Ali MacGraw shot to fame in Hollywood almost instantly. However, just as fast as she became a star, she vanished from the entertainment scene completely.
Now, at 84 years old, the actress lives in a small, quiet town, and she’s embracing her age with her beautiful grey hair.
Ali MacGraw
Ali MacGraw, whose full name is Elizabeth Alice MacGraw, came into the world on April 1, 1939, in Pound Ridge, New York, USA. Her mom, Frances, was an artist and taught at a school in Paris before moving to Greenwich Village. She tied the knot with Richard MacGraw, who was also an artist. So, in 1939, Ali was born.
Ali’s father Richard supposedly had issues from his own childhood which made him a little bit different from others.
He had survived a terrible childhood in an orphanage, running away at the age of 16 to go to sea. He would later study at an art school in Munich, Germany.
“Daddy was frightened and really, really angry. He never forgave his real parents for giving him up,” Ali explained, saying said her father’s adult life was spent “suppressing the rage that covered all his hurt.”
Ali MacGraw – childhood
Money was short for their family, too. Frances and Richard, together with Ali and her brother, Richard Jr, had to move into a house on a Pound Ridge wilderness preserve which they shared with an elderly couple.
“There were no doors; we shared the kitchen and bathroom with them,” Ali said. “It was utter lack of privacy. It was horrible.”
Mom Francis worked with several commercial-art assignments and supported the family. At the same time, Richard had a hard time selling his paintings, and as a result became very frustrated. Ali’s brother Richard became a victim for his anger at home.
“On good days he was great, but on bad days he was horrendous,” she recalled. “Daddy would beat my brother up, badly. I was witness to it, and it was terrible.”
Ali was the daughter of artists, and she knew that she, too, wanted to go into a creative line of work as she got older. She earned a scholarship at the prep school Rosemary Hall, and in 1956, she moved to study at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
By the age of 22, Ali MacGraw moved to New York and got her first job as an assistant editor at Harper’s Bazaar, working with photographers as an assistant.
Fashion work in New York
Fashion editor Diana Vreeland hired Ali as, what she recalls as, a “flunkie”. Ever seen the film The Devil Wears Prada? Well, it was pretty much that.
“It was ‘Girl! Get me a pencil!’,” MacGraw recalled.
The future Hollywood celebrity worked her job as an assistant for several months. Then, about six months in, fashion photographer Melvin Sokolsky noticed her beautiful looks, and Ali MacGraw was hired as a stylist,and given a better salary. She’d end up staying in that position for six years.
“I don’t know where she got this work ethic, but Ali would come in at eight a.m., and many times I’d come back at one in the morning and she would still be doing things for the next day,” Ruth Ansel, a former art director of Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar recalls.
Ali was great as a stylist. But soon, she was asked to work in front of the cameras as a model. It didn’t take long before she was on magazine covers all over the world, even appearing in television commercials. For thing led to another, and Ali tumbled headfirst into the profession of acting.
Ali MacGraw had been drawn in the nude by Salvador Dali a few years back. But when the famous surrealist artist started to suck on her toes, MacGraw realized she preferred being an actress over a model.
Ali MacGraw – films
Ali jumped from being an unknown stylist right into the movie scene, and she made quite the entrance.
She had no formal training in acting, which actually made her performances even more unique. Her natural beauty was breathtaking, and audiences were captivated by her.
After a small part in the film A Lovely Way to Die (1968), she was offered a leading role in the 1969 movie Goodbye, Columbus. This turned out to be a fantastic decision, as MacGraw won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. The next year, she landed a major international role that would define her career.
Ali received a script from her agent and was so moved by it that she cried twice while reading. She was determined to get a role in the film and arranged a meeting with the producer Robert Evans, who was the head of production at Paramount Pictures, at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills. Evans not only thought she was the perfect fit for the movie Love Story, but he also fell head over heels for her.
In Love Story, MacGraw played the character Jenny alongside Ryan O’Neal. This American romantic drama, where Ali portrayed a working-class college student, became a huge success.
Love Story hit the cinemas in 1970, and wow did the audience cherish it. It became the No. 1 film in the United States, and at the time, it was the sixth highest grossing movie in history in the US and Canada.
Award-winning actress
Ali MacGraw got nominated for an Academy Award because of her amazing performance in a movie, and the film itself won her another award along with five more nominations. She also snagged her second Golden Globe for being the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.
Film producer Robert Evans not only admired her talent on screen but also fell in love with her in real life, and she felt the same way. They got married in 1969, and two years later, they had a son named Josh Evans.
In the 1970s, Ali MacGraw was the rising star everyone was talking about, but her personal life and marriage to Evans didn’t last forever. When Steve McQueen came over to their house to ask her to be in The Getaway, the chemistry between them was instant.
“I looked in those blue eyes, and my knees started knocking,” MacGraw recalled. “I became obsessed.”
MacGraw and McQueen were involved in a romantic relationship, and she quickly decided to leave Evans to move in with the actor in Malibu, taking her son Josh with her.
“Steve was such a unique and principled person who felt like he was outside of the usual crowd, and I really admired that,” she shared.
Ali MacGraw – Steve McQueen
But after a while, Ali realized that Steve McQueen had his own problems. Following his father abandoning his mother, a then-14-year-old Steve was sent to a school for delinquent children. MacGraw said he never trusted women after that.
(Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
He wasn’t happy that she had a job and a career of her own. For some time, Ali chose to stay at home to take care of their sons. However, her husband’s expectations were something Ali just couldn’t deal with forever.
On top of that, he would get really angry if she even glanced at another guy. He also insisted that she sign a prenup, which meant she wouldn’t ask for anything if they ever got divorced. She followed that agreement when they ended their marriage in 1978.
