The Man Who Made Us Melt

THE CRITIC: Robert Redford was a charismatic actor and a masterful storyteller

“I can’t swim!” Robert Redford uttered many immortal lines over his long film career, but there was something about the revelation, halfway through Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, that stuck in the mind. Up to that point his character — Sundance — had been cool and tough, the gunfighter so famous that his name stops duels before they begin. Now suddenly he was vulnerable and scared and angry, preferring to face the impossible odds of fighting his pursuers than a jump off a waterfall. » | Robert Hutton | Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Robert Redford the Activist: Hollywood Icon Was Lifelong Champion of Environment & Independent Film

Robert Redford, the legendary Oscar-winning director, actor and activist, died at the age of 89 on Tuesday. Redford was a longtime environmental activist who served for five decades as a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Robert Redford: The Incandescently Handsome Star Who Changed Hollywood Forever

A screenshot from this article. | ‘A throwback to the era of Douglas Fairbanks and Tyrone Power, the Hollywood era of gasp-inducingly handsome matinee idols and swoonworthy dreamboats’ … Redford in 1979. Photograph: Cine Text/Allstar/Sportsphoto Ltd
THE GUARDIAN: Robert Redford, who has died at the age of 89, began as a blond bombshell at a time when American cinema favoured grit, then turned into a supremely assured director and unlikely keeper of the indie flame

s the 1960s turned into the 1970s, it wasn’t cool for star actors to be good-looking. The style was more a scuffed, grizzled, bleary, sweaty, paunchy and shlubby realness. The fashion was for leading men like Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Woody Allen. Even a very beautiful man like Paul Newman had a kind of rugged, daylit quality. But Robert Redford was very different. Here was a supremely beautiful movie star who went on to direct, produce and then be the guardian and gatekeeper of commercial-indie US cinema at his Sundance Institute. And he was always an outlier.

When movie audiences thrilled to George Roy Hill’s western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, they knew that in breakout star Redford they had an almost indecently attractive male, however much he might dress it down with buckskins and moustache, playing the devil-may-care outlaw Sundance Kid himself. His sardonic charisma and sexiness shone through. And when he cleaned himself up for other roles, teaming up again with Newman for the jazz age con-men caper The Sting in 1973, the effect was electric. Neatly trimmed and shaved, Robert Redford was just outrageously handsome, incandescently handsome, he was handsomeness on legs. His photograph was in the dictionary next to “handsome”. » | Peter Bradshaw | Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Amant insaisissable et époux éperdu : les deux façettes de Robert Redford

MADAME FIGARO : Amant désirable, gendre ideal, beau à se damner : Robert Redford faisait partie du cercle restreint des acteurs aussi bons que beaux. Ce qui lui a valu des rôles d’amoureux complexes, au romantisme échevelé. En 2025, on pourrait dire toxique. Quel amoureux était-il vraiment, sur scène et dans la vie ?

Quel amoureux était-il ? S’il faut en croire ses rôles, Robert Redford, disparu le 16 septembre à l’âge de 89 ans, a d’abord été l’amant, l’amoureux, le compagnon des moments les plus intenses de la vie, mais sans jamais vraiment se résoudre à une existence totalement cadrée, casée. Rétrospectivement, le plus beau rôle d’amoureux qu’il a tenu est sans doute celui qu’il joue dans Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985) : en interprétant Denys Finch Hutton, grand amour de la romancière Karen Blixen ( Meryl Streep), Redford a donné une incarnation forte à la figure de l’amoureux fuyant, aventurier plutôt que compagnon du quotidien, qui part et se fait attendre, préfère le voyage et l’aventure à la relation établie. Cela, il le fige en plein milieu des années 1980, quand Out of Africa est un succès mondial et que la vie de Karen Blixen devient exemplaire, à la fois dans son abnégation et dans ses choix, même les plus difficiles. En ce sens, Redford a figuré un exemple d’homme dans les années 1980, d’abord intéressé par le déplacement de soi, la recherche personnelle – quitte à faire souffrir l’autre ? » | Par Joseph Ghosn | mardi 16 septembre 2025

Robert Redford, Hollywood actor and director, dies aged 89 | BBC News

Sep 16, 2025 | Hollywood icon Robert Redford has died aged 89.

The retired actor turned director starred in movies like Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and All The President's Men.

Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival, which has taken place annually in Utah, US, since 1978.

Robert Redford's publicist Cindi Berger says the actor died earlier today at his home "at Sundance in the mountains of Utah - the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved."

"He will be missed greatly," Berger says, adding that the family are requesting privacy.


Robert Redford, monstre sacré du cinéma, est mort : L’acteur américain, légende de Hollywood, s’est éteint ce mardi matin à l’âge de 89 ans. »

En images, Robert Redford, l’éternel amoureux »

The Way We Were | Video Montage

Dec 1, 2012 | Credits to BSSpain for most of the photos, and others as well.