James Redford, Filmmaker And Son of Robert Redford, Dies At 58

[appalachiablue]

Source: Entertainment

James Redford, a filmmaker, activist, and the son of Robert Redford, died Friday at the age of 58 from cancer.

His wife, Kyle Redford, announced the news on Twitter. "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."

Through his representative, Robert Redford released a statement about his son's passing."The grief is immeasurable with the loss of a child. Jamie was a loving son, husband and father," the statement read. "His legacy lives on through his children, art, filmmaking and devoted passion to conservation and the environment. Robert Redford is mourning with his family during this difficult time and asks for privacy."

In an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Kyle confirmed that her husband died from bile-duct cancer in his liver. His past liver disease had returned 2 years ago, and the cancer was found in his bile duct in November as he was awaiting a liver transplant.

The filmmaker often focused on the environment, science, and education, in documentaries he directed and produced, like The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia, Paper Tigers, Resilience, and 2017's Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution. Redford's 1999 documentary, The Kindness of Strangers, which he produced, was inspired by his own experience receiving two liver transplants from strangers.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/james-redford-filmmaker-and-son-of-robert-redford-dies-at-58/ar-BB1abpXq

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[Satch59]

1. That's heartbreaking...

I’ve seen some of his docs on the environment and other issues...talented filmmaker and knew about his health issues throughout his life. Peace to their family...

[Ms. Toad]

2. My daughter has the same two underlying diseases he had.

She is screened twice a year for the cancer that took his life. It is the one we are all terrified of. There is no cure, and it is hard to detect early enough to treated by liver transplant - and, depending on location - often can't be treated at all.

We met Jamie in 2009, 3 months after my daughter's diagnosis. He was then 16 years out from his first two transplants (the first failed quickly), and disease free. One of the challenging aspects of this disease (PSC) is that getting a transplant is not a cure - it just replaces the organ that the immune system attacks without solving the underlying haywire immune system. He apparently made it 25 years before it recurred and, shortly thereafter, got the dreaded CCA (cholangiocarcinoma - bile duct cancer). We have friends who have had 5 transplants.

My daughter, at the time, was traveling to Boston every 8 weeks or so to take part in the first adult trial of using vancomycin to treat PSC. Jamie was doing a fund raiser for organ transplants. We wrote him a note hoping he had a meet-and-greet for people with the same rare disease he shares with my daughter. He didn't, but offered to meet with us. We spent an hour so so chatting with him about his journey, his dad's lack of medical savvy - but his willingness to do anything for his son, poop (a common discussion among those with UC/PSC). Kind, gracious, generous - and encouraging since the average time to death or transplant when my then 18-year-old daughter was diagnosed was 10 years. She turned 30 this summer, and seems to be on the slow track with this disease. That is good - and bad. It impacts her liver enough that she is exhausted all the time - it feels as if she is constantly living with the flu. She has yet to graduate from college, despite being the valedictorian of her high school, and still lives at home with us. Until she has a transplant, she is unlikely to be able to live fully.

This news comes 3 days after we learned of another friend with PSC moving into hospice, after learning that he is not eligible for a transplant.

I hate this damn disease. (And, in case I need to say it, I hate Trump's push to strip my daughter of her access to health insurance that allows her to continue the semi-annual scans that stand between her the cancer that took Jamie's life, and of access to the $20,000 infusions she needs every 7 weeks to keep her UC in remission.)

[colorado_ufo]

5. Thank you for sharing your story.

Our family is dealing with medullary thyroid cancer. Your courage strengthens mine.

[appalachiablue]

7. Thank you for sharing your story & wishing your daughter

and your family continued love and patience in handling her heath matters.

A few years ago I was first introduced to James and his work with the negative health effects of toxic chemicals, mainly fire retardants. He made a film on the topic.

