Actor, director, Sundance Institute founder, and environmental advocate Robert Redford has died. He was 89 years old. In honor of his amazing life and contributions to film, here are 17 iconic photos that show what an incredible career Robert Redford had:
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Robert first made a splash in Hollywood as a leading man in movies like 1965’s Inside Daisy Clover, where he starred opposite Natalie Wood.
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He also starred in the rom-com Barefoot in the Park with Jane Fonda, with whom he would work several more times in his career. Upon learning of his death, Jane told CNN, “I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way.”
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And, of course, he played the Sundance Kid to Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy in 1969. Has there ever before or since been this much handsomeness in one place?
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Here he is in 1970 filming The Way We Were with the one and only Barbra Streisand. Barbra shared her memories of Robert on Instagram, writing, “Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy. We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie. Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting— and one of the finest actors ever. The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings. He was one of a kind and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.”
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In 1973, he starred in the crime caper The Sting, where he reunited with Paul Newman. Robert’s performance garnered him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination.
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The very next year, he played F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tragic hero Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.
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And here he is in 1975, making aviators look the coolest they ever have in the spy thriller Three Days of the Condor.
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Then, in 1976, he played journalist Bob Woodward in All the President’s Men, a tense dramatization of the Watergate scandal. After reading the book of the same name, Robert co-produced the film adaptation. And, fun fact, this movie popularized the saying “follow the money.”
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Here he is in 1980, directing Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People, which also stars Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton.
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And here he is in 1981 showing up at the Academy Awards, with his then-wife, Lola, where he took home Best Director for Ordinary People.
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After creating the Sundance Institute in 1981, Robert shifted his creative focus to directing films and supporting independent film productions with the Sundance Film Festival. Here he is in 1991, directing Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It.
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And here’s a snapshot of him in 1994 at the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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In 2002, Robert was given an Honorary Award from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he posed for a pic with his friend Barbra.
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And in 2005, he was honored at the Kennedy Center for his contributions to American film. Here he is at the event with his family.
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In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Robert the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor available to civilians in the United States. In a statement on Instagram, the Obama Foundation wrote, “We’re deeply saddened by the passing of Robert Redford – a storyteller, trailblazer, and advocate whose life’s work went far beyond the screen.”
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Here he is in January 2020, attending the Sundance Film Festival.
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And finally, Robert made his last red carpet appearance in 2021, when he attended the Monaco Foundation’s annual awards ceremony, held to honor individuals who make contributions to “planetary health.”
What are your favorite memories of Robert Redford? Tell us what’s on your mind in the comments.