“I couldn’t even go to art class because Steve expected his ‘old lady’ to be there every night with dinner on the table,” she recalled.
“Steve’s idea of hot was not me. He liked blond bimbos, and they were always around.”
This marked the beginning of a really tough period for MacGraw. When she showed up on the set of the 1978 movie Convoy, she was both drunk and high, which led her to decide to stop using drugs.
Stepping away from acting
During this time, many of her films, like Players (1970) and Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), didn’t do well at the box office.
“It’s brutal for women,” MacGraw told The Guardian about returning to show business in the late 1970s.
I believe that any woman over 40 who has been in the public eye probably gets really tired of the way the media and fashion world treat them. It can be really harsh.
Ali MacGraw was a big star in Hollywood for a little while. After that, she chose to focus on interior design, but she still did some acting. She was in the TV miniseries The Winds of War in 1983 and China Rose in 1985, but then things took a turn for the worse in her life.
Ali MacGraw found it really hard to get roles in movies, and she started to feel like she wasn’t good enough. At the same time, she felt incomplete without a partner, saying that being in love felt like being on a high from a drug.
She felt really lonely and hopeless, so she started drinking a lot. In 1986, she decided to go to the Betty Ford Clinic in California to get help.
“The worst things happened when I was drinking,” she explained. “I lost my ability to think straight; I even had feelings for other women’s husbands.”
Family troubles
Her son, Josh Evans, was 15 at the time and it was tough for him to see his mom in pain. MacGraw spent 30 days in group therapy and came out feeling much stronger.
In 1993, another sad event happened when her house in California was destroyed by a wildfire. After that, she chose to leave Los Angeles and moved to a town close to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“I live in a little village north of Santa Fe, New Mexico called Tesuque,” she revealed last year.
McGraw’s neighbors don’t think of her as a former Hollywood star; instead, they really value all the community service she’s been involved in.
For instance, she has volunteered at the annual International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Even though Ali MacGraw stepped away from acting, she returned to the stage in 2006. She teamed up again with her Love Story co-star Ryan O’Neal for a Broadway version of the Danish movie Festen.
Besides her time on Broadway, MacGraw has mostly stayed out of the limelight for the past few decades. She has dedicated herself to animal rights and has created many popular yoga videos.
In an interview with the Herald-Tribune back in 2019, MacGraw mentioned that she is still excited about trying new things and taking on new projects.
“One of the great things about being my age is that I’m open-minded and curious,” MacGraw shared. “I don’t just have one passion that I can’t live without. But I do know that I feel unhappy if I’m not involved in something creative.”
Josh Evans – Ali MacGraw
Even though Ali has stepped away from acting, her family remains connected to the industry. Her son, Josh Evans, is both an actor and a director, and he has made a solid reputation for himself in Hollywood.
Plus, he really resembles his mom!
Growing up as the son of famous Hollywood stars Robert Evans and Ali MacGraw definitely came with a lot of expectations.
For Josh Evans, who was born in January 1971, he always knew he wanted to be part of the entertainment world.
Interestingly, his first dream job wasn’t acting at all. He didn’t really picture himself in front of the camera; it just kind of happened that way.
In 1989, he landed a small role in the movie Dream a Little Dream, but he was eager for more. As a teenager with nothing to hold him back, he would often visit the manager’s office to check out the lists of movies that were being cast.
Josh Evans – actor & director
That’s when he met someone he recognized in famous director Oliver Stone. He was making Born on the Fourth of July at the time, starring Tom Cruise. And Josh wanted in.
“At the time I just knew [Oliver Stone] from Platoon. He was making a movie with Tom Cruise and there was a role for the little brother. I wanted to play that part, so he got me a meeting with Oliver Stone,” Josh Evans recalls.
When I was hanging out with Oliver, he asked me, “Oh, do you really think you look like Tom Cruise?” At the time, I didn’t realize he was joking, so I replied, “Yeah, I totally do.” Then he said, “We’ll see what happens.” Fast forward four months, and I got a call to audition for a role, and guess what? I landed it! It was super exciting, and you could just tell that the movie was going to be something special.
Since that moment, Josh has had an awesome career in both acting and directing. He was in the movie The Doors back in 1991, and ever since then, he’s been busy with both acting and directing projects.
With eight films on his resume as a director, he actually had Michael Madsen starring in his 2015 film Death in the Desert. But what does he like best?
“I am definitely more comfortable on the side of the camera that does not show myself,” Josh Evans says.
If a cool chance comes my way, I wouldn’t say no to it. I believe there are others who are better suited and really want it more than I do. When it comes to directing and sharing my stories, I’d happily do that without pay, but acting feels more like a job, even though I have fun doing it.
Josh Evans – family
Josh is a really good-looking guy, and you can totally see how much he looks like his mom, Ali MacGraw, especially with his big, amazing eyes.
In 2019, his dad, Robert Evans, who was Ali’s ex-husband, sadly passed away. But the family has great memories of being together when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
Josh has been married two times. He tied the knot with American singer and musician Roxy Saint in October 2012. By that time, their son Jackson was already two years old, and Grandma Ali MacGraw loves hanging out with her wonderful family.
— roxysaint (@roxysaint) October 30, 2019
“He’s so wonderful,” MacGraw said about her son. “He’s my favorite human being on the planet, and he goes out with a girl I’m nuts about. Their relationship is so much about, among other things, friendship and respect.”
Ali MacGraw and Josh Evans surely are very proud of their wonderful family. We wish them all the best in the future, and who knows, maybe we’ll see them on the same stage or movie set in the future?
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