Robert Redford, a Hollywood leading man turned director, producer and influential supporter of independent films through his Sundance Institute, died on Tuesday at the age of 89.

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", both of which became classics.

Despite their chemistry and long personal friendship, Redford was never to team up again with Newman, who died in 2008.

"Butch Cassidy" made blue-eyed Redford an overnight star but he never felt comfortable with celebrity or the male starlet image that persisted late into his 60s.

"People have been so busy relating to how I look, it's a miracle I didn't become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm. It's not easy being Robert Redford," he once told New York Magazine. (Reuters)