
09/18/2025
🏞️ ROBERT REDFORD PASSED AWAY IN THE PLACE HE LOVED — A TRIBUTE TO UTAH DAYS
Robert Redford, legendary actor, director, Sundance founder, and environmental advocate, died on September 16, 2025, at age 89 — at his home in Sundance, Utah, “[the place he loved]”, surrounded by family and in the serenity of mountains he called home.
From early in his career, Redford felt drawn to Utah. In 1961, he and his then-wife Lola Van Wagenen bought land in Provo Canyon. They welcomed their kids there and made the state his refuge from the Hollywood grind.
He once said Utah was real. “It’s not trying to pretend to be something it’s not,” he told Rocky Mountain Magazine.
In 1969 he bought a ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains, later naming it Sundance Mountain Resort. He used it not only to ski and enjoy nature but to build a place for artists — founding the Sundance Institute & Film Festival, which became a global stage for independent film.
He also owned the Horse Whisperer Ranch in southern Utah, making Utah his family home with wife Sibylle Szaggars.
Redford often criticized Hollywood's superficiality, preferring the authenticity of mountain light, clean air, and unspoiled landscapes. He sold parts of his properties later in life, saying sometimes the land becomes “a lot of weight,” but his connection stayed rooted in the Utah soil.
He leaves us with a legacy built not just on film, but on land conservation, on storytelling, on preserving wild spaces — and on choosing a life true to what he loved.