Hollywood Veteran Robert Redford Passes Away Aged 89
The Hollywood icon was also known for his talents behind the camera as much as those he displayed in front of them, winning the Academy Award for best director for his film, Ordinary People.
Robert Redford, a veteran Hollywood actor, has passed away at the age of 89, reports said on Tuesday.
Redford was a widely renowned actor, director and producer, has won many prestigious cinematic accolades including, two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe awards, along with a Bafta and a Screen Actors Guild award across his career that spanned over 60 years.
Redford is best known for acting alongside Paul Newman in the western classic, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid released in 1969, a seminal cowboy film that has influenced every other notable work in the genre after its release.
The most prominent example of this was the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, one of the most record breaking and accoladed narrative games ever made, which took a fair bit of visual and thematic inspiration from the film.
Butch Cassidy was also credited with popularising the buddy movie genre in Hollywood. Its DNA can be seen in movies ranging from Men In Black to 21 Jump Street.
Redford is also well known for the celebrated journalistic political thriller, All The Presidents' Men, released in 1976, which was based on the groundbreaking non-fiction book of the same name that detailed how the Washington Post broke the story of the Watergate Scandal. The scandal led to the impeachment process and eventual resignation of Richard Nixon.
Redford was contemporaries with Hollywood acting heavyweights of the seventies, being mentioned in the same breath as Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and Charles Bronson, whom he also acted alongside.
The Hollywood icon was also known for his talents behind the camera as much as those he displayed in front of them, winning the Academy Award for best director for his film, Ordinary People, released in 1980.
His most famous work in recent years was his role as antagonist Alexander Pierce in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame.
Redford was also a pioneer in the independent film space, founding the Sundance Film Festival, which is the US's largest film festival for independent films.
Outside of cinema, Redford is also known for his political activism, advocating for environmentalism, LGBT rights, as well as being a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump's administration, calling it a "monarchy in disguise".
