UTAH — Well known actor and film advocate Robert Redford died Tuesday at 89 years old. Redford passed away “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” according to a statement from his publicist. No cause of death was indicated.
Redford has been praised for starring in several major films, notably “The Candidate,” “All the President’s Men” and “The Way We Were.” His pursuits also led him beyond acting, and he was awarded the best director Oscar for 1980’s best picture winner, “Ordinary People.”
One of his most well-known roles was the wily outlaw he played opposite of his old friend Paul Newman in the box-office hit “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” When Redford created an independent film institute and festival, he drew inspiration from that role for the name.
Redford created the Sundance Film Institute and festival in response to the increasing pressures of Hollywood on new and developing talent. He saw independent film as a way for artists to push themselves creatively. The program was based in Park City, and multiple famous directors were discovered there, such as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Thomas Anderson.
“For me, the word to be underscored is ‘independence,’” Redford told the AP in 2018. “I’ve always believed in that word. That’s what led to me eventually wanting to create a category that supported independent artists who weren’t given a chance to be heard.”…