Robert Redford On His Son's Early Death: 'The Only Thing You Think Is That You’ve Done Something Wrong'

Mar 18, 2022

Robert Redford is known for being an accomplished actor, director and activist. He has been making waves in the entertainment industry since the 1950s, and has only recently retired from his incredibly successful career. With notable roles in a variety of productions, Redford has showcased not only his talents, but his many passions and personal beliefs. Throughout his life, the star has managed to find plenty of time for work, as well as time for his loving family.

Charles Robert Redford, Jr. was born Aug. 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California. The actor decided to formally go by a shortened version of his name, Robert Redford, for career purposes. Growing up in California gave him plenty of opportunities to make connections and become friends with people who were also in the spotlight, or who would later be in it themselves. Redford wasn’t the best student, but he made it a point to follow his passions and pursue them professionally. 

While success didn’t come right away, Redford made sure he continued to work hard, and pursued acting in New York. After getting his start on Broadway, he moved to bigger and better things with countless roles in both film and television.

Redford has been married twice throughout his life, and has had four children along the way. He faced some tragedies and losses throughout his life, and had to grieve and work through heartbreak before finding love and happiness again. His current wife Sibylle Szaggars, now known as Sibylle Szaggars Redford, is breathtakingly gorgeous. She has made a name for herself with an outstanding artistic career.

After spending much of his childhood in Santa Monica, Redford later moved to the Los Angeles area and attended school at Van Nuys High School, where he was actually classmates with famous baseball pitcher Don Drysdale. Finding more interests outside of the classroom rather than inside it, Redford became inspired by both sports and the arts. He befriended more athletes, and even helped Pancho Gonzales, who would go on to become a professional tennis player, warm up at the Los Angeles Tennis Club.

Redford’s interest in recreational activities later impacted his college career. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado, for a short period of time. He began drinking quite heavily, which later resulted in him losing his scholarship and being kicked out of the school. Redford took some time away from school in general and decided to travel across Europe. He lived in France, Spain and Italy before deciding to engage in his studies once again, and enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, to study painting. Redford also took a few classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, graduating in 1959.

All of his hard work finally paid off when Redford made his Broadway acting debut in 1959 during a production of “Tall Story.” He went on to big up a few other roles in theater before landing one of his most successful roles in “Barefoot in the Park” in 1963, starring opposite Elizabeth Ashley.

Redford was not only landing jobs on the Broadway stage, but on both the small screen and silver screen as well. He made guest appearances on many drama television shows, including “The Twilight Zone,” “The Untouchables” and “Maverick.”

He took a break from the small screen for quite some time, focusing more on feature films. Redford returned to television in 2019 with the HBO series “Watchmen.” Redford was cast to play a fictionalized version of himself, with his character’s name even being President Robert Redford. The show followed the comic series by the same name. However, it was later confirmed that Redford would actually not act in the show, but his likeness was used in order to fully pay tribute to the comic series.

The actor moved on to feature films following his career on Broadway. His success skyrocketed in the 1960s, with the star picking up role after role. Redford won plenty of awards and accolades for his incredible performances, as he showcased his talents in a variety of films. He acted in many genres, including action movies, dramas and romances. Not wanting to be type-casted, Redford made the choice to turn down some roles, including parts in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate.” This led him to land one of the biggest jobs in his career in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969. The film helped people to view Redford as not just the pretty blonde man on screen, but also as someone who had layers and was intelligent and cynical.

The 1970s were great for Redford and his career, as he had no problem finding critically successful roles. He became a box-office star and continued to push himself as an actor. He joined the cast of “All the President’s Men” in 1976, and even worked as an executive producer for the film. 

The movie was centered around the Watergate scandal, and helped Redford find a way to bring his personal beliefs and values into his place of work. “All the President’s Men” was a hit and received an abundance of award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards, and took home the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

Redford was later able to showcase more of his personal beliefs when he narrated the IMAX documentary “Sacred Planet” in 2004. The documentary portrayed various climates and habitats across the globe, and showed some exotic and endangered places on the earth. Redford is an environmental activist, so this film was the perfect chance for him to represent his own set of morals.

Some of Redford’s more recent projects are just as impressive as his trademark roles. He played Alexander Pierce in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” in 2014, and later reprised his role in “Avengers: Endgame” in 2017, although the movie wasn’t released until 2019. Redford had announced shortly afterwards that he was retiring from acting in August 2018, although he continued working following his remarks. The star later did retire in 2020, with no new credits or mention of future work since.

The star has been nominated for and received a handful of awards spanning his career. He won his first award in 1966, and took home the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year: Actor for his work in “Inside Daisy Clover.” He won the Academy Award for Best Director in 1980 for his work on “Ordinary People,” the first film he worked on as a director. Redford’s most recent recognition was in 2019 when he won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Morella International Film Festival for his artistic excellence.

