Redford fell in love with stage acting. His very first role was in Tall Story on Broadway. He had one line in the 1959 production, but it saved his family during a tight stretch. He went on to perform countless Broadway shows and other theater productions.
About the time his second child was born, the actor decided to move his acting ambitions to television. His career took off like wildfire. He scored roles in ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Maverick’, ‘The Untouchables’ and ‘Perry Mason’. The 24-year-old was well on his way to an incredible profession, and to being one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood.
Love and Children
Almost a year later, the couple welcomed the birth of their first son. Two and a half months later, tragedy struck. “It was really hard,” Redford recalled. The couple was very young, and Redford had just closed his first theater job. Neither of them had heard of 'sudden infant death syndrome, which is how their first son passed away. Two years later, the young couple gave birth to their first daughter. Shauna was followed by Jaimie, born in 1962, and Amy, another daughter, was born in 1970.
Their worries hardly came to an end. Jaimie, their second son, was born seven weeks premature with severe medical conditions. His teen years brought more concern. The boy developed a medical condition that transferred Jaimie and his parents in and out of the hospital.
The End of an Era
After 28 years of marriage, the Redfords went their separate ways. The divorce was final in 1985. Robert Redford has said that the passing of two-month-old Scott caused a rift that never healed between the couple. They blamed each other and they blamed themselves. It was Redford who kissed the baby goodnight when they found him lifeless in the crib the next morning.
Following the divorce, the now-famous actor began dating Sibylle Szaggars, with who he moved in during the 1990s, and then married, finally, in 2009.
A Fish Tale
Just to get gigs, Redford often worked for nothing, or near nothing. One such time was when he was offered $75 to appear on a TV game show. It would be his television debut. The only problem was that when payday came, the naturalist and budding actor did not see a single penny. The producers insisted he takes an expensive fishing rod and calls it even.
In the end, it gave him an entertaining story to tell and also some inspiration for his well-known film 'A River Runs Through It'.
The Roots of Sundance Institute and Arts Center
Redford was practically penniless when he took off to Europe to try his hand as an artist. When he was ready to make his first real estate investment, he pulled together $500 for a down payment on two acres of land in the Provo Canyon, just outside of Park City, Utah. It was the perfect retreat from Hollywood. He and Lola built their first house on the property, an eco-friendly design powered by solar energy. The area included a ski resort at the bottom of Mt. Timpanogos, named Timp Haven, which he would eventually rename 'Sundance'.
As years went on, he expanded the property to include 7,000 acres with quarter horses, farmland, and a fishing pond. From two small acres to thousands, this is where the first Sundance Film Festival in 1978 was located, becoming, as we all know by now, one of the world’s most prestigious festivals for independent films. The overwhelming success of the event would later require the Sundance Film Festival to be relocated to Park City.