Hollywood has said goodbye to one of its most cherished legends.

Robert Redford — the golden-haired heartthrob who became an Oscar-winning filmmaker, environmental activist, and the visionary behind the Sundance Film Festival — has passed away at the age of 89.

A Peaceful Farewell

Redford died quietly in his sleep early Tuesday morning at his home in the Utah mountains near Provo, according to the New York Post and his publicist, Cindi Berger. No official cause of death has been disclosed.

Born on August 18, 1936, Redford led a life of immense achievement, yet it was also shaped by deep personal trials and heartbreak.

The Early Struggles

As a boy, Redford fought polio and later described himself as a “bad student” during his teenage years. He lost his scholarship at the University of Colorado in Boulder after turning to heavy drinking. While there, he worked as a janitor at The Sink, the city’s oldest restaurant. Decades later, in 2018, he paid homage to those early years by wearing a shirt with the restaurant’s logo at Sundance.

Throughout his youth, criticism often weighed him down. But there was one person who always had faith in him — his mother, Martha Hart. “The one person who stood behind me was my mother,” he once shared. Tragically, she died at just 40 due to complications from a rare blood disorder. Redford, only 18 at the time, later confessed his greatest regret was never telling her “thank you” before her passing.

Finding Love and Facing Loss

Three years after his mother’s death, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen, the woman he credited with “saving his life.” Together, they had four children. But tragedy struck when their first son, Scott, died at only 2½ months from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). “As a parent, you tend to blame yourself,” Redford admitted. “That creates a scar that probably never completely heals.”