Robert Redford has experienced profound personal tragedy, having outlived two of his four children, which he has described as creating a permanent, unhealed scar of grief. He lost his firstborn son, Scott, to SIDS in 1959, and his son James to bile duct cancer in 2020. These losses influenced his life and work, particularly his directorial debut, Ordinary People , with Redford relying on privacy and family to process the trauma.