Actor, director and producer Robert Redford, who was both the quintessential handsome Hollywood leading man and an influential supporter of independent films through his Sundance Institute, had died at the age of 89, The New York Times reported, citing his publicist.

Once dismissed as “just another California blond”, Redford’s charm and craggy good looks made him one of the industry’s most bankable leading men for half a century, and one of the world’s most recognizable and best-loved movie stars.

Redford made hearts beat faster in romantic roles such as Out of Africa, got political in The Candidate and All the President’s Men and skewered his golden-boy image in roles like the alcoholic ex-rodeo champ in “The Electric Horseman” and middle-aged millionaire who offers to buy sex in Indecent Proposal.

He used the millions he made to launch the Sundance Institute and Festival in the 1970s, promoting independent filmmaking long before small and quirky were fashionable.

He never won the best actor Oscar, but his first outing as a director - the 1980 family drama “Ordinary People” – won Oscars for best picture and best director.

Yet he remained best known for the two early movies he made with Paul Newman – the 1969 western caper Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting (1973), both of which became classics.