Hollywood is grieving the loss of an unmistakable icon. Robert Redford has died at 89 at his home in Utah, and for many who worked with him, the sorrow feels intensely personal.
Redford wasn’t merely a movie star—he embodied the idea of one. With sun-lit hair, blue eyes that could quiet a room, and an easy, mischievous charm, he drew people in wherever he went. From his earliest days in the industry, onlookers reportedly slipped out of offices just to watch him walk by. Audiences adored him, and directors recognized at once that his presence couldn’t be taught.
Among those who cherished him most was Jane Fonda. The Grace and Frankie actor shared through her representative that the news left her in tears. “It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for,” she said.
Their partnership on screen stretched across five decades—from early pairings like Tall Story and Barefoot in the Park to their final collaboration, Our Souls at Night. Project after project, their connection only deepened. On Instagram, Fonda posted a photo from the set of that last film, remembering the pranks that made her double over laughing and the joy of beginning her career opposite him in Barefoot in the Park (“I fell madly in love with him on that one,” she wrote) and ending it—together—on Our Souls at Night.
Fonda also confessed one painful regret: she had planned to visit him in recent months to make sure everything was “right between us,” but she waited too long. “Lesson learned. When people are our age, late 80s, don’t wait,” she wrote, adding a final note to Redford: “Thank you, dearest Bob, for all the pleasure you brought over the years. RIP.”
Her affection for him wasn’t new. Looking back at a Barefoot in the Park publicity still, she once said she developed a crush every time they worked together. In a 2017 interview, she admitted she was “always in love with Robert Redford,” though both were married and nothing happened. She has described first seeing him striding down a hallway as secretaries emerged just to watch—a moment that convinced her he was destined for stardom. Redford returned the admiration, calling Fonda “a force” while promoting Our Souls at Night, praising the rare quality she brought to their work.
Their final film even gave Fonda another chance to fall for him—at least on camera. She joked that the love scene was too short and quipped that she’d been “in bed with him a lot” over the years on film, adding with a smile that she “lives for” scenes with Redford. She once told Ellen DeGeneres that looking into his eyes made her forget her lines, and that in their earlier movies she fell for him every time.
From the youthful spark of Barefoot in the Park in 1967 to their tender reunion at the Venice premiere of Our Souls at Night in 2017, their bond felt like old-fashioned Hollywood magic—made real by two people who genuinely cherished one another. Thanks to Fonda’s candid memories, fans have an even clearer sense of how much Redford meant to her—and how deeply he’ll be missed by the world he illuminated for so long.