Redford’s busy career didn’t stand in the way of him finding love and happiness. The actor married his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, in 1958. Van Wagenen is known for being a very successful historian. According to Closer Weekly, she co-founded a non-profit organization called Consumer Action Now in 1970, which focuses on education and advocacy that promotes fairness and financial prosperity, specifically for those who are typically underrepresented. She also helped found the Clio Visualizing History, Inc. in 1995. Van Wagenen is also an author and has also written a handful of educational books and materials, including “Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage.”

The couple juggled their careers with starting their own family together. They had four children with each other, including daughters Shauna and Amy, and their late sons Scott and James. According to Closer Weekly, Scott died just two months after he was born due to sudden infant death syndrome. James died in October 2020 after battling liver cancer for over a year.

Redford and his son James founded The Redford Center in 2005 to help raise awareness about environmentalism. According to the foundation's website, “The Redford Center uses impact-driven film and media to galvanize the movement toward environmental justice, protection and repair.” The father-son duo created projects to help excite others into wanting to help the cause and help the people who are most affected by environmental issues. The Redford Center worked on achieving its mission through the use of grants, storytelling and productions.

During an interview with the Denver Post, Redford talked about what it was like for him and Van Wagenen to lose their son Scott at such a young age. “We were very young… We didn’t know anything about SIDS, so the only thing you think is that you’ve done something wrong,” he explained. He continued, “as a parent, you tend to blame yourself. That creates a scar that probably never completely heals.”

James was well-known for being both an activist and a prominent filmmaker, much like his father. He created documentaries, including “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia” and “Playing for Keeps.” His wife Kyle Redford confirmed his passing in a post to Twitter on Oct. 16, 2020. She wrote, “Jamie died today. We’re heartbroken. He lived a beautiful, impactful life and was loved by many. He will be deeply missed.” The two were married for 32 years and had two beautiful children together.

Redford’s publicist, Cindi Berger, made a statement about how the actor was coping with the sad and tragic news. “The grief is immeasurable with the loss of a child,” she said, according to BBC News. “Jamie was a loving son, husband and father.” Berger later mentioned that the family was asking for privacy “during this difficult time.” Berger continued to speak kindly about the late filmmaker and activist, as he had made a huge impact on the lives of many. “His legacy lives on through his children, art, filmmaking and devoted passion to conservation and the environment,” Berger said.

Redford and Van Wagenen had some personal problems within their relationships, and divorced after 27 years of marriage in 1985. Redford took some time to himself to focus on his career and on being a great father. After more than a decade away from romance, Redford found love again when he met with second wife in 1996. Redford and Sibylle Szaggars Redford dated for quite a while before finally tying the knot during a beautiful ceremony in Hamburg, Germany, in 2009. The pair have been inseparable ever since.

According to her website, Szaggars Redford is a German-born multimedia environmental artist whose work has been seen in countries all across the world. She was the recipient of the United States Department’s Art in Embassies Program in 2016 after her work on the rain forests was displayed in the US Embassy in Paramaribo, Suriname. Szaggars Redford has lent her talents to a number of pieces of abstract art, with her skills in oil sketches and photographs being some of her most prominent. 

Szaggars Redford’s “desire is to create art that transcends words, languages, cultures and politics,'' according to the biography on her website. Her creations are her way of communicating her deeper thoughts about the dependency to the earth and the environment. “The Way of the Rain” has been one of her most successful projects throughout her artistic career. Szaggars Redford collaborated with Icelandic composer and musician David Thor Jonsson to design a concept for the staged art performance piece. It incorporated a variety of art forms, including film, light, dance, music and spoken word, showcasing many of her ideas and artistic abilities.

In 2015, Szaggars Redford expanded on her incredible artwork and founded a non-profit organization, The Way of the Rain, Inc. The organization was created with a strong dedication to developing, producing and performing educational and artistic performances, much like Szaggars Redford’s own work throughout her career. According to her website, she wanted to “promote public awareness and support the protection of our earth” with the organization. Szaggars Redford has since expanded even more on her original artwork by incorporating short video series to go along with “The Way of the Rain.”

The Denver Post reported that Redford’s marriage with his second wife helped him feel like a new person. “She’s younger than I am and European, which I like, so that’s a whole new life,” he said. Szaggars Redford had made her way into the actor’s heart and has continued to be a source of inspiration and rejuvenation. “She’s a very special person,” Redford said about his longtime second wife.

Along with finding plenty of success as an actor, director and producer, Redford managed to highlight his many beliefs and raise awareness for social issues he has shown to be passionate about, such as environmentalism. He has found a beautiful and great partner to stand alongside him with his marriage to Szaggars Redford. The two have stayed by each other’s side and have been nothing but supportive to the other’s career. With Redford retiring from his great acting career, the couple has had even more time to further deepen their stable relationship. We're sure the pair will go on to have a great and long-lasting relationship.

What do you think of Robert Redford's wife, Sibylle? Isn't her art beautiful? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to your loved ones and other Robert Redford fans you know!