Julianne Moore is among the Hollywood stars mourning Robert Redford following his passing at the age of 89. The Oscar-winning actress took to Instagram to share a deeply personal memory of the screen legend, who she admitted was her very first movie star crush.
‘The First Movie Star I Ever Loved’
Alongside a throwback photo from Sundance, Moore reflected on how much Redford meant to her as both an actor and an icon.
“He was the first movie star that I ever loved,” Moore, 63, wrote. “My sister sent me this photo this morning from #sundance — it was very hard for me to behave normally in his presence. #RIP Robert Redford. We will all miss you ❤️.”
Moore’s tribute carried even more weight, given her history with Redford. Long before she admired him as a fan, she had the opportunity to work alongside the Hollywood legend in the 1996 romantic drama “Up Close & Personal.”
Moore played Bucky Terranova, the ex-wife of Redford’s character Warren Justice, marking a rare on-screen connection between the two. Her message of admiration reflected both the awe she felt as a young actress in his presence and the respect she held for him as a colleague.
Hollywood Tributes Continue to Pour In
(Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)Moore joins a chorus of tributes from stars including Jane Fonda, who shared that she “can’t stop crying” over Redford’s passing, and countless fans who celebrated his legendary roles in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “All the President’s Men,” and “Out of Africa.”
Through the years, Fonda often shared her deep admiration for Redford. In 2008, she told People magazine, “He is so handsome and just such a wonderful human being. Every movie I made with him, I developed a crush on him.”
Redford’s Retirement Reflections & Lasting Legacy
(Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)In August 2018, Robert Redford told Entertainment Weekly (as reported by people) that he planned to retire after completing “The Old Man & the Gun,” in which he starred alongside Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter, and Tom Waits.
“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and I’ll move toward retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21,” Redford said at the time.
Only a month later, he admitted he regretted announcing his retirement so definitively. Speaking to People, Redford shared, “I think it was a mistake to say that I was retiring because you never know.”
