Robert Redford, magnetic Hollywood icon and Sundance founder, dies at 89

Robert Redford, who sailed to stardom with turns in classics like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men," died at 89.

Robert Redford, the actor and director who sailed to Hollywood stardom with turns in classics such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men” and invigorated American independent cinema as the founder of the organization behind the Sundance Film Festival, died Tuesday morning.

He was 89.

Cindi Berger, his publicist, said he died at his home “in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly. The family requests privacy.”

Redford was best known as a go-to leading man of the late 1960s and 1970s, instantly recognizable for his windswept hair and widely beloved for his easy charisma. But he was also an accomplished filmmaker, committed political activist and culture-shaping entrepreneur.

He won the best director Oscar for the family melodrama “Ordinary People” (1980), the first of his nine stints behind the camera.