The news of the death of cinema legend Robert Redford on Tuesday, at the age of 89, caused worldwide emotion.
In addition to his great career, during which he linked his name with masterpieces of the big screen, few know his close connection with Greece, and more specifically with Crete, but also his love for it and the Greeks.
The award-winning actor, director, founder of the Sundance Festival and for 25 years the “blonde” and “handsome” of American cinema, had spoken several times about the island that left its mark on him. As he had mentioned in Vima, in the mid-1960s, he decided to take a long trip with his family. After living for 6 months in Spain, in a small town in the South called Michas, they decided to travel to Crete, first to Heraklion and then to the interior of the island. In fact, he had tried to convince his family to stay in a cave in Matala.
The actor lived outside Heraklion for five months, with his first wife Lola Van Wagenen, whom he married in 1958 and with whom they had four children.
“I also went to Agia Triada, on the other side of the island, where I lived for a while. I went there with my family because I loved Greece, I read about it, I wanted to visit it and I loved the Greek people,” he had told Greek Reporter.
In statements to MTV Greece, Redford had said that they spent a whole month of “fantastic vacations” with their family in Crete. “I traveled all over Crete, stayed in Elounda, and from there we explored all the beauties of the island,” he said, adding with emotion: “I have truly traveled the entire planet and I have never seen hospitality like Cretan.”
After all, as he had said, traveling was a real education for him. “I wasn’t doing well in school, I was bored… something inside me told me that my education was out there, in the world, in experiences from unknown cultures. And that’s what I did,” he had told Vima.
The Oscar-winning actor died in his sleep on Tuesday at his home in Utah, according to The New York Times.
Redford was born in Santa Monica, California, on August 18, 1936.
