Notable figures paid tribute to Robert Redford shortly after the iconic actor and director’s death was announced on Tuesday.
“Robert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah ― the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” his publicist, Cindi Berger, said in a statement shared with HuffPost.
“He will be missed greatly,” Berger said, adding that “the family requests privacy.”
The “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” actor was 89 at his time of his death. The New York Times was the first to report the news.
Redford spoke about his desire to become an actor in a candid interview with Collider in 2019, telling the publication that “the idea of being an actor was to have a sense of freedom.”
“You were free to be, to act as someone else, if you were paying attention to the people around you,” he shared. “You had a chance to be an artist, because acting is an art form. You had a chance to say, ‘I know this person, I’ve seen this person before and I want to bring that forward.’”
Tributes poured in from those who worked alongside Redford or simply admired his work from afar.
“Thank you Robert Redford, a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices made as an actor/producer/director,” director and actor Ron Howard said in a statement posted to his X account. He also thanked the late director “for launching the Sundance Film Festival, which supercharged America’s Independent Film movement.
Ben Stiller kept his remembrance of Redford short and sweet, simply writing “No actor more iconic,” alongside a photo of the director.
Hillary Clinton paid tribute to both Redford’s work and the activism for which he was also known.
“I always admired Robert Redford, not only for his legendary career as an actor and director but for what came next,” she said. “He championed progressive values like protecting the environment and access to the arts while creating opportunities for new generations of activists and filmmakers. A true American icon.”
Read the tributes below: