In 1959, Robert Redford was “humiliated” on live TV. 35 years later, he made a movie about it

In 1959, struggling actor Robert Redford appeared on the live game show *Play Your Hunch* for a promised $75, which he needed while his wife was pregnant. Instead of cash, he was given a fishing rod said to be worth that amount, an experience he later described as humiliating.

Thirty-five years later, Redford directed *Quiz Show*, a drama about the 1950s quiz-show scandal in which contestants were sometimes secretly given answers to fix results. The scandal reached Congress and led to laws banning networks from manipulating quiz and game shows; some implicated programmes were taken off air and people involved lost television work. The article suggests Redford’s earlier experience may have given him a personal connection to the subject, though he never claimed a direct link.