Jane Fonda has shared a heartbreaking tribute to her co-star and friend Robert Redford, saying the actor “represented an America we must now fight to protect”.

Fonda acted in several films with Redford, who died at his Utah home at the age of 89, including the 1967 romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park, which is said to have shot him to stardom, and most recently, Netflix’s Our Souls at Night (2017).

“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone,” she said in a statement.

“I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way.”

Redford’s passing was confirmed by his publicist overnight and has prompted tributes from all over the world.

He had a celebrated six-decade career in film and is known for movies such as Sting (which earned him an Oscar nomination), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were, Out of Africa, All the President’s Men and The Horse Whisperer.

Redford won an Academy Award in 1980 with his directorial debut, Ordinary People.

Fonda shared a further tribute on Instagram alongside a photo of the pair in Our Souls at Night, noting that the young actor between them is Iain Armitage, who later became the star of Young Sheldon.

“Bob made a real difference in all good ways,” Fonda wrote.

“He represented an America we must now fight to protect. He revolutionized independent film making and made us swoon in so many movies.

“I am very sad today. Cried all morning. But luckily I can think back on so many joyful, laughter-filled moments when his practical jokes would crack me up.

“I feel so lucky to have made one of his first big movies with him, Barefoot in the Park (I fell madly in love with him on that one) and his last (the aforementioned Souls at Night).

“I was wanting to go see him these last few months to make sure we were all right between us but I didn’t act on it soon enough. Lesson learned.

“When people are our age, late 80s, don’t wait.”

 

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Redford, who was intensely private, bought land in remote Utah in the early 1970s for his family retreat. He was married for more than 25 years to his first wife, and in 2009 married for a second time, to German artist Sibylle Szaggars.

He launched the Sundance Institute and Festival in the 1970s to promote independent filmmaking, and also championed environmental causes.

When Our Souls at Night premiered, Redford said it would be one of his last films as an actor, as he planned to focus more on directing and his first love, art.

Directors Ron Howard and Martin Scorcese, and actors Demi Moore, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Leonado DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mark Ruffalo and William Shatner are among the many celebrities who have paid tribute to the Hollywood legend.

Streisand, who starred alongside Redford in The Way We Were, said every day on set with him was “exciting, intense and pure joy”.

“We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie,” she wrote on Instagram.

“Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting – and one of the finest actors ever.

“The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings.

“He was one of a kind and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.”

Meryl Streep, who starred opposite Redford in Out of Africa and Lions for Lambs, said in a statement: “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”

 

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