Robert Redford Net Worth

What was Robert Redford's Net Worth and Salary?

Robert Redford was an American actor, director, producer, and environmentalist who had a net worth of $200 million at the time of his death. Robert Redford died on September 16, 2025, at the age of 89.

Redford's journey in Hollywood began in the 1960s, but it was his role in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) alongside Paul Newman that catapulted him to stardom. This film not only solidified his status as a leading man in Hollywood but also showcased his charismatic screen presence and acting versatility.

Throughout the 1970s, Robert starred in a string of successful films. In "The Sting" (1973), again with Newman, he delivered a performance that earned widespread acclaim. His role in "All the President's Men" (1976), in which he played journalist Bob Woodward, further cemented his place as a serious actor. These roles highlighted Redford's ability to handle both charming and complex characters, making him a favorite among audiences and critics alike.

Aside from his acting career, Robert has been an influential director and producer. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for his work on "Ordinary People" (1980), a poignant drama that marked his directorial debut. This film, along with others like "A River Runs Through It" (1992) and "Quiz Show" (1994), demonstrated his skillful storytelling and keen eye for detail.

Redford's contributions to cinema extend beyond acting and directing. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, which has become one of the most significant events in the film industry. Sundance is renowned for championing independent filmmakers and has played a pivotal role in bringing independent cinema to a wider audience.

In the latter part of his career, Redford has continued to act in and direct films while also using his platform to advocate for environmental causes and independent filmmaking.

Early Life

Charles Robert Redford Jr., better known as Robert Redford, was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California. His mother, Martha Hart, and his father, Charles Redford Sr., an accountant who later worked for Standard Oil of California, married shortly before his birth. Robert's childhood was shaped by both hardship and resilience. He lost his mother at the age of 18 to a blood disorder connected to a complicated pregnancy, leaving him an only child after the brief lives of twin sisters. The loss had a profound effect on him, deepening the sense of melancholy and restlessness that would appear in his art and activism later in life.

Redford grew up in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys, where he attended Van Nuys High School. He often described himself as a wayward teenager, prone to skipping school, drinking, and getting into trouble. At different times, he told stories of gang fights, hubcap stealing, and even nights spent in jail, later joking that many people feared he would "end up a bum." Despite his rebellious streak, he was gifted in athletics and won a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado at Boulder. His time there was cut short after a year and a half when heavy drinking cost him his scholarship and his spot on the team.

Seeking direction, Redford traveled through Europe, living for more than a year in Paris and studying painting at the École des Beaux-Arts. He supported himself by selling sketches on sidewalks, while also confronting periods of depression and self-doubt. Returning to the United States, he pursued painting classes at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn while also enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, where his interest in acting began to take root. During this time, he met and later married a young Mormon student, Lola Van Wagenen, in 1958. The couple eventually settled in Utah, a place Redford came to treasure for its natural beauty and authenticity compared to what he saw as the artificiality of Hollywood

Early Career

Robert Redford's first steps into show business came through the New York stage. After training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he began landing small theater parts and television appearances in the late 1950s. In 1959, he made his Broadway debut with a minor role in the play "Tall Story." That same year, he appeared in "The Highest Tree," and in 1961, he joined the cast of "Sunday in New York." His breakthrough on Broadway came in 1963 when he starred opposite Elizabeth Ashley in Neil Simon's hit comedy "Barefoot in the Park," directed by Mike Nichols. The production was a major success and gave Redford his first taste of stardom on the stage.

At the same time, Redford became a familiar face on American television. He appeared in a string of anthology and drama series, including "Maverick" (1960), "Perry Mason" (1960), "Naked City" (1961), "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1961), "The Twilight Zone" (1962), and "The Untouchables" (1963). His performance in the 1962 teleplay "The Voice of Charlie Pont" earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor, signaling that Hollywood was beginning to take notice of his talent.

