Robert Redford, whose many accolades included an Academy Award, a BAFTA, five Golden Globes, the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, has passed away.

Redford's career began onstage in 1959, on Broadway. After some small starting roles, he found success in the original 1963 cast of Barefoot in the Park, where he played the straightlaced husband to Elizabeth Ashley's more freewheeling wife.

In the Sixties, Redford appeared as a guest star on several television shows, such as Maverick, Perry Mason, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He appeared in one of the most-acclaimed Twilight Zone episodes, "Nothing in the Dark", a surprisingly sweet tale about an old woman terrified of death who has to decide if she will help an injured police officer, Redford, who has collapsed outside her door. The episode is ranked at #18 of all Twilight Zone episodes on IMDb, and Redford said in 2014 that the production company of the series told him that it is the most often viewed episode.

Redford cemented his stardom with his leading role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where he was paired with Paul Newman for the first time. The role earned him a BAFTA.

He enjoyed an almost-unheard of four-year run of box office smashes, including the romantic drama The Way We Were, the crime caper The Sting, and The Great Gatsby. Redford became the first performer since Bing Crosby in 1946 to have three films in a year's top-ten box office grosses. In 1976, he appeared in the #2 highest-grossing movie of the year: the eight-time-Oscar nominated All The President's Men.

In 1980, Redford turned to directing, and his first movie, Ordinary People, became one of the most critically acclaimed works of the decade. Starring Mary Tyler Moore in a sharp departure from her work on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the movie earned four Oscars, including Redford as best director. He also snagged a Golden Globe for Best Director for the same movie.

He was nominated for another best director Oscar for 1994's Quiz Show, which also got him a BAFTA nod, and another Golden Globe nom.

With the financial success from his films, Redford bought a ski area in Utah and named it "Sundance" after his character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He later created the Sundance Film Festival in 1978, which is now the largest independent film festival in the United States, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Redford passed away in his sleep at the age of 89.