BREAKING: Robert Redford dead at 89

Redford was behind the Sundance Film Festival, founding the Sundance Institute in 1981 and taking over a Utah film festival to become part of that project in 1984. He was an advocate for independent film, and the name Sundance became synonymous with serious, artistic filmmaking.

The festival launched the careers of directors Quentin Tarantino, James Wan, Darren Aronofsky, Nicole Holofcener, David O. Russell, Ryan Coogler, Robert Rodriguez, Chloé Zhao and Ava DuVernay.

Redford starred in many films from the 1960s onward, including Barefoot in the Park, The Way We Were, Out of Africa, and others. He began directing films in 1980 with Ordinary People, which won three Oscars. He also brought The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, and other films to the big screen.

Redford later complained about the commercialism of the Sundance Film Festival, which he felt was not in keeping with its original mission. "I want the ambush marketers — the vodka brands and the gift-bag people and the Paris Hiltons — to go away forever," he said in 2012, per The New York Times. "They have nothing to do with what's going on here."

He also opposed projects that would have grown the area around his Utah home, protesting against a 6-lane highway and getting in the way of a new coal-fired power plant to the point where "the area later became a national monument." He sought to preserve the Provo area and prevent development from moving in.

Locals who were in favor of the projects slammed Redford for his Hollywood stardom, with one hanging a sign on an effigy of Redford reading "I'm a Star. I Made My Money," to say that he didn't care what happened to others who were still seeking prosperity.