Robert Redford — A salute to an American legend and force for good

This week marks the loss of one of the greatest forces for good in America in the past century. Just try to think of any director, actor, or filmmaker of any sort who did more for cinema than Robert Redford, not to mention his influence for good for nature and humanity. Redford passed away yesterday, September 16, 2025, at age 89. In addition to the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival named for one of his most famous roles, Redford left audiences at home and in theaters with 80 performances as one of the top leading actors of his generation, beginning with memorable appearances in classic TV series including Maverick, Perry Mason, Route 66, and The Untouchables.

What genre fans will ever forget his work on two Alfred Hitchcock anthology series, as well as The Twilight Zone episode “Nothing in the Dark” where his boyish good looks were the very surprising face of Death itself? But it wouldn’t be his acting roles that would earn him an Oscar. Despite a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2002, he won his only Academy Award for directing Ordinary People, starring Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore. He was also nominated in the Best Actor category for his performance as the ultimate con man in The Sting as well as Best Director and Best Picture for his movie Quiz Show.

His roster of films include National Film Registry selections and top films of the year both financially and critically, including All the President’s Men, where Redford’s take on real-life reporter Bob Woodward launched generations to become journalists. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made the top 10 list of American Film Institute best Westerns. The Way We Were and Barefoot in the Park made the AFI’s list of best romances. Along with being one of America’s most recognizable leading men, Redford’s movies were beloved by his fans, from the idyllic title role in Jeremiah Johnson to his horse whisperer in both Electric Horseman and The Horse Whisperer, from the innovative warden in Brubaker to six films directed by Sydney Pollack including Out of Africa, to the pop culture classic Sneakers, where Redford led an all-star cast including Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, Dan Aykroyd, and David Strathairn. Sneakers also starred River Phoenix, and is an example of Redford appealing across generations and supporting the work of young actors, which also included directing Timothy Hutton to an Oscar in Ordinary People, and directing future Oscar winners Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It and Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Redford’s popularity never waned. His last blockbuster was as the antagonist politician in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame, going there and back again from his early days playing the young wide-eyed rising star in The Candidate. It’s hard to believe it’s been only seven years since Redford delivered his cinematic goodbye with the great follow-up to his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with the swan song The Old Man and the Gun, which featured an end credits sequence showcasing production photos, film footage, and head shots from Redford’s past.

Like next generation actor Harrison Ford, Redford’s path to Hollywood began with set work, a job that shepherded Redford into the lead role of Neil Simon’s Broadway premiere of Barefoot in the Park, (directed by newcomer Mike Nichols) one of the playwright’s best laugh-out-loud comedies and his longest running play, adapted into a film starring Redford and Jane Fonda. But before that Redford began college with a baseball scholarship, and that would play into the athletic actor starring in one of the most celebrated baseball movies of all time, The Natural. The uniform he wore as Roy Hobbs today hangs on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

It wasn’t only his acting and directing that Redford would be known for as he would find he would have a more humanitarian role to play, becoming synonymous with social consciousness. His All the President’s Men forever memorialized the corruption of the White House during Watergate. After a brief retirement mid-career, Redford became educated in a variety of social platforms, advising U.S. Presidents as an activist on ecology and environmental policy, and becoming a voice for the rights of indigenous peoples. His lasting legacy is a renamed Utah film festival that he grew to become the Sundance Festival and the Sundance Institute, which continues to lead new generations of independent filmmakers.

For your own film festival to celebrate the life of Robert Redford, check out his final film performance in The Old Man and the Gun, reviewed here at borg. For the best of Hollywood entertainment, screen Sneakers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting. If you’re looking for some inspiration, watch All the President’s Men, The Candidate, The Electric Horseman, and Jeremiah Johnson. And if you’re just looking to laugh out loud, don’t miss Barefoot in the Park. Dark Winds, the small screen adaptation of Tony Hillerman and Anne Hillerman’s novels, was executive produced by Redford and further continues his attention to indigenous issues, and is streaming its current season now on AMC+.