Several years ago James also made a film on dyslexia, HBO, 'The Big Picture' because of his son Dylan's challenges with it. From an interiew about it I saw, James seemed like a truly kind and special man and also his educator wife Kyle.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/film-tv/article/1935763/filmmaker-james-redford-his-famous-father-and

Here's James, and his son below with Robert Redford; how similar they are in apprearance, what I'd call strawberry redheads.



- James Redford, Robert Redford and grandson Dylan Redford, James' son.

[Ilsa]

16. Such a lovely picture.

James has an expression that leads me to believe he led a life full of joy. He exudes inner peace.

[hlthe2b]

9. Thanks for sharing your personal story. I had a friend of a friend who did a post doc in genetics

of PSC. while I have since lost track of him and don't know if he still works in that area, I noted a published study from Mayo in just the last couple of days. I didn't have the chance to thoroughly read, but it sounds like there is some progress on that score.

James clearly made a difference in his years fighting the disease and got to live a pretty full life it seems. I wish the same for your brave daughter.

for James all who suffer. May the future be far brighter

[Ms. Toad]

13. They've been nibbling away at it.

Mayo is the center of such things.

For a rare disease, we have an amazingly large and close-knit community - and doctors from Mayo are deeply involved in it. Our community (PAC Partners Seeking a Cure) has funded millions of dollars of seed grants (several at the Mayo Clinic) - the earliest of which is an ongoing genetic study at Mayo (PROGRESS). Friday we have a large virtual meeting that will include the FDA and pharmaceutical companies, focused on identifying the areas of greatest need for drug development.

It is both a blessing and a curse to know (and be close to) so many families living with PSC. There is nothing like always being in touch with someone who knows what you are going through - because truly no one else understands what it is like living with this beast. But since this disease kills, we are always losing friends. Three days before Jamie died, we learned another friend is ineligible for a transplant, and will be receiving palliative care and entering hospice. A few days before that I learned that another friend for whom I had been screened as a live donor, is being listed again, 11 years after his first transplant. (Jamie was not part of this community. When we met him, the much more significant impact on his life was from UC - obviously this changed in the last couple of years.)

[Satch59]

11. Thank you for sharing...

And will keep your daughter in my thoughts. From what what I read about Jamie, he certainly put his talent to use in raising awareness of so many important issues and lived his life to the fullest.

This must be so hard as parents to have a child suffer. I wish you strength and love.

[Ms. Toad]

14. It is soul-crushing.

And the disease is so insidious that many of us initially believed our children were faking it when they would tell us things like, "I just can't concentrate enough to do my homework." Or go to school. So there is not only the terror of the disease itself, but often of years before diagnosis of believing (and treating) our children as lazy, rather than Ill - and a whole lot of guilt and damaged relationships to mend.

[Ilsa]

17. Saying a special prayer for her, that

she gets through this with a transplant, that she feels better during the interim, and she is able to stay on her insurance.

[mopinko]

18. my bil had a transplant from his son.

took 2 lobes and left 1. 6 mos later, both had whole functioning livers.
age of miracles and wonder it is.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. He looks a lot like

his dad in this picture.

RIP, James!

[Ms. Toad]

4. He is the spitting image.

We had the chance to meet him in person - my daughter is living with the same underlying disease. It was very surreal for us parents, who grew up watching his father in films, to sit chatting about poop with someone who looks so much like his father. (Our daughter didn't kow who his father was . . .)

[Sherman A1]

6. Sad

[hlthe2b]

8. Wow. He looked a LOT like Robert. That is a tremendous loss.

My thoughts to all.

[hkp11]

10. so sad

RIP

Wishing all who have the same cancer the best.

[Yeehah]

12. I'm guessing his dad is really proud of the life his son led

James seems to have accomplished a lot of good in his life. Very sad to lose a good person.

[Bayard]

15. Sounds like he took up many of the same issues as his Dad

He was raised right.

I watched what my parents went through in losing my 3 older siblings. Parents are not supposed to outlive their kids.