Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian and activist best known as the first wife of actor and director Robert Redford, to whom she was married for 27 years, from 1958 to 1985. After the marriage she returned to university, earned a PhD in American history, co-founded two non-profit organisations, helped change American environmental law, and became an executive producer of documentary films. Born on December 19, 1938, in Provo, Utah, she met Redford in Los Angeles in 1957, aged 19 to his 20, and married him in Las Vegas on August 9, 1958.
They had four children — Scott, Shauna, James and Amy — and two died before their father: Scott as a baby in 1959, and James, known as Jamie, of cancer in 2020 at 58. Redford died on September 16, 2025, at 89, at his home in Utah. Since then, much written about her is thin or wrong, so this article sticks to what can be verified, and flags where the record is uncertain.
Lola Van Wagenen Early Life
Lola Van Wagenen was born in Provo, Utah, on December 19, 1938, and grew up in a Mormon family there. Provo is a university city, home to Brigham Young University, which she briefly attended, and as an adult she explored other religious and philosophical thought, though her Utah roots stayed with her. Her children later grew up between New York and Utah. She met Redford in Los Angeles in 1957, shortly after he had returned from studying art in Europe, when he was 20 and she was 19, and they married within a year. She left university to move to New York with him, and it would be more than twenty years before she went back to finish her own education.
Marriage to Robert Redford
Lola Van Wagenen married Robert Redford in Las Vegas on August 9, 1958. He was 22, had not yet appeared in a film, and the wedding was a small, private affair. The couple had very little money; Redford reportedly had only about 300 dollars in the bank when they married.
They settled in New York City, where Redford worked on the stage, living in a small apartment while Lola supported the household. His breakthrough came in the 1960s with Barefoot in the Park, and by the end of the decade he was one of the most famous actors in America after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969.
The photograph in this article shows the couple in the White House on March 6, 1975, at the height of Redford’s fame. Taken by White House photographer David Hume Kennerly during a visit to President Gerald Ford, it is one of the few verified public-domain photographs of her.
Lola Van Wagenen Children: Scott, Shauna, James and Amy
Scott Anthony Redford
Their first child, Scott Anthony Redford, was born on September 1, 1959, in New York, and died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in November 1959, aged only two and a half months. He is buried at Provo City Cemetery in Provo, Utah. Sources disagree on the day — November 17 or 19 — so only the month is given.
Shauna Jean Redford
Their second child and first daughter, Shauna Jean Redford, was born on November 15, 1960. She became a painter, graduating with an art degree from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1985. She is married to author Eric Schlosser, and they have two children, Mica and Connor.
David James “Jamie” Redford
Their second son, David James Redford, known as Jamie, was born on May 5, 1962, and became a documentary filmmaker and environmental activist. As a teenager he had health problems at first misdiagnosed, and was eventually found to have primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare disease damaging the bile ducts in the liver. He had two liver transplants in 1993 and founded the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness.
In 2019, while on the transplant list again, doctors found cancer in his bile duct. He died of bile-duct cancer on October 16, 2020, at his home in Marin County, California, at 58. He left two children, Dylan and Lena Redford.
Amy Hart Redford
Their youngest child, Amy Hart Redford, was born on October 22, 1970. Like her brother Jamie, she went into film, as an actress, director and producer. She grew up between New York and Utah, and was 54 when her father died in September 2025.
Divorce From Robert Redford
Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford were married for 27 years, but the marriage ended quietly and the details were never made public. In October 1982, columnist Shirley Eder reported they had been apart for a number of years. Many websites date the divorce to 1985, but as late as 1991 Parade reported “it is unclear whether the divorce has been finalized”, so the exact legal date was never confirmed publicly.
That uncertainty has caused many errors: some say the marriage lasted 20 years and others “nearly 30 years”, but 1958 to 1985 is 27 years. After the divorce, Redford married German artist Sibylle Szaggars in 2009, and they were married until his death in 2025; Van Wagenen remarried in 2002.
Lola Van Wagenen Career and Activism
Van Wagenen’s public career began in 1970, while she was still married to Redford, when she co-founded Consumer Action Now (CAN), then known as Lola Redford. CAN was a not-for-profit educational organisation based in New York City, and she was its co-chair for ten years. Its members included Ilene Goldman, then wife of screenwriter William Goldman, and about a dozen others.
CAN ran consumer and environmental education programmes on how buying habits affected the environment, and published a monthly newsletter from 1970 to 1973, for which Van Wagenen wrote articles and did research.
Her activism had real legislative results. In 1972 she organised the Environmental Action Forum and CAN’s political action council, which lobbied for the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Both passed in 1976.
