Ali MacGraw shot to stardom in Hollywood in an instant. However, she completely vanished from the entertainment industry as soon as she became well-known.
The actress, who is now 84 years old, has made her home in a small, isolated community and is aging gracefully as her hair turns gray.
Ali MacGraw
Elizabeth Alice MacGraw, better known as Ali MacGraw, was born in Pound Ridge, New York, on April 1, 1939. Frances, her mother, was an artist who taught art at a school in Paris before moving to Greenwich Village. She got married to fellow artist Richard MacGraw. 1939 marked Ali’s birth.
Richard, Ali’s father, was reportedly somewhat different from other people because he had problems from his own upbringing.
He had fled to sea at the age of sixteen after escaping a dreadful upbringing in an orphanage. Later on, he planned to attend Munich, Germany’s art school.
“Daddy was frightened and really, really angry. He never forgave his real parents for giving him up,” Ali explained, saying her father’s adult life was spent “suppressing the rage that covered all his hurt.”
Ali MacGraw – childhood
Even for their family, money was tight. Frances and Richard were forced to move into a home on a Pound Ridge wilderness preserve where they shared it with an elderly couple, along with Ali and her brother Richard Jr.
“There were no doors; we shared the kitchen and bathroom with them,” Ali said. “It was utter lack of privacy. It was horrible.”
Mother Francis supported the family while working on multiple commercial art tasks. Richard was quite frustrated at the same time as he was having trouble selling his paintings. Richard, Ali’s brother, suffered as a result of his rage 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.”
Being the daughter of artists, Ali was certain that when she grew older, she too wanted to pursue a creative career. After receiving a scholarship from Rosemary Hall Prep School, she relocated to Wellesley College in Massachusetts to further her studies in 1956.
When Ali MacGraw was 22 years old, she relocated to New York and secured her first position as an assistant editor at Harper’s Bazaar, where she assisted photographers.
Fashion work in New York
Diana Vreeland, the fashion editor, hired Ali as a “flunkie,” in her words. Have you ever watched The Devil Wears Prada? That’s pretty much what it was, too.
“It was ‘Girl! Get me a pencil!’,” MacGraw recalled.
For several months, the future Hollywood star worked as an assistant. After roughly six months, Ali MacGraw was hired as a stylist and paid more after fashion photographer Melvin Sokolsky recognized her attractive appearance. She would ultimately serve in that capacity 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 an excellent stylist. However, she was soon requested to work as a model in front of the cameras. She quickly became the face of magazine covers worldwide and was even featured in TV advertising. Because one thing led to another, Ali threw himself into acting full-time.
A few years prior, Salvador Dalí had drawn her in her undies. However, MacGraw realized she would much rather be an actress than a model after the surrealist artist began kissing her toes.
Ali MacGraw – films
Ali entered the film industry immediately after becoming a well-known stylist, and boy, did she do it well.
Her lack of instruction in filmmaking gave her acting a more nuanced quality. The audience adored her for her breathtaking natural beauty.
She was asked to star in the 1969 movie Goodbye, Columbus after having a small part in the 1968 film A Lovely Way to Die. That was a wise decision, as MacGraw went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Promising Newcomer, Female. With a role that would essentially wrap up her career, she made her big worldwide breakthrough the following year.
Her agency had given Ali MacGraw a script. She was so in love with it that she had cried twice after reading it. She made up her mind that she truly wanted a role in it and arranged a meeting at the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel with the film’s producer, Robert Evans, who was then the chief of production for Paramount Picture. Evans not only thought she was ideal for the role in the film Love Story, but he also fell deeply in love with her.
In the film Love Story, MacGraw played alongside Ryan O’Neal in the role of Jenny. Ali portrayed a working-class college student in the American romantic drama film, which went on to become a huge hit.
When Love Story first came out in theaters in 1970, the crowd loved it. At the time, it was the sixth most grossing movie in US and Canadian history when it became the top movie in the country.
Award-winning actress
In addition to receiving an Academy Award nomination for her performance, MacGraw won another Oscar and was nominated for five more for the movie. In addition, she was awarded a second Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Dramatic Picture.
Not only did film producer Robert Evans adore her on screen, but he also fell in love with her in real life, and she returned the favor. The couple got married in 1969, and two years later Josh Evans, their son, was born.
Ali MacGraw was the hippest new celebrity of the 1970s, but her marriage to Evans and her private life would soon collapse. The two Hollywood stars immediately hit it off when Steve McQueen paid them a visit and asked her to co-star with him in The Getaway.
“I looked in those blue eyes, and my knees started knocking,” MacGraw recalled. “I became obsessed.”
After having an affair with McQueen, MacGraw moved out of Evans’ house and moved in with the actor and her son Josh in Malibu.
“Steve was this very original, principled guy who didn’t seem to be part of the system, and I loved that,” she said.
Ali MacGraw – Steve McQueen
However, Ali eventually discovered that Steve McQueen was dealing with his own issues. When Steve was fourteen years old, his father abandoned his mother, and he was placed in a school for troubled youth. After that, MacGraw claimed he never trusted women again.
