Robert Redford, 89, Dies: Actor, Oscar-Winning Director, Environmental Advocate, and Sundance Founder

Hollywood is mourning the loss of Robert Redford, a once-in-a-generation talent whose career spanned more than six decades on both sides of the camera. The heartthrob who became an Oscar-winning director, a relentless champion of independent film, and the driving force behind the Sundance Film Festival died at age 89.

Peaceful Passing in Utah

Redford died peacefully in his sleep early Tuesday at his home in the Utah mountains near Provo, according to his publicist, Cindi Berger. No cause of death has been shared. Born on August 18, 1936, he built a legacy few could match—yet his life and work were shaped as much by personal loss as by dazzling success.

Early Struggles and a Singular Believer

As a child, Redford battled polio. By his own account, he was a “bad student” in his teens. After heavy drinking cost him a scholarship at the University of Colorado Boulder, he took a janitor’s job at the city’s landmark restaurant The Sink, a place he never forgot—he even wore a shirt with the restaurant’s logo at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as a quiet nod to where he came from.

Through those years of uncertainty, one person never wavered.

“The one person who stood behind me was my mother,”

he said of Martha Hart, who died at just 40 due to complications from a rare blood disorder. Redford was 18 at the time, and later shared a regret that lingered for decades: not having the chance to say “thank you” before she passed.

Love, Family, and Heartbreak

Three years after his mother’s death, Redford married historian Lola Van Wagenen, whom he credited with helping him find steadier ground. The couple married young and had four children. Their joy was punctured by devastating loss when their firstborn, Scott, died at 2½ months from SIDS.

“As a parent, you tend to blame yourself,”

Redford once said. “That creates a scar that probably never completely heals.”

Decades later, he endured another shattering blow. Their son James “Jamie” Redford—an accomplished filmmaker and environmental advocate—struggled with lifelong health issues and received two liver transplants in 1993. In October 2020, Jamie died at 58 of bile-duct cancer.

“The grief is immeasurable with the loss of a child,”

a representative said at the time. Redford himself acknowledged that, for all the acclaim, the hardest chapters were at home:

“The hardest thing is when your children have problems. There have been so many hits on our family no one knows about.”

Artist, Storyteller, Builder

Despite the personal scars, Redford never stopped creating. He became one of cinema’s most enduring stars, then parlayed that fame into a transformative second act as a director—winning the Academy Award for Ordinary People—and as a builder of institutions. He founded the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, incubating generations of independent filmmakers who might otherwise have struggled to be seen or heard. His activism—particularly on environmental issues—was not an accessory to his fame but a through line, shaping the stories he told and the causes he embraced.

Legacy and Survivors

Redford’s legacy extends far beyond marquee titles and box-office tallies. He reframed what Hollywood stardom could enable—investing prestige and resources in new voices, new visions, and new ways of seeing America. According to reports, he is survived by his wife, his daughters Shauna Schlosser Redford and Amy Redford, and seven grandchildren.

In the end, resilience underpinned everything: the boy who struggled in school, the artist who refused to coast, the father who bore unimaginable losses yet kept his focus on purpose. Robert Redford’s life—on-screen and off—reshaped how stories are told and who gets to tell them. May he rest in peace.