From 1975 to 1977 she developed the Sun Fund, raising awareness of energy conservation and alternative energy, which led to The Solar Film, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1980. In 1978 she organised SunDay in New York, a three-day celebration of solar energy, with speakers including Margaret Mead, Barry Commoner, Pete Seeger and Amory Lovins.
In 1979 and 1980 she organised the Women’s Energy Education Project, working with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Energy to publish Women’s Energy Handbook and Women’s Energy Toolkit.
Education and the PhD
Van Wagenen went back to university in her forties, receiving her bachelor’s degree from Vermont College in 1982 and her master’s in public history from New York University in 1984. In 1994 she completed her PhD in American history at New York University.
Her doctoral dissertation was published in 2003 as Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870-1896, about Mormon women and their role in the fight for the vote in the nineteenth century. Her Wikipedia profile gives her PhD year as 1994 in one place and 1995 in another, so this article uses 1994, the year most sources give.
Clio Visualizing History and Film Work
In 1995, after her PhD, Van Wagenen co-founded Clio Visualizing History, Inc. with historian Jeanne Houck, to bring American history to a broad public audience through film and the internet; in 2003 it became a not-for-profit educational organisation.
As executive producer she worked on Miss America: A Documentary Film (PBS, January 2002) and The State of Marriage (2015), about the fight for marriage equality.
Life After Robert Redford
On July 17, 2002, Lola Van Wagenen married George Burrill in Shelburne, Vermont. Burrill is founder of international development firm ARD and Honorary Consul from New Zealand to Vermont. The couple have lived in Vermont since their marriage. In 2011, Burrill was a United States delegate to the United States New Zealand Partnership Forum in Christchurch when a devastating earthquake struck the city; after his return, the couple organised a fundraiser that raised more than 70,000 dollars for earthquake recovery programmes.
When Robert Redford died on September 16, 2025, Van Wagenen was 86. She is now 87 and turns 88 on December 19, 2026. Like Elizabeth Huberdeau, the first wife of John Cena, and Melissa Womer, the first wife of Jim Carrey, she is often introduced only through her famous former husband, but deserves to be known for what she did herself.
Lola Van Wagenen Net Worth
There is no verified net worth figure for Lola Van Wagenen, and this article does not publish one as fact. Websites contradict each other, saying 1 million, 2 million, 5 million, 15 million and 18 million dollars. One claims she earned her money from acting and endorsements, which is false: she was never an actress. Another claims she founded “Charity XYZ” and co-owned “Company ABC”, plainly invented names.
What Other Biographies Get Wrong About Lola Van Wagenen
Several errors about Lola Van Wagenen are repeated online. First, her birthday: one profile gives December 12, 1938, but the correct date is December 19, 1938. Second, her marriage: some say 20 years and others nearly 30, but August 9, 1958, to the divorce in 1985 is 27 years. Third, Redford’s death: most reliable sources, including Britannica, record September 16, 2025, at 89, while some give September 18 or September 25. Fourth, her PhD: sources say 1994 and 1995, and her own Wikipedia page says both; this article uses 1994.
Fifth, photographs: pictures of Sibylle Szaggars, Redford’s second wife, have been labelled as Lola Van Wagenen, while the photograph here, from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, is verified. Sixth, net worth: the online figures of 1 million to 18 million dollars are unsourced and contradictory, and one site invents an acting career for her. Seventh, one article confuses her with a different person and claims she was married to investor Jim Rogers; she was not, and her husbands were Robert Redford and George Burrill.
Our profiles of Sonji Roi, the first wife of Muhammad Ali, and Christopher Harvest, the former husband of Vivica A. Fox, take the same approach. Find more profiles like this one in our Celebrity section, and on our homepage.
Lola Van Wagenen FAQs
Who was Lola Van Wagenen?
Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian and activist, born on December 19, 1938, in Provo, Utah. She is best known as the first wife of actor Robert Redford, married from 1958 to 1985, and she co-founded Consumer Action Now and Clio Visualizing History.
How many children did Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford have?
They had four children: Scott, who died of SIDS at two and a half months old in 1959; Shauna, a painter married to author Eric Schlosser; Jamie, a filmmaker who died of bile-duct cancer in 2020 at 58; and Amy, an actress and director — plus seven grandchildren.
Why did Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford divorce?
The reason was never stated publicly by either of them. They separated in the early 1980s after 27 years, and the divorce is generally dated to 1985, though the exact legal date was never confirmed.
Is Lola Van Wagenen still alive?
Yes. Lola Van Wagenen is alive and living in Vermont with her second husband, George Burrill, whom she married in 2002.
What is Lola Van Wagenen’s net worth?
There is no verified net worth figure for Lola Van Wagenen. Websites give figures from 1 million to 18 million dollars, but none cites a source, and they contradict each other.
