and blond hair quickly became a screen idol by the late 1960s. On screen, he shone as a lover, for example with Mia Farrow in "The Great Gatsby" (1974) or alongside Meryl Streep in the award-winning melodrama "Out of Africa" (1985).

Redford as a Supporter of Youth and Committed Activist

Redford kept his private life out of the headlines. At the age of 22, he married the future historian Lola Van Wagenen, and the marriage of the parents of four was dissolved in 1985. Their firstborn son died at the age of five months. Son James, also a filmmaker, succumbed to cancer last October at the age of 58.

Redford celebrated his second wedding in Hamburg. There, in 2009, he tied the knot with his long-time German girlfriend, the painter Sibylle Szaggars. Redford, an avid skier, rider, and hiker, lived for decades far from Hollywood in a country house in the US state of Utah, where he also passed away. In the Rocky Mountains, he founded the "Sundance Institute" in 1980 and the now largest US film festival for independent productions. Every year in January, the independent scene of the world meets at the Sundance Festival. Redford always saw it as his mission to promote young, critical voices.

He was also a committed environmental activist and conservationist. In 1989, at a conference in Denver, he experienced his "wake-up call" when two scientists warned of global warming, Redford told "Rolling Stone" magazine.

As a model liberal, he liked to take a stand on the screen or in the director's chair. As the lead actor in the election satire "The Candidate," he became political as early as 1972, then in the drama "All the President's Men" (1976) together with Dustin Hoffman as "Watergate" sleuths of the "Washington Post," who brought down Richard Nixon. In his dialogue-heavy drama "Lions for Lambs" (2007), Redford addressed incompetence in Washington, uncritical journalism, and television dumbing down.

As an actor, he reached his peak form in the survival drama "All Is Lost" at the age of 77. He plays a sailor who drifts alone on his leaking yacht in the ocean. During filming, he pushed himself to his physical limits. However, the hoped-for Oscar nomination for "All Is Lost" surprisingly did not materialize in 2014.

Honored with only one real Oscar

Redford's only chance to win as an actor was alongside Paul Newman in the caper comedy "The Sting" (1973). In his long career, the star won only one Oscar trophy, in 1981 as the director of "Ordinary People." A consolation prize: in 2002, the film academy honored him with a lifetime achievement honorary Oscar.

According to his own statements, Redford would hardly change anything in his life in retrospect. Is there anything he regrets? "No, I would do it all over again, even the mistakes, they are part of it, that's part of the life process," the actor and director once said in a dpa interview. So he regrets nothing? "Nothing professionally, maybe in private, but I won't tell you that."

(APA/Red)

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