Early life

MacGraw was born in Pound Ridge, New York, the daughter of commercial artists Frances (née Klein; 1901-1980) and Richard MacGraw. She has one brother, Dick, an artist. Her father was of Scottish descent, while her maternal grandparents were Hungarian. Her mother was from a Jewish family, but did not disclose this to her father. MacGraw described her father as "violent". She attended Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut and Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

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. She worked at Vogue magazine as a fashion model, and as a photographer's stylist. She has also worked as an interior decorator.

Film and television

MacGraw started her acting career in television commercials, including one for the Polaroid Swinger camera. MacGraw gained critical notice in the 1969 film Goodbye, Columbus, but real stardom came in 1970 when she starred opposite Ryan O'Neal in Love Story, one of the highest grossing films in U.S. history. MacGraw was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for that performance. Following Love Story, MacGraw was celebrated on the cover of Time magazine.

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 1984, 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. She appeared in 14 episodes of the show before her character was killed off in the infamous "Moldavian wedding massacre" cliffhanger episode in 1985.

Stage

MacGraw made her Broadway theatre debut in New York City in 2006 as a dysfunctional matriarch in the drama Festen (The Celebration).

In 2016, MacGraw reunited with Love Story co-star Ryan O'Neal in a staging of A.R. Gurney's play Love Letters.

Magazine recognition

In 1991, People magazine selected MacGraw as one of its "50 Most Beautiful People" in the World.

In 2008 GQ magazine listed her in their "Sexiest 25 Women in Film Ever" edition.

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. This video was a bestseller upon release and still popular more than a decade later. The video's impact 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.

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. In 2008, she wrote the foreword to the book Pawprints of Katrina by author Cathy Scott and photography by Clay Myers about Best Friends Animal Society and the largest pet rescue in U.S. history. An animal rights advocate throughout her life, she received the Humane Education Award by Animal Protection of New Mexico for speaking out about animal issues.

Personal life

MacGraw has acknowledged having had an abortion in her early 20s when the procedure was illegal. After college, she married Harvard beau Robin Hoen, a banker, but they divorced after a year and a half.

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. She married McQueen on August 31, 1973, and divorced him in 1978.

MacGraw's autobiography, Moving Pictures (which she describes as "not well written"), revealed her struggles with alcohol and sex addiction. She was treated for the former at the Betty Ford Center.

When former 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.

Since 1994 she has lived in Tesuque, New Mexico, after "fleeing Malibu" when a house she was renting burned down.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	A Lovely Way to Die	Melody
1969	Goodbye, Columbus	Brenda Patimkin	Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1970	Love Story	Jennifer Cavalleri	David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama 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
1986	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	TV mini-series
1983	China Rose	Rose	(TV)
1985	Dynasty	Lady Ashley Mitchell	TV series (14 episodes)
1992	Survive the Savage Sea	Claire Carpenter	TV film
1993	Gunsmoke IV: The Long Ride	Uncle Jane Merkel	(TV)
2002	The Trail of the Painted Ponies	Narrator
2005	Passion & Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah	Herself
2007	Do You Sleep in the Nude?	Herself
2009	Split Estate	Herself

• Made two appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, once in 1990, then in the farewell season in 2011.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]