Acting royalty and Hollywood legend Robert Redford has died, aged 89.
His management agency, Rogers & Cowan PMK, released a statement today that the actor passed away in his sleep at home.
Redford, best known for his movies Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were and The Sting, spent time in New Zealand in 2015 filming Disney’s Pete’s Dragon.
Redford shot the film across the North Island, with locations including Rotorua’s Redwood Forest, Wellington, Paradise near Glenorchy, Tapanui and Tokoroa.
A source at the time told the Herald the Oscar-winner’s incognito arrival caused quite the stir at the airport terminal.
“I was at the airport collecting my son from the same flight, and I learned this snippet at International Arrivals,” she told the Herald.
“Apparently [he] arrived with his wife and they were whisked away from the airport out of sight in a private car.”
Another source told the Herald that Redford was on a tight schedule, heading straight to Tokoroa from the airport and right into hair and makeup to begin shooting.
At the time, South Waikato Deputy Mayor Jenny Shattock said she and the town were totally shocked by his sudden arrival, as he apparently arrived ahead of schedule.
The filming in Tokoroa was in Hancock Forest, a secluded bush site away from the town centre. Shattock said she was hoping to take a trip to the set since learning of Redford’s arrival.
Redford’s co-stars on the film were Kiwi actor Karl Urban, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom star Bryce Dallas Howard, Yellowstone’s Wes Bentley and 10-year-old Oakes Fegley, who played the title character Pete in the film.
Redford told the Herald in 2016 that New Zealand is a country with “a smile on its face”.
“I would imagine that New Zealand today is the way America was when I was a little kid,” he said.
“Where people bonded together, there was community work and there was joy and there was happiness, and it’s a can-do thing.”
Redford also told Stuff in 2016 that he found solace on our shores and a real sense of nostalgia.
“I grew up in America when it was very different to what it is now – and we’ve lost something,” the actor said.
“I watched my country get more and more cynical, more and more hard-edged, and it lost some of its innocence. Then I looked to Canada and realised Canada had what we used to have.
“Now Canada’s starting to lose it, so then you look to New Zealand and say, ‘Ah, I remember that’s the way we once were. We were friendly, had beautiful land that wasn’t over-developed and beautiful countryside’.”
Redford said that making the film in Aotearoa was a joy and an atmosphere of genuine positivity.
In the statement announcing his death, Rogers & Cowan PMK’s chief executive, Cindi Berger, said that the actor was “at Sundance in the mountains of Utah – the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved”.
“He will be missed greatly,” Berger said, noting that Redford’s family have requested privacy.
Redford’s illustrious career saw him win a Best Director Oscar for his 1980 film Ordinary People, and receive multiple other nominations for his acting, directing and producing. He received an Academy Honorary Award in 2001.
The actor first shot to stardom in 1967, appearing alongside Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park. As well as Butch Cassidy, The Way We Were and The Sting, other notable roles included All the President’s Men, Out of Africa, Indecent Proposal, The Horse Whisperer and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Redford also helped found the Sundance Festival, championing the cause for independent films and arts. He was also a committed campaigner for environmental causes.