Robert Redford, actor and Sundance founder, dies

LOS ANGELES, Sept 16 (TemA) — Robert Redford, the Hollywood leading man who became an Oscar-winning director and the driving force behind the Sundance Institute and festival, died Tuesday at 89, his publicist said.

He died at his home at Sundance in Utah, surrounded by family. No cause was given, said publicist Cindi Berger.

Redford rose in the 1960s and defined the 1970s with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “The Candidate” and “All the President’s Men.” He won best director for 1980’s “Ordinary People.” Later came “Out of Africa” and the near-silent survival film “All Is Lost.”

Through Sundance he championed directors outside the studio system, helping launch a new wave of American independent cinema. “The word to underscore is independence,” he said in 2018.

He took fewer roles as he focused on directing and producing, and signalled retirement after 2018’s “The Old Man and the Gun.”