Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

If you want to take a master class in film, you need only watch the movies of Robert Redford. Redford passed away peacefully on September 16, at the age of 89, at his beloved home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah. He was more than a Hollywood icon. He was a visionary who reshaped American cinema and left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape.

My first remembrance of Redford is the film Barefoot in the Park. Redford played the role of the newly wed young lawyer living in a fifth floor Manhattan apartment when Neil Simon‘s stage play opened on Broadway in 1963. On the stage his co-star was Elizabeth Ashley. But when the play was made into a film in 1967, Redford was paired with Jane Fonda. Fonda and Redford had already been in two films together, 1960’s Tall Story and 1966’s The Chase.

Fonda would go on to star with Redford in two other films, The Electric Horseman in 1979. And Our Souls at Night in 2017. This great on-screen romance was to remain on-screen only. Fonda once joked that she’d been in love with him during most of their collaborations, saying in 2017, “It was fun to kiss him in my 20s and then to kiss him again in my almost-80s”. Upon learning of his passing she said, “It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”

Of course Redford was much more than that of a charming leading man with windswept blond hair, a boyish grin, and a magnetic screen presence. From Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to All the President’s Men, The Sting, and Jeremiah Johnson, he brought depth and nuance to every role. I particularly remember All the President’s Men, which I show to my journalism class. He also played a journalist in Up Close & Personal, a romantic drama that blends ambition, mentorship, and love against the backdrop of television news. Redford plays a seasoned news director mentoring, and later loving, the aspiring journalist played by Michelle Pfeiffer. His performance in All Is Lost—a nearly wordless solo tour de force released in 2013—was a late-career triumph.

Redford’s legacy goes far beyond acting. In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute, creating a haven for independent filmmakers and launching the careers of countless storytellers. The Sundance Film Festival became a beacon for bold, unconventional cinema—a reflection of Redford’s belief that art should challenge, provoke, and inspire.

Off-screen, Redford was a passionate environmentalist, political activist, and philanthropist. He used his platform to advocate for conservation, civil liberties, and artistic freedom. His work earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, a testament to his impact beyond the silver screen.

Redford is survived by his wife, Sibylle Szaggars, and daughters Shauna and Amy. He endured profound personal loss, having lost both sons—Scott as an infant and James to cancer in 2020. Some of that personal pain must have influenced his first film in the role of director, 1980’s Ordinary People.

Ordinary People traces the disintegration of a family following the accidental death of one of their sons and the attempted suicide of the other. Redford fought to make the film in spite of studio concerns it would be too depressing to attract an audience. He also fought the studio to cast Mary Tyler Moore in the lead role of the mother opposite Donald Sutherland. The executives though Moore’s identity as a comedienne would make her unbelievable in the role. The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Redford), Best Adapted Screenplay (Alvin Sargent), and Best Supporting Actor for Timothy Hutton, who played the family’s surviving son.

In his farewell film, The Old Man and the Gun, Redford played a charming outlaw with a twinkle in his eye—a fitting metaphor for a man who defied convention and followed his own path. “I’ve had a long career that I’m very pleased with,” he said in 2018. “It’s maybe time to move toward retirement and spend more time with my wife and family”.

Redford certainly earned that retirement. He leaves behind a legacy that will not be forgotten.

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