Hollywood icon Robert Redford has died aged 89.
The Oscar-winning actor died in his sleep at his home in Utah on Tuesday morning, the New York Times reported.
Redford was known for starring in the classic films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men, as well as serving as leading man opposite Barbara Streisand in 1973’s The Way We Were and Jane Fonda in the 1967 film Barefoot in the Park.
The actor began directing later in life and won an Academy Award for Ordinary People in 1980.
He founded the nonprofit Sundance Institute in 1981, which later became known for The Sundance Film Festival and staple in the arts world for years to come.
While Redford will go down in history as one of the greatest actors of all time, behind the scenes the screen legend overcame a series of hardships that undoubtedly impacted his career.
From battling polio as a child, to losing both his sons and his mother, Redford’s life wasn’t always glitz and glam.
As such, FEMAIL has taken a look back at the actor’s most transformative tragedies.
Robert Redford (seen in 1981) has died aged 89, the New York Times reported
The Oscar-winning actor, known for films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men, died in his sleep at his home in Utah on Tuesday morning. Seen in 2019
Redford suffered from polio as a child
Redford, born Charles Robert Redford Jr., contracted a ‘mild case’ of polio – a disease caused by a virus that can cause flu-like symptoms, brain inflammation and paralysis.
In the 2011 Robert Redford biography written by Michael Feeney Callan, it was revealed that Redford contracted polio after swimming in the ocean.
‘It wasn’t an iron lung case. It was a case of mild polio, but it was severe enough to put me in bed for two weeks,’ he told NPR’s Fresh Air in 2018.
The actor, who was born in 1936, contracted polio before the vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk and mass administered throughout the ’50s and ’60s.
He would later go on to pay tribute to Salk in the six-part, 3D documentary film Cathedrals of Culture, in which Redford directed a segment about the Salk Institute in California designed by architect Louis Kahn.
The actor nearly died in a dare
Born and raised in Southern California, Redford joined a street gang in high school called the Barons.
Redford (pictured in 1954) was born in Southern California and attended Van Nuys High School. He suffered from polio as a child
The soon-to-be actor, pictured in his 1952 yearbook, joined a street gang in high school called the Barons
In his 2011 authorized biography, Redford (right) said he was arrested for ‘borrowing an automobile that had stolen jewelry in its trunk’
According to the 2011 book, he was arrested for ‘borrowing an automobile that had stolen jewelry in its trunk’.
At one point, he was persuaded by a group of boys to jump off the rooftop of a building in order to prove his manliness.
‘I toughened up fast,’ Redford said in the biography.
‘Facing down fears hit home early… You have two choices, it seemed to me. You can be led by your fears, or you can overcome them.’
Redford was kicked out of college
Redford attended Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, California, and later enrolled in the University of Colorado in Boulder.
He attended college on a baseball scholarship and joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity, but soon became caught up in partying, drinking, and riding motorcycles instead of academics.
Michael Callan Feeney wrote in the biography: ‘Redford had become beloved in the drinking circles but was regarded as a loose cannon.’
The actor explained to the Los Angeles Times in 1990 that he lost his baseball scholarship due to his partying ways, and after just 18 months, he was kicked out of college.
After getting kicked out of college, Redford (front) traveled throughout Europe and studied painting in Paris, France
The actor attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for just 18 months after he lost his baseball scholarship due to his partying ways
His mother died when he was 18
Redford’s father, Charles Redford, worked as a milkman before becoming an accountant with Standard Oil of California. His mother, Martha Hart, died in 1955 when he was 18.
Before her death, his mother had given birth to twin girls who died shortly after they were born. She later developed a blood disorder from the traumatic birth and suffered a fatal hemorrhage at the age of 40.
‘She was a wonderful person. She died very young,’ Redford recalled to NPR.
‘She was full of life, full of laughter, full of love. She was out there. I mean, she would take chances, and she was very risky. And she taught me how to drive a car when I was 10, and nobody knew about it. I mean, that kind of stuff.
‘We had a close relationship, but also, I was of a young mind, just like all the other kids my age were. You didn’t want your parents around. You didn’t want your parents doting on you. You didn’t want attention or anything like that. And you had a mother that wanted to give you that attention, and you kind of pushed it away. I feel bad about that.’
Redford called her death ‘so unfair’ while speaking to AARP magazine in 2011, and later paid tribute to his mother at the Sundance Film Festival Utah Women’s Leadership Celebration in 2018.
Redford (seen in 1969) lost his mother, Martha Hart, when he was 18 years old. He later expressed regret that he wasn’t able to thank her for believing in him
Redford (seen in A Bridge Too Far) called his mother’s death ‘so unfair’. He later paid tribute to her at the Sundance Film Festival Utah Women’s Leadership Celebration in 2018
Redford (seen in 1979 on the set of The Electric Horseman) admitted his mom’s death gave him the freedom to ‘go off on my own, which I’d wanted to do for a long time’
Still, he admitted that his mother’s death allowed him to ‘go off on my own, which I’d wanted to do for a long time.’
Following his mother’s passing and getting kicked out of college, Redford took the opportunity to travel the world. He studied art in Paris, which eventually led him to find acting.
Speaking to Esquire in 2017, Redford expressed his regret in not being able to thank his mother for constantly encouraging him.
‘My mom felt I could do anything. She was the only one who told me that, the one who really did believe that I was gonna do things. She encouraged me to constantly be opened up. And I took it all for granted as a teenager,’ he said.
‘When I grew up and I realized what had happened, what she had tried to do, I realized, “Oh my God, she really did encourage me to go out there and take chances.”
‘As you go on in life, you think about regrets before you go to sleep at night. I realized too late that she had a very positive role in my life and I couldn’t thank her.’
Redford’s firstborn child died at 10 weeks old, and his surviving son died in 2020
Following his European travels, Redford moved back to the United States and met Utah native Lola Van Wagenen.
The actor married his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, in 1958. They’re pictured at the 1981 Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California
Redford and Lola had four children: sons Scott and Jamie and daughters Shauna and Amy. Their son Scott died from SIDS at just 10 weeks old. The couple are seen with their son Jamie
Redford and Lola divorced in 1985. In 2009, he remarried to his long-term girlfriend, Sibylle Szaggars (pictured together in May 2013)
They were married in 1958, just as his acting career began to take off. The couple welcomed their first son together, named Scott, who died just two and a half months later from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
‘That was a tough hit,’ Redford told People in 1998. ‘It was our first child. We were in New York and we were broke. It was really tough.’
He explained to Esquire that he and his wife were only 21 and 20 years old, respectively, when their first son died, and they were ‘not equipped to deal with’ his death. When asked whether the grief of losing his son shows up in his work, Redford acknowledged that it ‘probably shows up in various small ways you’re not even aware of.’
Redford and his first wife went on to have three more children: daughters Shauna and Amy, and son Jamie. He and Lola divorced in 1985 after 27 years of marriage.
‘It was mutual and it was right to move on,’ Redford told The Telegraph in 2001.
‘We still have great love, great affection, great friendship. It is wonderful, and I think we probably deserve credit for it because the kids are great, they came through it okay.’
Throughout the years, his family suffered a number of harrowing incidents. His daughter Shauna’s boyfriend, Sidney Lee Wells, was shot dead in Colorado, according to the New York Times, and she subsequently survived a gruesome car accident that left her vehicle submerged in water with her inside.
His son Jamie ‘suffered the furies’ of ill health, Redford once described to People, for much of his life.
Redford’s son Jamie ‘suffered the furies’ of ill health, including colitis, cirrhosis and two liver transplants. He died in October 2020 from liver cancer aged 58 (seen together at the 1999 premiere of HBO’s The Kindness of Strangers)
He was diagnosed with a respiratory disease as an infant, and later developed colitis – an inflammatory disease in the colon. His colitis also caused liver issues and cirrhosis, and Jamie underwent two liver transplants.
In October 2020, Jamie passed away from liver cancer at the age of 58.
Speaking to People in 1998, Redford reflected on the emotional toll of seeing his children suffer through multiple tragic events and health issues.
‘People think it’s been easy for me. That’s hard to live with. It’s so untrue,’ he said at the time. The hardest thing in the world is when your children have problems. There have been so many hits on our family that no one knows about, and I don’t want them to, for my family’s sake.’
In 2009, Redford married his long-term girlfriend Sibylle Szaggars. He had seven grandchildren at the time of his death.
