Robert Redford Made His Final Screen Appearance on This TV Series 6 Months Before His De@th

The actor, who died Sept. 16 at age 89, appeared in a March episode of ‘Dark Winds’ alongside fellow executive producer George R.R. Martin

Six months before Robert Redford died at age 89 on Sept. 16, the actor made his final appearance on screen in the AMC/AMC+ series Dark Winds — and even ad-libbed a line that wasn’t written.

Redford had a cameo on the March 9 season 3 premiere of the detective series alongside Game of Thrones author and fellow Dark Winds executive producer George R.R. Martin.

The brief spot — Redford played an inmate engaged in a game of chess with Martin while locked up in a police station’s small cell — marked his first acting role since he appeared in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

Chris Eyre, who directed the Dark Winds episode, told Vulture in March that the idea to have Redford and Martin pop up “was in the air since the first season” of the series, based on Tony Hillerman’s detective novels about Navajo Tribal Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

(Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon play Leaphorn and Chee.)

An opportunity arose in the second season, but Martin backed out, according to Vulture.

The writer then pitched the chess-playing idea to showrunner John Wirth, who thought the scenario was a bit curious.

Robert Redford in a March episode of ‘Dark Winds.’.Courtesy of AMC Network Entertainment LLC

“You have to ask yourself, ‘What are two old White men doing in a Navajo tribal police jail cell?’

But if you squint a little bit, you don’t think too much about that.

You could probably get past it,” Wirth told the outlet.

Eyre had an idea:

“They were roustabouts that had gotten drunk and disorderly in a neighboring town like Flagstaff, Arizona, and then hitchhiked when they got released and sent to the Navajo Nation,” he told Vulture.

“They were picked up there by one of Leaphorn’s deputies.”

Robert Redford in 2019.Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty

The scene was shot on a closed set at Redford’s request, according to Eyre, who said the Hollywood legend was a joy to work with.

“Bob is so kind and he was so nice on the day, and so was George,” he said of Redford.

The brief scene was not supposed to have any dialogue, according to Vulture, but Redford ad-libbed a line to Martin while their characters were playing chess:

“George, the whole world is waiting,” Redford said in the scene.

Wirth also told The Hollywood Reporter at the time that Redford was a total pro.

Robert Redford in ‘Dark Winds.’.
“Bob is, like me, a little bit older, and I was afraid he was going to get tired and we were taking too much time, but in the process of shooting it I saw him just take a deep breath and become Robert Redford right before my eyes.

He’s really fun in the scene.

He’s everything he ever was and that you would want him to be,” he said.

Wirth called the experience “one of the highlights” of his career.

“I have a script that says written by me and Robert Redford is in that script and he’s saying words on film that I did not write but the script says written by me, so I’m taking credit for it anyway,” he continued.

Redford rose to fame as an actor in films like Barefoot in the Park and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid before establishing himself as a respected filmmaker as well.

He won the Best Director Academy Award in 1981 for the drama Ordinary People.

Fourteen years later, he was nominated in the same category again for directing the movie Quiz Show.

Robert Redford in 1969.A rep for Redford confirmed his death to PEOPLE on Tuesday.

“Robert Redford passed away on Sept.

16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” Cindi Bergers said in a statement.

“He will be missed greatly.

The family requests privacy.”

Three weeks before Redford’s death, journalists and co-authors of All the President’s Men Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein spoke highly of the actor at a staged reading of the script in East Hampton, New York.

Redford played Woodward in the 1976 film adaptation.

“He truly believed in it,” Woodward said of Redford’s commitment to the movie during a post-show Q&A.

“He never faltered on doing this story.”