Hollywood legend Robert Redford dies at the age of 89

The movie industry is in mourning. Actor Robert Redford has died. The legendary American performer died early Tuesday morning at his home in Utah, the New York Times reported. He was 89.

Redford died in his sleep and no specific cause was released, according to a statement from Cindi Berger, chief executive of the advertising firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, the newspaper clarified.

As an actor, his major films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President's Men (1976), about the Watergate-era journalistic persecution of President Richard M. Nixon.

Also on the list are The Three Days of the Condor (1975) and The Sting (1973) which earned Redford his first and only Oscar nomination.

Redford was one of Hollywood's favorite leading men for decades, whether in comedies, dramas or thrillers. Even the studios often sold him as a symbol of masculinity.

He branched into directing in his 40s and won an Academy Award for his first effort, Ordinary People (1980), about an upper-middle-class family’s disintegration after a son’s death. Ordinary People won three other Oscars, including for best picture.

His trajectory as a romantic leading man was also largely due to the actresses who accompanied him: Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park (1967), Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were (1973), Meryl Streep in Memories of Africa(1985).

In addition to being one of Hollywood's top stars for years, and his role as a director, he played a key role in the rise of American independent film by co-founding the Sundance Film Festival.

Redford was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2002, a lifetime achievement Golden Lion from the Venice film festival in 2017, and an honorary César in 2019. In 2010, he was also made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur and in 2016 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.