By Lucy Needham

Copyright irishmirror

Robert Redford, the big-screen actor turned Oscar-winning director has died at the age of 89. It’s reported he died early Tuesday morning in his sleep at his home in Utah.

The actor, director, producer, and environmentalist is best known for his roles in classic films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President’s Men, and Out of Africa. He won an Oscar for directing Ordinary People in 1980 and received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar in 2002.

Redford’s death was announced in a statement from his publicist, Cindi Berger. She said he died in his sleep but did not share a cause of death at this time.

Redford announced his retirement from acting in 2018, after starring in The Old Man & the Gun before making a cameo appearance in the TV show Dark Winds, on which he worked as an executive producer.

He began his acting career on stage and television in the late 1950s and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made his Broadway debut in the play Tall Story in 1959.

He also appeared in several TV shows, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and Route 66. His breakthrough role was in Neil Simon’s Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park in 1963, which led to his film debut in War Hunt and meteoric success as a leading man in Hollywood.

Redford branched into directing in his 40s, and went on to win an Academy Award for Ordinary People. It also won Redford three other Oscars, including best picture.

He also directed The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), A River Runs Through It (1992) and Quiz Show (1994). Quiz Show, qhich was about a notorious 1950s TV scandal, was nominated for four Oscars.

In 1981, Redford founded the Sundance Institute, which is a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating fresh cinematic voices. He took over a film festival in Utah after it was struggling and renamed it after his institute.

The Sundance Film Festival has become globally recognised. Directors including Quentin Tarantino, James Wan, Darren Aronofsky, Nicole Holofcener, David O. Russell, Ryan Coogler, Robert Rodriguez, Chloé Zhao and Ava DuVernay were all nurtured by Sundance.

Over the years, Redford became frustrated about the festival becoming commercialised. It grew to over 85,000 attendees this year, from just a few hundred in the 1980s.

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.