When Robert Redford first stepped into a tiny Los Angeles apartment building in 1957, he wasn't the "Sundance Kid." He was just a struggling artist with a messy career path and a few hundred bucks to his name. The woman who lived in the same building, Lola Van Wagenen, didn't see a movie star; she saw a guy she wanted to build a life with.
Most people just call her the "Robert Redford ex wife" and move on. That's a massive mistake. Honestly, the story of Lola Van Wagenen is less about being a celebrity spouse and more about a woman who quietly became one of the most influential historians and activists of her generation.
The Marriage That "Saved" Robert Redford
Redford has been pretty blunt about this over the years. He was 22, she was 19, and they eloped to Las Vegas in 1958. Looking back, the actor admitted that getting married so young was basically a survival tactic. "I have to say it was to save my life. That's what it felt like at the time," he told The Telegraph in 2001.
They didn't have a Hollywood lifestyle. They had $300 and a borrowed car.
They settled in New York while Redford tried to get his acting legs. But while he was becoming a household name in films like Barefoot in the Park, Lola was dealing with the kind of personal tragedy that breaks most couples. Their first son, Scott, died of SIDS at just two months old in 1959.
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It was a "tough hit," as Redford put it. They didn't do "shared soul searching" or go to therapy—they just kept moving. They eventually had three more children: Shauna, James (who sadly passed away in 2020), and Amy.
Why the Divorce Happened (and Why It Was Weird)
You won’t find a messy tabloid scandal here. No cheating rumors, no public screaming matches. By the early 1980s, they had just... drifted.
The interesting thing is that they never actually announced their separation. It wasn’t until 1982 that a columnist noticed they hadn’t been living together for years. They officially divorced in 1985 after 27 years of marriage.
Redford was devastated by the failure of the marriage, mostly because he didn't want to be a "showbusiness casualty." He wanted to prove that a Hollywood marriage could last. But Lola had other plans. She wasn't content being a "plus-one" at premieres anymore. She wanted her own degree, her own career, and her own voice.
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Lola Van Wagenen: The Historian You’ve Never Heard Of
While Redford was busy making Out of Africa, Lola was hitting the books. She didn't just take a few classes; she went all the way.
- She got her bachelor's from Vermont College in 1982.
- She earned a master's in public history from NYU in 1984.
- She finally capped it off with a Ph.D. in American History from NYU in 1994.
Think about that. She was a grandmother finishing a doctoral dissertation. Her work on Mormon women and the suffrage movement—specifically her book Sister-Wives and Suffragists—is still cited by academics today.
She also co-founded Consumer Action Now (CAN) in 1970. This wasn't some vanity project. CAN was a powerhouse that taught housewives how their buying habits affected the environment long before "being green" was a trend. She even helped organize "SunDay" in New York in 1978 to promote solar energy.
Life After Redford
Lola eventually remarried in 2002 to George Burrill, a guy involved in international development. She moved to Vermont and leaned into her work with Clio Visualizing History, a non-profit she started to make history more accessible through documentaries and digital media.
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If you ever watched the PBS documentary Miss America, you’ve seen her work—she was the executive producer.
What We Can Learn From Her Journey
- Identity isn't fixed. You can be a wife at 19 and a Ph.D. at 50.
- Privacy is a choice. Lola managed to remain "Lola" even when married to one of the most famous men on Earth. She proved you can exist in that world without being consumed by it.
- Grief can be a catalyst. The loss of her two sons (Scott and later James) clearly informed her focus on family and legacy.
Moving Forward
If you're researching the Redford legacy, don't stop at the filmography. Look into the Clio Visualizing History archives or read up on the early environmental movements of the 1970s. You'll find Lola's fingerprints all over them.
The most actionable takeaway from her life? It’s never too late to resume an education or pivot into a completely different field. She lived the first half of her life in the shadow of the "Sundance Kid," but she spent the second half building a sun of her own.
To understand the full impact of this family, you should look into the work of their daughter, Amy Redford, who has carried on both her father's filmmaking legacy and her mother's academic rigor through her own directing projects.