The New York Times reports legendary actor, director and producer Robert Redford passed away at his home in Sundance, Utah, in the early hours of Tuesday, September 16. He was 89 years old. Perhaps best known to younger viewers for playing the villainous HYDRA double agent Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), Redford was an Oscar-winning filmmaker, the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and an environmental activist. He was arguably most famous for starring with Paul Newman in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and 1973’s The Sting, as well as for playing Bob Woodward in 1976’s All the President’s Men.
Born in California on August 18, 1936, Redford rose to fame with the 1963 Broadway play Barefoot in the Park, a role he reprised in the 1967 film version co-starring Jane Fonda. Major roles during his early career also included the widely memed Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), The Great Gatsby (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and A Bridge Too Far (1978). He made his directorial debut with 1980’s Ordinary People, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director, and subsequent directing credits included 1994’s Quiz Show, 1998’s The Horse Whisperer (featuring his future MCU co-star Scarlett Johansson), 2000’s The Legend of Bagger Vance, and 2007’s Lions for Lambs.
Redford was attracted to the role of Pierce because it marked the first time he would portray a villain. Amusingly, he spoiled the twist about the character in an interview conducted a year before the film’s release, while giving this very explanation. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who cast Redford partly because thrillers like Three Days of the Condor had inspired their approach to The Winter Soldier‘s tone, conceded on the audio commentary that hiding the twist had been a challenge, as the highest-billed actor who isn’t playing the hero is usually portraying the main villain instead. Incidentally, Redford’s heroic, all-American image had inspired a similar subversion in another acclaimed comic book movie: The Dark Knight, for which Aaron Eckhart channeled Redford as the film’s fallen hero, Harvey Dent.
Redford’s other later acting credits included The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), Sneakers (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), Spy Game (2001), Charlotte’s Web (2006), All is Lost (2013), Pete’s Dragon (2016), and The Old Man & the Gun (2018). Endgame, which became the highest-grossing film of all time on release, marked his final onscreen appearance, although his voice would be heard in the unreleased 2020 movie Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia, and the 2023 series White House Plumbers, in which he reprised the role of Bob Woodward (albeit uncredited). His final credit was as an executive producer on Dark Winds, which has aired since 2022.
Redford is survived by his second wife, Sibylle Szaggars, whom he married in 2009; two daughters from his first marriage, Shauna and Amy Redford; several grandchildren; and his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen. He was preceded in death by his first child, Scott, who died in infancy in 1959, and his son James Redford, who died of cancer in 2020.
