Ali McGraw

Elizabeth Alice MacGraw was born on April 1, 1939 in Westchester County (New York). She, the daughter of a Hungarian and a Scotsman, had a very conflictive relationship with her father, as he declares that he had a ‘violent’ character. She studied at Wellesley College, a select center for girls.

She began her working life as a photography assistant at the illustrious fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, and later served as an assistant to latest trends expert Diana Vreeland at Vogue magazine for six years. She was also a model, stylist and interior decorator.

After appearing in a television commercial, he made his film debut with a very brief role in Assassins Syndicate , starring Kirk Douglas . He looked so good on the screen that in his second job they already gave him the leading role. It was about Sexual complicity , adaptation of a novel by Philip Roth , where she was a wealthy girl who falls in love with a humble librarian.

It was just the opposite, the poor thing that joins a boy from a good family, in his most famous film. Although she cried when the script for Love Story was handed over to her , as time went on she did not remember it as an outstanding film. “Now I no longer cry when I see it on the screen. It was a sensitive film, but not memorable,” explains the actress. For the tape, she earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

It was a social phenomenon, and catapulted MacGraw to fame around the world. But she has always known how to handle popularity very well. “If you want to be a star by making a fuss around you, you can do it, like John Travolta ,” explains the actress. “But I have chosen to live in a Malibu community where other famous actors live and no one turns their head every time Barbra Streisand walks by. I can go to the drugstore with ease, and my son Joshua has grown up normally.”

Love Story was produced by Paramount, whose alma mater at the time was the legendary Robert Evans , whom Aly MacGraw had been paired with after divorcing one Robin Hoen. Evans was destined to produce titles of the caliber of The Godfather and Chinatown , and was the father of the actress’s only son, Josh Evans , an actor in titles such as Born on the Fourth of July or The Doors .

She left Evans after falling into the arms of Steve McQueen , during the filming of Sam Peckinpah ‘s The Getaway . “When a woman leaves you, it’s not easy, it never is. But when that woman leaves you for the greatest actor in the world, let’s just say you feel very small,” recalls Evans in the fascinating documentary The Boy Who Gone Hollywood .

The idyll monopolized the covers of the tabloids, but it was not the only high-profile romance that began while this legendary film was being filmed, since Peckinpah himself married Joie Gould, the production assistant.

In his autobiography, “Moving Pictures”, MacGraw described his problems with alcohol. But she has generally been jealous of her private life, and she assures that she has never told the media anything about issues such as her relationship with Steve McQueen. “That’s why I’m surprised that sometimes supposed statements from me about these matters come out, and I feel like breaking everything,” she explains.

While she was attached to McQueen, MacGraw left the movies. She returned after their separation in 1978, to star again under Peckinpah’s orders in the film Convoy , where she was an attractive photographer in the midst of a truckers revolt against a despotic sheriff.

It was ironically Peckinpah’s biggest hit, even though he was unconvinced by the script and almost gave up several times. Subsequently, MacGraw’s star gradually faded, especially after the discreet Tell Me What You Want , in which she was a television producer who had an affair with a powerful businessman. Unfortunately, the great Sidney Lumet showed in this tape that comedy was not his thing.

Since then, Ali MacGraw has only excelled in series like Tides of War and Dynasty . Her last job was as a supporting role in the 1997 disaster drama Glam , in which she was cast because the director was her son.