By Adrián Oliver,Humphrey Carter
Copyright majorcadailybulletin
Actor Robert Redford, a Hollywood screen legend turned director, producer and influential supporter of independent films through his Sundance Institute, died on Tuesday at the age of 89, The New York Times reported, citing his publicist. He died in his sleep at his home in Provo, Utah, according to a statement by his publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, the New York Times reported. His publicist was not immediately available for comment.
Redford became one of the most iconic faces of Hollywood cinema in recent decades, although what few people know is the American actor’s connection to Mallorca, which served as his home intermittently and where he enjoyed the beautiful beaches of Puerto Alcudia. Redford’s history with the island can be traced back to his youth, when, at the age of 20, with the idea of leading the life of an artist, he decided to travel to Spain to devote himself to the world of painting, as he stated in 2012 when he presented the Sundance Film Festival in Madrid: “I first came here when I was 19.
“I was studying for a degree, I wanted to be an artist, and I came to Spain.” One of his destinations was none other than Mallorca, where he stayed in Palma and Alcudia, pursuing his dream of becoming an artist. However, as he recounts, it was only a temporary stay, and it took about ten years for him to set foot on Mallorcan soil again, in 1965.
It was after filming the film Situación desesperada, pero menos in Munich, where he ended up fed up with his colleagues and the script, that he felt the need for a change of scenery, partly to reconnect with his children, who were his great support during his bad experience in Germany. So, the actor took his family and set off for Mallorca. ‘I hope to arrive in Spain and rent a villa where, with luck, everything will end: the hours of insomnia and pressure, the unnecessary nerves and anxiety,’ he wrote in his diary, as reported by Vanity Fair.
His first stay was in the Palma neighbourhood of Can Pastilla in 1965, a place he knew well as he had visited the town years earlier when he wanted to devote himself to painting. However, their life there was short-lived, as an advertising billboard blocked their view of the sea and that same year they decided to move to Puerto Alcudia where they spent most of their time and the actor was able to devote himself to his two great hobbies: reading and painting: “We stayed in Puerto Alcudia, a small fishing village. It was great, because I wanted to educate my children in contact with other cultures,” he said.
Mallorca was a palce to disconnect and deal with the ennui he was feeling at the time. However, his professional projects in Hollywood that year, specifically The Long Goodbye and The Human Pack, forced him to leave Mallorca, and in 1966, when he had the opportunity to return to Spain, he decided on Malaga, a small house between the Sierra de Mijas and Fuengirola. In any case, the actor never forgot his idyllic life in Alcúdia with his children and his wife Lola van Wagenen. As Redford himself said, ‘it was wonderful as long as I could convince myself that it would last’.
