By Dan Heching, CNN
(CNN) — After the death of Hollywood great Robert Redford, his friends and former colleagues are paying tribute.
Jane Fonda, Redford’s costar from several films spanning over 50 years, said the news of his death at age 89 on Tuesday hit her “hard.”
”I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way,” the Academy Award-winning actress and activist said in a statement shared with CNN. “He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”
Fonda and Redford first appeared together in the 1966 Marlon Brando-starring film “The Chase,” followed one year later by the hit romantic caper “Barefoot in the Park” from writer Neil Simon.
In 1979, they paired again in “The Electric Horseman,” taking place in the rodeo world.
For Netflix’s “Our Souls at Night” in 2017 – exactly 50 years after “Barefoot in the Park,” Redford and Fonda again teamed up to tell the story of a pair of neighbors, now each widowed, who finally make a connection.
Meryl Streep, who costarred with Redford in the 1985 drama “Out of Africa,” also paid tribute.
“One of the lions has passed,” Streep said in a statement shared with CNN. “Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
In addition to both having Oscar-winning film careers, like Fonda, Redford was a committed environmentalist, moving to Utah in 1961 and leading efforts to preserve the natural landscape of the state and the American West.
He died Tuesday “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah–the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly,” Cindi Berger, Chairman and CEO of Rogers and Cowan PMK said in a statement to CNN.
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CNN’s Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report.
Jane Fonda says she ‘can’t stop crying’ over the passing of former costar Robert Redford