The fact that she worked and pursued her own profession bothered him. Ali raised their sons at home for a period. In the end, however, Ali was unable to accept her husband’s demands.
Furthermore, if she merely glanced at another man, he would blow out. In addition, he wanted her to sign a prenuptial agreement in which she agreed not to make any claims in the event of a divorce. When they did divorce in 1978, she followed the terms of the contract.
“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 MacGraw’s very difficult period. She was inebriated and high when she showed up on the set of the 1978 movie Convoy, which led her to give up drugs.
Leaving show business
Several of her films, including Players (1970) and Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), bombed around the same time.
“It’s brutal for women,” MacGraw told The Guardian about returning to show business in the late 1970s.
“I don’t think there’s a woman over 40 who’s ever been conspicuously in the spotlight who doesn’t get sick of the kind of questioning the media lays on you, the fashion industry, all of it. It’s cruel.”
MacGraw was a Hollywood movie star for a brief period of time. She then made the decision to work in interior design instead, but she continued to pursue her career in show business. Her life would soon take a turn for the worst, despite her appearances in the television miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and China Rose (1985).
Ali MacGraw believed she was worthless as she was unable to obtain any film job. Having a lover, however, made her feel whole; she likened the feeling of being in love to “a drug high.”
She drank a lot because she felt helpless and alone. She admitted herself to the Betty Ford Clinic in California in 1986.
“The worst stuff happened when I drank,” she said. “I lost my judgment; I fancied other women’s husbands.”
Family tragedies
Josh Evans, her 15-year-old son, found it difficult to witness his mother’s suffering. After attending group therapy for 30 days, MacGraw emerged a more resilient individual.
Another family tragedy happened in 1993 when a wildfire in California caused her house to burn down. She subsequently made the decision to relocate from Los Angeles, settling in a community 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 claims that rather than viewing her as a former Hollywood celebrity, her neighbors value all the volunteer work she has been doing for the town.
She has been volunteering, for instance, at Santa Fe, New Mexico’s annual International Folk Art Market.
After quitting acting, Ali MacGraw returned to the stage in 2006. In the Broadway version of the Danish film Festen, she reconnected with Ryan O’Neal, her co-actor from Love Story.
MacGraw has spent the last few decades out of the spotlight, save from the Broadway production. She has given her all to the cause of animal rights. has created numerous popular yoga videos.
In a 2019 interview with the Herald-Tribune, MacGraw said she’s still up for new experiences and projects.
“One of the lucky things for someone my age is that I’m open and curious,” MacGraw said. “There’s not just one thing I love to do and feel bereft if I can’t. But I know that I’m not happy when I’m not doing something creative.”
Josh Evans – Ali MacGraw
Ali abandoned acting, but her family is still involved in the industry. Josh Evans, the actor and director who is his son, has achieved remarkable success in the film industry.
Furthermore, he resembles his mother a lot!
There was a lot of pressure to live up to the Hollywood stars Robert Evans and Ali MacGraw’s kid status.
However, Josh Evans, who was born in January 1971, always aspired to work in show business.
But he never intended to work in the film industry for his first career. Acting was not something he had dreamed of doing; rather, it was just something that happened.
Josh Evans wished he could have done more with his minor role in Dream a Little Dream (1989). He used to go to the manager’s office as a lost adolescent to watch the movie breakdowns as they were being made.
Josh Evans, actor & director
It was then that he ran upon Oliver Stone, the well-known director. At the time, he was working on Born on July Fourth, starring Tom Cruise. Josh also want entry.
“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 sat with him, Oliver asked, ‘Oh, you think you look like Tom Cruise?’. Now knowing him, I realize he was mocking me, but I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ So, he said, ‘We’ll see what happens.’ Four months later, I got a call to audition and I got the part. It was very exciting and you could feel how special that movie was going to be.”
Josh has enjoyed a fantastic career in both acting and directing since that time. After starring in the 1991 biographical picture The Doors, he has pursued acting and directing.
As a director, he has directed eight films. In fact, his 2015 picture Death in the Desert starred Michael Madsen. But what is his favorite thing?
“I am definitely more comfortable on the side of the camera that does not show myself,” Josh Evans says.
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“If an interesting opportunity presents itself, I am not opposed to it. I think there are other people out there who are more qualified and want it more than I do. As far as directing and telling my stories, I would do that for free, whereas acting is more of a job, but I enjoy it once I do it.”
Josh Evans – family
Josh is an extremely attractive man, and his large, amazing eyes bear a striking similarity to her mother Ali MacGraw.
Robert Evans, Ali’s father and ex-husband, passed away in 2019. Nevertheless, when Grandpa received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012, the family had the wonderful memories of celebrating him together.
Josh has two marriages under his belt. He married American singer-songwriter Roxy Saint in October 2012. At that time, Grandma Ali MacGraw’s son Jackson was two years old. She enjoys spending time with her amazing family.
“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.”
Josh Evans and Ali MacGraw undoubtedly feel quite proud of their amazing family. We hope they have the greatest possible future, and who knows—perhaps we’ll cross paths with them on a movie set or stage someday?
