Ali MacGraw

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Ali MacGraw
Born Alice MacGraw
April 1, 1939 (1939-04-01) (age 69)
Pound Ridge, New York
Spouse(s) Robert Evans (1969-1972)
Steve McQueen (1973-1978)

Alice MacGraw (born April 1, 1939)[1] is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actress.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

MacGraw was born in Pound Ridge, Westchester County, New York, the daughter of commercial artists;[2] MacGraw has described her father as "violent".[3] MacGraw's maternal grandfather, Maurice Klein, was a Jewish immigrant from Budapest, Hungary.[1][4] She has one brother.

[edit] Career

An alumna of Rosemary Hall and Wellesley College, she began working in 1960 as a photographic assistant at Harper's Bazaar, as an assistant to the legendary fashion maven, Diana Vreeland, at Vogue, and as a fashion model, and as a photographer's stylist. She gained notice in Goodbye, Columbus, but real stardom came in 1970 with Love Story. MacGraw was nominated for the 1970 Academy Award for Best Actress for Love Story. She lost to Glenda Jackson who won that year for Women in Love. MacGraw's keen eye and sense of style was celebrated on the cover of Time. Her minimalist style basically consisted of healthy skin without much makeup, long gleaming hair pulled back simply, and the ever-present brimless woolen hat that became known as the "Ali Cap." She has also worked as an interior decorator.

In 1972, she had her footprints and autograph engraved at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after only four films. MacGraw has appeared in other films, such as: The Getaway, Convoy, Players, Just Tell Me What You Want, and the television miniseries China Rose and The Winds of War. In 1985, MacGraw appeared in the hit ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty as "Lady Ashley Mitchell."

MacGraw wrote a well-received autobiography, Moving Pictures (which she now states was "not well written"), which described her struggles with alcohol and male dependence. She was treated for the former at the Betty Ford Center. In 1991, People magazine chose her as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.

She had lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for many years after "fleeing Malibu". Having become a Hatha Yoga devotee in her fifties, she made a tremendously successful Yoga video with the American Yoga Master Erich Schiffmann, Ali MacGraw Yoga Mind and Body, which was a bestseller upon release and was still popular more than a decade later. The video's impact was such that in June 2007 Vanity Fair magazine credited her for being one of the people responsible for the practice's recent popularity in the United States. In keeping with her interests, she narrated a well-received documentary on Yoga, The Fire of Yoga in 2003.

She made her Broadway theatre debut in New York City in 2006 as a dysfunctional matriarch in the drama Festen (The Celebration). She was also included in a Seventeen magazine issue for inspiring hairstyles.

[edit] Personal life

On October 24, 1969, MacGraw married film producer Robert Evans; their son, Josh Evans, is an actor, director, producer and screenwriter. They divorced in 1972 after she became involved with Steve McQueen on the set of The Getaway, whom she then married on August 31, 1973, and divorced in 1978. When her ex-husband, Robert Evans, received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she accompanied him.

She divides her time living in her homes in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, California.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Bykofsky, Stuart D.. "ALI MACGRAW: A STAR BY CHANCE", Philadelphia Daily News, 1983-02-04. Retrieved on 2008-04-19. 
  2. ^ Ali MacGraw Biography (1939-)
  3. ^ New York magazine, April 3, 2006, pp. 69-70
  4. ^ Broaddrick charges are 21 years too late

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Geneviève Bujold
for Anne of the Thousand Days
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1971
for Love Story
Succeeded by
Jane Fonda
for Klute
Persondata
NAME MacGraw, Ali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES MacGraw, Alice
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actress
DATE OF BIRTH 1 April 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Pound Ridge, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH