On top of being one of the most iconic actors of all time, Robert Redford is also an avowed philanthropist, environmental activist and filmmaker — and he’s passed on his passion for film to his family.
He and his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen, had four children together: Scott, Shauna, James and Amy Redford. Scott died from sudden infant death syndrome at only 2 months old.
Their younger son, James, died of cancer in October 2020. After news of James’ death was announced, The Redford Center’s executive director, Jill Tidman, issued a statement that touched on his remarkable life.
“As a filmmaker, writer and activist, Jamie was intentional and inspirational,” Tidman said. “As a father, husband, brother, son and a friend to so many — he was a devout supporter, always full of hope. He will be greatly and intensely missed.”
Redford has left his indelible mark on each family member, many of whom have pursued careers as filmmakers and artists. His son James produced and directed a number of films and documentaries, and his daughters Amy and Shauna both work as filmmakers and artists. Several of his grandchildren are also beginning to follow in his footsteps.
Here is everything to know about Robert Redford’s four children and seven grandchildren.
Robert Redford’s Children
Scott Anthony Redford
Redford and Van Wagenen welcomed their first baby, son Scott Anthony Redford, on Sept. 1, 1959. Scott unexpectedly died of SIDS on Nov. 19, 1959. He was 2 ½ months old.
The actor rarely speaks about Scott publicly. However, in November 2017, Redford reflected on his first son’s death.
“I was only 21; my wife was 20. We were just starting our lives; I was just starting my career in New York,” he told Esquire. “Of course it was traumatic, and how that plays out over time, I don’t know. We had to deal with it. You have to move on. And we had other children who came. But something like that doesn’t get completely dismissed. It probably shows up in various small ways you’re not even aware of.”
Scott is buried in Provo City Cemetery in Provo, Utah.
Shauna Redford, 63
Redford and Van Wagenen welcomed their elder daughter, Shauna Jean Redford, on Nov. 15, 1960.
Shauna attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where she graduated with an art degree in 1985. In October of that year, the New York Times reported that Shauna married her husband, Eric Schlosser, at her parents’ home in Provo Canyon, Utah. Their ceremony was performed by a Utah State Supreme Court judge and former Salt Lake City mayor Ted Wilson. Schlosser would go on to write the book Fast Food Nation, and the pair eventually welcomed two children, Mica and Conor Schlosser.
In 2018, Redford spoke to the Salt Lake Tribune about retiring and what that would mean for the Sundance Institute, the arts nonprofit he founded in 1981. Sundance “is going to be in the hands of my children,” he said of the organization, which also operates the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time bringing my children — Shauna and Amy and Jamie — into the picture, and now they’re there and they’re in a position to run the show,” he said. “Basically, they’re inheriting what I started, and they’re going to keep it going with my grandchildren.”
James Redford
Redford and Van Wegenen’s second son, David James “Jamie” Redford, was born on May 5, 1962. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, James grew up in New York and spent summers at his family’s home in Utah.
As an adult, James was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease that affects the liver and bile ducts. James eventually received two liver transplants in 1993. He was inspired to start the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness following his surgeries and the nonprofit’s aim was to educate the public about organ and tissue donation. He continued that mission in 1999 with his documentary The Kindness of Strangers, which told the stories of organ donors and recipients.
Like his older sister, James studied at the University of Colorado Boulder. He pursued an undergraduate degree in creative writing and film before getting his master’s degree in literature from Northwestern University. Those degrees were the foundation for James’ career, and he soon combined environmental and social activism with filmmaking to direct and produce a number of documentaries.
He met his future wife, Kyle, at CU Boulder, and they married in June 1988. They later welcomed two kids, son Dylan and daughter Lena, and moved to Marin County, California.
In 2016, James told HollywoodChicago.com that he understood his father’s last name carried him far in his career, but being a Redford came with setbacks, too.
“There can be no argument that I’m in a unique situation, at the very least,” he told the outlet. “But I think the name, for every time it has proved to be helpful, it has also proved to be a challenge. … At the end of the day, the task I have is just like anyone else, to prove myself through my product or work. I’ve really found this to be true, that it’s a zero-sum gain.”
James and his father opened The Redford Center in 2005. The nonprofit combines many of the Redford family’s interests, namely filmmaking and environmental activism. “After years of working to advocate for sustainability and protect wild places, my son James and I recognized the power of storytelling to bring light and advance these issues,” Redford said. “We started The Redford Center to merge storytelling with action.”
On Oct. 16, 2020, James’ wife, Kyle Redford, announced on Twitter that James had died from bile-duct cancer in his liver at their home in Marin County. “Jamie died today. We’re heartbroken. He lived a beautiful, impactful life & was loved by many,” she wrote. “He will be deeply missed. As his wife of 32 yrs, I’m most grateful for the two spectacular children we raised together. I don’t know what we would’ve done w/o them over the past 2yrs.”
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the filmmaker’s cancer was discovered in 2019 while he was waiting for another liver transplant.
Amy Redford, 53
Redford and Van Wagenen welcomed their youngest child, Amy Hart Redford, on Oct. 22, 1970. Like her siblings, Amy grew up between New York and Utah; she studied at the Dalton School and eventually moved to San Francisco, where she studied theater at San Francisco State University.
Like her brother James, Amy is proof that acting and filmmaking run deep in the Redford family. In 2008, she spoke to IndieWire about her experience with both and cited her father as one of her earliest influences.
“As a kid, I witnessed the process of my dad making films and the extraordinary cast of characters that came together to make it happen,” she said. “I found myself drawn to the nomadic and creative life that that implied. … What led me to actually having the opportunity to do it was a combination of luck, timing and stubbornness.”
Amy has built a career in filmmaking and has directed feature films, TV episodes and music videos, including The Guitar in 2008 and Jeff Buckley’s “Everyday People” in 2016. She told HuffPost in 2008 that being a woman in a male-dominated industry is important for more reasons than one.
“I think it’s easier for women to submerge their voice. I think that women innately have wonderful things to say but to accommodate others it’s easier for us to put our own voice aside,” she said. “Even the loudest women are loud for a reason because they can’t be heard. I just had a daughter two months ago and I hope that whatever I do has a positive influence on her chances of not having to fight so hard.”
According to the New York Times, Amy was married to Scottish photographer Mark Mann from 2000 to 2004. In 2008, she married theater director Matt August just six weeks before the birth of their first baby.
“It was actually easier to figure out when to direct a movie and have a baby than it was to figure out when to get married,” she told Observer. The two welcomed a set of twins before they divorced, a topic that she touched on in a conversation with Ageist in 2022.
When asked what being a single mother was like, Amy explained: “I would say there’s sort of a cost and benefit in many ways. It’s very easy to kind of point the finger at the other person that’s staring across the kitchen table from you when you’re doing parenting in the same house. And when you’re not, you have to take a lot more responsibility for the culture of your home in a way that’s pretty autonomous. And it’s made me have to look at some of my own instincts in a different light.”
After spending time in N.Y.C. and Los Angeles, Amy moved to Salt Lake City, where she works as a filmmaker and hosts a podcast called Scrappy Broads.
Robert Redford’s Grandchildren
Mica Schlosser, 32
Shauna and her husband Eric Schlosser welcomed their first child, daughter Anna Michaela “Mica” Redford Schlosser, in January 1991. Mica works at the New York creative studio Thirteensee Creative, where she is both a copywriter and illustrator.
In 2014, she graduated with a history degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. According to Mica’s Thirteensee biography, she received a master’s degree in history from the University of Oxford and a master’s in design from Central St. Martins.
Conor Schlosser, 31
Shauna and Schlosser’s son Conor James Schlosser was born on July 29, 1992, in Burlington, Vermont, according to the New York Times. In 2015, Conor graduated from Colby College in Waterville, Maine; his grandfather gave the commencement address at the school, according to the Sun Journal.
Since 2021, Conor has worked as a producer at N.Y.C.-based studio RadicalMedia. He previously worked at the Sundance Institute and at the Food Network, per his LinkedIn.
Dylan Redford, 32
Dylan Larsen Redford is the first child of James and Kyle Redford. Dylan was born in Denver on Oct. 16, 1991; when he was 4 years old, his family moved to Marin County, California. After high school, he studied studio art at Middlebury College in Vermont and graduated in 2015.
When he was in the third grade, Dylan was diagnosed with dyslexia, according to the Marin Independent Journal. In 2012, his father directed the documentary The Big Picture, which featured Dylan and his college application process. The documentary also features other kids and public figures with dyslexia, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Richard Branson and Charles Schwab.
James told The Guardian that his dad watched the documentary “many times” adding: “I think my father felt it was very brave of his grandson, Dylan, and he was struck by his courage and his articulate, honest nature.”
Dylan followed many members of his family into the entertainment industry and currently works as a filmmaker in San Rafael, California, according to his website. In January 2020, he made headlines after successfully convincing his grandfather to join the cast of his film, Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia, which premiered at Sundance.
“He broached the idea to me in California,” Redford told the Associated Press. “When they put the idea forward, I said, ‘That sounds like a really interesting idea. Go do it and I’ll play whatever role you want me to play.’ And they said, ‘Okay, you be the voice of the dolphin.’ At least I’m not a whale.”
On Nov. 23, 2020, Dylan joined his grandfather at The Redford Center when he was elected as the organization’s co-chair of its board of directors.
“In this national moment of change, Dylan will co-lead The Redford Center in transforming the future of impact-driven storytelling as a tool for environmental justice, protection and repair, furthering the vision and legacy of the Redford family,” the Redford Center shared on Facebook.
Lena Hart Redford, 28
As the younger child of James and Kyle Redford, Lena Hart Redford was born in November 1995 in Marin County, California. Lena attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she graduated with a degree in media studies in 2018.
According to Lena’s Instagram account, she is an artist and filmmaker. In 2021, her mother, Kyle, tweeted a trailer for a short in the Nature In Speaking series, in which Lena lent her voice acting talents alongside her grandfather. In December 2019, Office Magazine included her short film Dear Maria in its write-up of the Borscht Film Festival in Miami.
Amy Redford’s 3 children
Redford’s daughter Amy and her ex-husband Matt August have a daughter, Eden August, who was born in 2008, as well as 11-year-old twins.
“I was 38 when I had my first child, when I was sort of like, ‘Oh, s—, I forgot to have kids,’ ” she told the outlet. “And I managed to have one and was so pleased with the turnout. I was like, ‘Well, we did it. Yes, we made a child, she has all her fingers and toes. She’s amazing.’ ”
Amy and August welcomed Eden’s two siblings, twin girls, in November 2010. In May 2016, she told Her magazine that “motherhood” was her biggest challenge yet.
“I have three girls and my husband and I are seeing the world through their eyes,” she told the outlet. “It has also been my lighthouse. I had a heartbreak over a project recently and I was explaining it to my 7-year-old [Eden], and she grabbed my face and said, ‘Mom! Never give up!’ I owe that to her, and my other two.”
Source: People