Redford's film debut came in 1960 with a minor role in "Tall Story," followed by more substantial parts in "War Hunt" (1962), "Situation Hopeless…But Not Serious" (1965), and "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965). Through the mid-1960s, he steadily built his reputation with appearances in "This Property Is Condemned" (1966), "The Chase" (1966), and "Downhill Racer" (1969). He also reprised his stage success when "Barefoot in the Park" was adapted into a 1967 film co-starring Jane Fonda.

By the end of the 1960s, Redford had established himself as a versatile actor equally at home in light romantic comedies and darker, more dramatic material. This set the stage for his breakout role in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), which would launch him into superstardom.

Success

Redford's breakthrough came in 1969 with "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," in which he starred alongside Paul Newman. The film's affectionate take on outlaws in a fading West was a box office sensation and permanently tied Redford to the role of the Sundance Kid. The partnership with Newman proved magical, and their chemistry on screen became one of Hollywood's most enduring pairings. The film not only cemented Redford's image as a leading man but also inspired his lifelong association with the "Sundance" name.

The early 1970s established Redford as one of the most bankable stars in the world. In 1973, he reunited with Newman in "The Sting," a Depression-era caper that became the highest-grossing film of 1974. His performance earned him his only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. That same year, he starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the romantic drama "The Way We Were," which ranked among the top films of 1973 and showcased his ability to balance charm with emotional depth.

Redford's hot streak continued with a series of ambitious roles. He played Jay Gatsby in the 1974 adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," followed by the daredevil pilot in "The Great Waldo Pepper" (1975), the hunted CIA codebreaker in "Three Days of the Condor" (1975), and journalist Bob Woodward in "All the President's Men" (1976). The latter film, dramatizing the Watergate scandal, was both a commercial hit and a cultural landmark, further elevating his reputation as an actor willing to tackle weighty subjects.

By the mid-1970s, Redford was consistently ranked among Hollywood's top box office draws. Exhibitors named him the industry's number one star multiple times, and he won three consecutive Golden Globes for Favorite World Film Star in 1975, 1977, and 1978. His broad grin, sun-kissed looks, and on-screen charisma made him a global sex symbol, though he often expressed frustration that the "glamour image" overshadowed his more serious work.

This period also marked the beginnings of Redford's interest in directing and producing, as he sought to shape stories rather than simply perform in them. That ambition would culminate in the 1980 release of "Ordinary People," his directorial debut, which swept the Academy Awards and proved his artistic vision extended well beyond acting.

(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Robert Redford Film Salaries

Robert Redford's earnings rose steadily as his career progressed. One of his earliest known paychecks was just $500 for his role in the 1962 film "War Hunt." Within a few years, he was commanding some of the highest salaries in Hollywood.

In 1968, both Robert and Paul Newman earned $750,000 to star in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (which was released in 1969). That's the same as making around $7 million in today's dollars. As we detail in the next section of this article, in 1968, Robert used his entire after-tax "Butch Cassidy" salary to purchase the 3,000-acre Utah resort town of Mount Timpanogos, where he already owned a modest property. He purchased Mount Timpanogos to prevent it from being sold to developers. With the success of "Butch Cassidy," Robert subsequently renamed the town "Sundance."

For 1973's "The Sting," Robert and Paul both earned $500,000. That's the same as around $3.5 million today.

He earned $2 million for 1977's "A Bridge Too Far" and "$3.5 million for 1979's "The Electric Horseman."

Jumping ahead to his more modern film career, Robert earned $4 million to star in 1993's "Indecent Proposal" and a career-high $11 million base salary for $2001's "The Last Castle." Earning $11 million in 2001 is the same as making $20 million today.

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Sundance Institute

Robert Redford was first exposed to the area that would decades later become the thriving community and empire of Sundance in the 1950s. At the time, he was driving cross-country from California to get back to the University of Colorado. He took a wrong turn and found himself in Provo Canyon, Utah.

Robert Redford bought his first property in Utah in 1961, eight years before "Butch Cassidy" was released. It was a modest A-Frame cabin on two acres in a ski town called Timp Haven. The price of this property?

$500

Timp Haven was named after the local mountain on which it was situated, Mount Timpanogos.

