For a brief time in 1970 and 1971, Ali MacGraw was the top female film actress internationally. The word wide success of the film “Love Story” gave her huge public recognition. Previously she had been a high fashion model with one major fim role to her credit “Goodbye Columbus”. After the sucess of “Love Story”,, she had her pick of scripys and choose to do t”The Getaway” with Steve McQueen.
After completing that film she put her career on hold to spend time with and ultimately marry McQueen. When she returned to film making in 1978 with Kris Kristofferson in “Convey”, her career momentum was lost and she never regained her former cinema stature. She had a lead role in the TV series “The Winds of War” and then took a part in “Dynasty”. She has written her her autobiography which is called “Moving Pictures” .
TCM overview:
A dark-haired, somber-looking former model, Ali MacGraw gained instant screen stardom as the archetypal ‘Jewish American Princess’ in “Goodbye, Columbus” (1969). The following year, she earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination as the doomed collegiate heroine of the saccharine but extremely popular “Love Story” (1970). At the time, she was married to Paramount executive Robert Evans who developed several projects for her, including “The Great Gatsby”. MacGraw, however, created tabloid headlines when she left Evans for Steve McQueen, her co-star in Sam Peckinpah’s “The Getaway” (1972). After her 1973 marriage to McQueen, MacGraw’s screen appearances tapered off until the couple divorced in 1978.
Although she had some limitations as an actress, she was effective in the comic role of Alan King’s mistress in “Just Tell Me What You Want” (1980). For much of the 80s, MacGraw found employment on the small screen, but was often cast in roles that demanded more than her abilities could deliver. She seemed miscast as the Jewish daughter-in-law of Robert Mitchum in the mammoth ABC miniseries “War and Remembrance” (1983) and was equally wrong as the sophisticated Lady Ashley Mitchell for the 1984-85 season of “Dynasty” (ABC). After publishing her memoirs in 1991, MacGraw concentrated on a career as a designer, appearing in the occasional project like her son Josh Evans’ first feature “Glam” (1997).
Article on Ali MacGraw in “Vanity Fair” can be accessed here.
