died September 16, 2025, Sundance, Utah county, Utah) was an American motion-picture actor and director known for his boyish good looks and diversity of screen characterizations. He gained wide fame with his performance opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and thereafter became a highly sought-after leading man, starring in such notable hits as The Way We Were (1973), The Sting (1973), All the President’s Men (1976), and Out of Africa (1985). Redford was also known for his lifelong commitment to environmental and liberal political causes and for founding the Sundance Institute and promoting the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, which he used to advocate for independent filmmaking and mentor young directors.

Redford’s father was a milkman who later became an accountant, and his mother was a homemaker who died when he was in his teens. Growing up in and around Los Angeles, he had early contact with show business, attending schools with the children of actors and producers such as Dore Schary. Redford briefly attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship but dropped out and spent several years drifting and studying art in Europe and the United States. Redford enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and soon after made his Broadway debut in the play Tall Story (1959). Landing roles in several television dramas of the early 1960s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and Route 66, he scored the biggest triumph of his early career with the lead role in Neil Simon’s Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park (1963).

Redford appeared in mostly forgettable films throughout the mid-1960s, the cult favorite The Chase (1966) and the screen adaptation of Barefoot in the Park (1967) being notable exceptions. The turning point in his career came when he starred with Paul Newman in the enormously popular comic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), in which he portrayed the outlaw Sundance Kid. The film was the top-grossing picture of the year, and Redford was soon one of Hollywood’s most popular and bankable stars.

He next appeared in such successful films as Downhill Racer (1969; written by James Salter) and The Candidate (1972). He starred with Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were and reteamed with Newman in The Sting—the two most successful films of 1973—and was ranked as the top American box-office attraction. The Sting won that year’s Academy Award for best picture and earned Redford his only Oscar nomination for acting.

Other Redford films of the 1970s include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Great Gatsby (1974), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), and Three Days of the Condor (1975), but they were overshadowed by All the President’s Men (1976). An account of the downfall of the administration of U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon, the film starred Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, respectively. It garnered Oscar nominations in eight categories and firmly established Redford’s star status.

Redford thereafter became much more selective about his roles and typically went several years between screen appearances. He starred in The Natural (1984), an adaptation of the Bernard Malamud novel about mythical baseball hero Roy Hobbs, which earned four Oscar nominations. Out of Africa (1985), in which he appeared opposite Meryl Streep, won 7 of the 11 Oscars for which it was nominated.