Ali MacGraw

Elizabeth Alice MacGraw (born April 1, 1939) is an American actress. For her role in Goodbye, Columbus (1969) she won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She then starred in Love Story (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1972, MacGraw was voted the top female film star in the world<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was honored with a hands and footprints ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after having made just three films. She went on to star in The Getaway (1972), Convoy (1978), Players (1979), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), and The Winds of War (1983). In 1991, she published an autobiography, Moving Pictures.

Early life

MacGraw was born in Pound Ridge, New York,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the daughter of commercial artists Frances (née Klein)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Richard MacGraw.<ref name=Weller/> She has one brother, Dick, an artist.<ref name=Weller/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Her mother was Hungarian Jewish, the daughter of emigrants from Budapest, Hungary, while her father had Scottish ancestry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> MacGraw's mother chose not to disclose her ancestry to Ali's father, instead professing ignorance about it. "I think Daddy was bigoted," MacGraw has said.<ref name=Weller/><ref name=asl>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ref11">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Her mother was considered a "pioneer" as an artist, who had taught in Paris before settling in Greenwich Village. Her parents married when her mother was nearing 35: "My gorgeous father: a combination of Tyrone Power and a mystery, a brilliant artist and a brain beyond brains."<ref name=Weller/> He was born in New Jersey with his childhood spent in an orphanage. He ran away to sea when he was 16 and studied art in Munich. MacGraw adds, "Daddy was frightened and really, really angry. He never forgave his real parents for giving him up."<ref name=Weller/> As an adult, he constantly suppressed the rage he built up against his parents.<ref name=Weller/> She described her father as "violent".<ref name=theater>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

MacGraw attended Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut and graduated from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1960.<ref name=Weller/>

Career

Early career

Beginning in 1960, MacGraw spent six years working at Harper's Bazaar magazine as a photographic assistant to fashion maven Diana Vreeland.<ref name=Weller/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She worked at Vogue magazine as a fashion model and as a photographer's stylist. She has also worked as an interior designer.<ref>"ALI MACGRAW + IBU MOVEMENT". Interior Monologue. May 15, 2024.</ref> She was photographed for a Chanel ad in 1966.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Film and television

With Richard Benjamin in Goodbye, Columbus (1969)

MacGraw began her acting career in television commercials, including one for the Polaroid Swinger camera.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In one commercial for International Paper, she was on a beach in a bikini made of Confil and went for a swim underwater to prove its strength and durability. MacGraw gained widespread attention with Goodbye, Columbus (1969), her first leading role, but real stardom came when she starred opposite Ryan O'Neal in Love Story (1970), one of the highest-grossing films in U.S. history.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film, and MacGraw's performance in particular, received widespread critical acclaim, and earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Following Love Story, MacGraw was celebrated on the cover of Time.

Ali MacGraw placing her hand prints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1972

In 1972, after appearing in just three films, she had her footprints and autograph engraved at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. She then starred opposite Steve McQueen in The Getaway (1972), which was one of the year's top ten films at the box office. Having taken a five-year break from acting, in 1978 MacGraw re-emerged in another box office hit, Convoy (1978), opposite Kris Kristofferson. She then appeared in the films Players (1979) and Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), directed by Sidney Lumet.

In 1983, MacGraw starred in the highly successful television miniseries The Winds of War. In 1985, MacGraw joined hit ABC prime-time soap opera Dynasty as Lady Ashley Mitchell, which, she admitted in a 2011 interview, she did for the money.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She appeared in 14 episodes of the show before her character was killed off in the "Moldavian Massacre" cliffhanger episode in 1985.

Ali MacGraw in The Getaway, 1972

She also hosted segments for the Encore Love Stories premium cable network in the late 1990s and 2000s.

In February 2021, MacGraw and O'Neal were honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 50 years after the release of Love Story.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Stage

MacGraw made her Broadway theater debut in New York City in 2006 as a dysfunctional matriarch in the drama Festen (The Celebration).<ref name=theater/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2016, MacGraw reunited with Ryan O'Neal in a staging of A.R. Gurney's play Love Letters, which toured the US and UK through 2017.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Magazine recognition

In 1991, People magazine selected MacGraw as one of its "50 Most Beautiful People" in the World.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 2008, GQ magazine listed her in their "Sexiest 25 Women in Film Ever" edition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Yoga

Having become a Hatha Yoga devotee in her early 50s, MacGraw produced a yoga video with the American Yoga Master Erich Schiffmann, Ali MacGraw Yoga Mind and Body. The impact of this bestselling video was such that in June 2007, Vanity Fair magazine credited MacGraw with being one of the people responsible for the practice's recent popularity in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Animal welfare

In July 2006, MacGraw filmed a public service announcement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), urging residents to take their pets with them in the event of wildfires.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> In 2007, she advocated to ban cock fighting in New Mexico.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2008, she wrote the foreword to the book Pawprints of Katrina<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> by author Cathy Scott and photography by Clay Myers about Best Friends Animal Society and the largest pet rescue in U.S. history.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> MacGraw is also a U.S. Ambassador for animal welfare charity Animals Asia. She has been a life long lover of Scottish Terriers, now having her sixth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An animal welfare advocate throughout her life, she received the Humane Education Award by Animal Protection of New Mexico for speaking out about animal issues.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

While in college, MacGraw met German Canadian Robert "Robin" Martin Hoen, a Harvard-educated banker, and the couple married on October 29, 1960.<ref name=autobio>Template:Cite book</ref> They divorced in July 1962.<ref name=autobio/><ref name=Flippo>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Hoen died on September 13, 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Following her first divorce, MacGraw had a string of relationships and one abortion; the procedure was still illegal at the time.<ref name="people">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1979, MacGraw's mother, who was 38 when she gave birth to her, revealed that she had an abortion of her own in the early 1920s.<ref name="people"/>

With Robert Evans in 1972

On October 24, 1969, MacGraw married film producer Robert Evans.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Their son, Josh Evans, is an actor, director, producer and screenwriter. They separated in 1972 after she became involved in a public affair with Steve McQueen on the set of The Getaway. MacGraw's divorce from Evans was finalized on June 7, 1973, and on July 12, she married McQueen in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They divorced in August 1978.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In the nearly half-century since her divorce from McQueen, MacGraw has never remarried. She dated Warren Beatty, Rick Danko<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>, Bill Hudson, Ronald Meyer<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>, Rod Stryker, Fran Tarkenton, Peter Weller<ref name=Weller/>, Henry Wolf<ref name=Weller/> and Mickey Raphael.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Flippo/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

MacGraw's autobiography, Moving Pictures, revealed her struggles with alcohol and sex addiction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was treated for the former at the Betty Ford Center.

When ex-husband Evans received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002, she accompanied him. Their grandson Jackson was born in December 2010 to Josh and his wife, singer Roxy Saint.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After Evans' 2019 death, MacGraw told The Hollywood Reporter, "Our son, Joshua, and I will miss Bob tremendously, and we are so very proud of his enormous contribution to the film industry."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Evans told Vanity Fair in 2010 that MacGraw had been a close friend of his despite their divorce.<ref name=Weller/>

MacGraw has lived in Tesuque, New Mexico, since 1994, after the house she rented in Malibu was destroyed by a fire.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was originally intended to make a cameo as herself in the Breaking Bad episode "Grey Matter" as a guest at the birthday party of character Elliott Schwartz, set in Santa Fe, but her appearance did not make the final cut of the episode.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	A Lovely Way to Die	Melody
1969	Goodbye, Columbus	Brenda Patimkin	Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress Nominated—BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer
1970	Love Story	Jennifer Cavilleri	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
1972	The Getaway	Carol McCoy
1978	Convoy	Melissa
1979	Players	Nicole Boucher
1980	Just Tell Me What You Want	Bones Burton
1985	Murder Elite	Diane Baker
1994	Natural Causes	Fran Jakes
1997	Glam	Lynn Travers
1999	Get Bruce	Herself

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	The Winds of War	Natalie Jastrow	Miniseries
	China Rose	Rose	TV movie
1985	Dynasty	Lady Ashley Mitchell	14 episodes
1992	Survive the Savage Sea	Claire Carpenter	TV movie
1993	Gunsmoke: The Long Ride	Uncle Jane Merkel

Documentaries

Year	Title
2002	The Trail of the Painted Ponies
2005	Passion & Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah
2007	Do You Sleep in the Nude?
2009	Split Estate
2010	Landscapes of Enchantment
2012	Valles Caldera: The Science

External links

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