In 1968, Robert used the salary he had just earned to star in "Butch Cassidy" to buy the entire town of Timp Haven. He had been concerned that the bucolic small town would be gobbled up by developers and turned into a massive city. After "Butch Cassidy" was released and became a huge hit, Redford renamed the entire town the Sundance Mountain Resort.

In 1978, the head of Redford's company, Wildwood Enterprises, Inc., Sterling Van Wagenen, partnered with John Earle of the Utah Film Commission to start the Utah/US Film Festival. Their goal was to showcase American-made films, promote more independent films, and highlight the work of regional filmmakers working outside of Hollywood. This later became known as the Sundance Film Festival.

In 1981, he also founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to nurturing new voices in cinema. The Institute and the Festival soon became synonymous with independent film, helping launch the careers of directors like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky, Ava DuVernay, and Ryan Coogler. Beyond film, Redford expanded the Sundance brand to include Sundance Cinemas, the Sundance Channel, Sundance Productions, and a mail-order catalog business, which he later sold in 2004 for $40 million (which is the same as roughly $70 million today). In December 2020, Robert sold the 2,600-acre Sundance resort to a private equity group for an undisclosed amount.

Personal Life

Robert Redford married historian and activist Lola Van Wagenen in 1958. The couple had four children: Shauna, Amy, David James (known as Jamie), and Scott. Tragically, their firstborn son, Scott, died of sudden infant death syndrome at just two and a half months old. The family endured further hardship in 1983 when Shauna's boyfriend, Sidney Lee Wells, was murdered, and later when Jamie underwent two liver transplants before ultimately passing away from bile duct cancer in 2020 at age 58. Despite these struggles, Redford remained a deeply devoted father and grandfather.

Redford and Van Wagenen divorced in 1985 after nearly three decades of marriage. In 2009, he married German painter Sibylle Szaggars in Hamburg, Germany, after a long-term partnership. The two shared a quiet life at his beloved Utah ranch, away from Hollywood, where he remained deeply connected to the natural surroundings that had inspired much of his activism.

Though many encouraged him to run for political office, Redford rejected the idea, disillusioned by bureaucracy after a brief stint as commissioner of the Provo Canyon sewer district in the 1970s. He believed his influence could be more powerful through storytelling and activism, particularly in environmental causes. A lifelong outdoorsman, he was one of the first major Hollywood figures to become a visible environmental advocate, working with organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council for decades.

Real Estate

Much of Robert Redford's financial and personal legacy was tied to land. His connection to Utah began in 1961 when he bought a small cabin in Timp Haven, a ski town he later purchased in its entirety after the success of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Renaming it Sundance, Redford turned the land into both a personal refuge and the center of a cultural empire. Even after selling the Sundance resort in 2020, Robert's family continues to own a 1,800-acre property in the area.

Horse Whisperer Ranch

In 1996, Robert bought a 30-acre property roughly 30 minutes outside of Sundance. He named the property the Horse Whisperer Ranch, a reference to his 1998 movie "The Horse Whisperer." He listed it for sale in June 2021 for $4.6 million. Here's a video tour of the Horse Whisperer Ranch:

Beyond Utah

Outside of Utah, Robert Redford owns or has owned property in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in various parts of California.

In May 2001, Robert sold an oceanfront property in Malibu for $6 million. At the same time, he sold an adjacent empty lot to a different buyer for $3 million.

In 1997, Robert paid $3.7 million for a duplex penthouse at 1030 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. He listed the property for sale in April 2001 for $15 million and ultimately accepted $10 million exactly a year later.

In March 2002, he paid $6.5 million for a ski lodge in Aspen, Colorado.

In 2004, Robert bought a 10-acre wine country estate in St. Helena, California. He listed this estate for sale in October 2018 for $7.5 million and accepted $7 million just three months later, in January 2019. Here's a video tour of his former Napa estate, which is called Danza Del Sol:

In 2020, Robert paid $3.1 million for a home in Tiburon, California. He listed this home for sale in December 2024 for $4.2 million. He ultimately sold it for $4.65 million. Here is a video tour of Robert's former Tiburon home:

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