Robert Redford died early yesterday morning at his home in Utah. He was 89. There's no word on the cause of death. His rep said he was in, quote, "the place he loved surrounded by those he loved."
Redford broke out in the '60s and '70s with movies like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "All the President's Men", "Three Days of the Condor", and "The Sting", which gave him his only Oscar nomination as an actor.
But as a director, he won an Oscar for his first film, "Ordinary People" in 1980.
He went on to direct "The Milagro Beanfield War", "A River Runs Through It", "Quiz Show", "The Horse Whisperer", and "The Legend of Bagger Vance".
And he continued acting, in such classics as "The Natural", "Out of Africa", and "Indecent Proposal".
In 1981, Redford founded the Sundance Institute to champion independent film and new cinematic voices. And in 1984, he started the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
He was also an avid environmentalist. He is survived by his second wife, two daughters, and seven grandchildren. He had two sons, one who died as an infant in 1959, and one who succumbed to cancer in 2020.
Barbra Streisand, who starred with Redford in "The Way We Were", said, quote, "Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting, and one of the finest actors ever . . .
"He was one of a kind and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him."
In 1969, Robert Redford starred with Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".
Their acting chemistry made it a classic western buddy comedy. Here's a scene where they are faced with jumping from a cliff into the river.
Robert Redford's directorial debut was 1980's "Ordinary People". He ended up with the Oscar for Best Director and had some big competition.
If you want to go way back in Robert Redford's career, his first credit on IMDb is an episode on "Maverick" in 1960.
But one of the earliest and most popular that continues in reruns to this day, is when he portrayed Death in a 1962 episode of "The Twilight Zone". Here's the ending of "Nothing in the Dark" when he finally convinces an old woman it's okay to go with him.