Robert Redford was a legendary force in Hollywood whose career spanned generations. He was best known for classics such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President’s Men, and Out of Africa.

The Oscar-winning actor passed away aged 89, leaving fans mourning.

The news of his sudden death was shared by the chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, Cindi Berger.

“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. He will be missed greatly,” Berger said in a statement. “The family requests privacy.”

Among those who have sent their condolences was president Donald Trump.

“Robert Redford was great; he had a series of years where there was nobody better,” Trump said Tuesday while leaving the White House for his visit to the UK.

When a reporter informed the president that Redford had passed away in his sleep on Tuesday, Trump replied, “That’s a good way to go, I guess.”

Trump, however, didn’t address the late actor’s previous criticism of him.

In 2015, three years before Trump won the Presidential Election against Hillary Clinton, Redford appeared on Larry King Now, where he said of Trump, “Look he’s got such a big foot in his mouth, I’m not sure you’re going to get it out. But on the other hand, I’m glad he’s in there.”

Robert Redford continued: “I’m glad he’s in there because him being the way he is, and saying what he says the way he says it, I think shakes things up and I think that’s very needed. Because on the other side, it’s so bland, it’s so boring, it’s so empty.”

Trump took his time to respond to Redford’s comments.

“Wow! Such nice words from Robert Redford on my running for President. Thank you, Robert,” Trump said.

Later on, Redford made it clear that his comments didn’t mean he endorsed Trump. On the contrary, in a column for CNN, the Sundance Institute founder wrote that he was all-in for Biden in the November elections.

“Another four years of this would degrade our country beyond repair,” Redford warned.

Redford went on to say that under Trump, the United States had “lost its place as a world leader,” and that at home the president had “found every fault line in America and wrenched them wide open.” He argued that Biden would restore unity, empathy, experience, and intelligence to the White House, adding that the former vice president was “made for this moment,” Huff Post reported at the time.

“Biden leads with his heart. I don’t mean that in a soft and sentimental way,” Redford added. “I’m talking about a fierce compassion ― the kind that fuels him, that drives him to fight against racial and economic injustice, that won’t let him rest while people are struggling.”

However, before Trump was impeached a second time, Redford wrote in The Washington Post that it should be up to voters—not impeachment—to remove him from the White House and the Oval Office.

“It is painfully clear we have a president who degrades everything he touches, a person who does not understand (or care?) that his duty is to defend our democracy,” Redford wrote.

In an NBC op-ed that year, Robert Redford called Donald Trump a threat to US democracy, saying, “We’re up against a crisis I never thought I’d see in my lifetime: a dictator-like attack by President Donald Trump on everything this country stands for.”

While he admitted it was fair to give Trump “a chance” at first, Redford argued that the president had undermined core democratic values like the rule of law and a free press, adding, “Instead of the United States of America, we are now defined as the Divided States of America.”