Actor Robert Redford with his children David “Jamie” Redford (Engl’85) and Shauna Redford Schlosser (Art’85) after receiving an honorary degree from CU Boulder in 1987. Credit: J. Martin Natvig
Robert Redford, legendary actor, filmmaker and proud University of Colorado Boulder alumnus, died on Sept. 16, 2025, in Sundance, Utah. He was 89 and passed away from natural causes.
Redford attended CU Boulder from fall 1954 to spring 1956, leaving a lasting impression on the university. Though his time on campus was brief, his impact on the film industry and independent cinema remains immeasurable.
“Redford was so good-looking in the ’70s that people often missed the fact that he was actually a really good actor with a nuanced style,” said Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz, professor and former chair of the Department of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts. “You know, all his co-stars fell in love with him, right?”
While Redford was widely admired for his charisma, professors in CU’s Cinema Studies department emphasize that his greatest legacy extends far beyond his on-screen presence.
Erin Espelie, department chair and associate professor of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts, noted that Redford’s dedication as both an artist and an innovator reshaped the film world.
“His seriousness in terms of dedication and honing his craft as an actor, and then his shift into directing and the ways in which he approached his filmmaking, and of course, thinking about the industry as a whole and the way it was affected by his creation of an independent film festival, Sundance, that ultimately really changed the shape of the film industry overall,” Espelie said.
In 1981, Redford founded the Sundance Institute to support independent filmmakers. Four years later, the Sundance Film Festival was born, offering a global platform for storytellers working outside of mainstream Hollywood.
“Being an actor and being a star is easy,” Acevedo-Muñoz said. “What Robert Redford did that lasts today was to foment independent filmmaking and to open doors for people who didn’t have the stature or the good looks that he had … the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival are only the most visible part of that.”
Starting in 2027, the Sundance Film Festival will move from Park City, Utah, to Boulder, Colorado. This decision was made because Boulder’s infrastructure offers strong venues, walkability and a centralized layout that suits the festival’s expansion.
“One of the greatest gifts that CU has been given by Redford is the relocation of the Sundance Film Festival,” Acevedo-Muñoz said. “Boulder will be able to raise his creation in a new home, and this will be a great way to honor Redford’s legacy.”
“Robert Redford specifically fostered groups of people who had historically been marginalized by the Hollywood industry, which is run to this day, for the most part, by old white men,” Acevedo-Muñoz said. “He opened the door to women, queer people of color. And that’s a contribution that cannot be measured.”
Redford’s connection to CU Boulder also continued through his family; two of his children, Shauna Redford and David Redford, graduated from the university in 1985. His deep love for Colorado and the Mountain West never faded.
“He was here for such a short time, but he clearly fell in love with the Mountain West,” Espelie said.
During his time at CU, Redford was known as a free spirit, working as a janitor at The Sink and earning a reputation as a lively student. His years in Boulder may have been brief, but they helped shape the man who would later redefine independent film.
Robert Redford (A&S ex’58, HonDocHum’87), center front, poses with his Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers in the 1955 Coloradan.
“With Sundance coming here, it’s now even more of a connection that it feels at some level like he’s coming back home, to a certain extent,” Espelie said. “I hope that his legacy will continue to be interwoven with cinema studies, with the department, and with the University.”
In the days before his passing, CU Boulder’s Cinema Studies department unknowingly honored Redford’s legacy.
“On the Sunday before his death happened, we screened a print of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and we had been talking about Redford so much in the last six months as we were preparing for a meeting with people from Sundance,” Espelie said. “He was on our mind in a way that a year and a half ago he wasn’t. It did feel like a more emotional and more intimate connection than ever before.”
The department hopes to further honor Redford’s legacy by creating a new theater space that could serve CU students, the Boulder community and major film festivals.
“We’re trying to think about how to develop a new theater space for our cinema department that could be linked to the International Film Series,” Espelie said. “It would serve as a teaching theater and a space that welcomes festivals like Sundance.”
Acevedo-Muñoz reflected that Redford’s impact has been one of a kind in the film industry. His selflessness is arguably his best quality, as it has single-handedly opened doors for many rising creators and filmmakers.
“He was a pioneering, vocal and active environmentalist, but when it comes to diversity in the film industry, independent cinema, free from the Hollywood moguls, when it came to making a difference with the environment and with diversity, he put his money where his mouth is,” Acevedo-Muñoz said. “Nobody does that.”
For CU Boulder and the world of film, Robert Redford’s legacy remains one of creativity, courage and conviction, a lifelong testament to his belief in storytelling that transcends boundaries.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Maddie Lasker at madeline.lasker@colorado.edu
