Biography

Ali MacGraw

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Ali was educated at Wellesley College, where she studied art history. After graduating, she worked on fashion magazines. Her interest in fashion photography led her to become a top model, a profession she carried on until 1968, when she made a late start in what was to be a sporadic film career, mainly due to her marriage to Steve McQueen. Even so, what films she did make were in the main either hugely successful (Goodbye, Columbus (1969), Love Story (1970), The Getaway (1972), Convoy (1978)) or fairly so (Players (1979), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), The Winds of War (1983)). Today, the former star leads a surprisingly modest lifestyle in New Mexico.
- IMDb mini biography by: tonyman 5

Paramount Production head Robert Evans was developing several high profile projects for her when she filed for divorce. The roles she walked away from to marry lover Steve McQueen were Daisy in The Great Gatsby (1974) and Evelyn in Chinatown (1974).
Had her footprints and autograph engraved at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after appearing in just three films.
Has resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1994.
Her father had Scottish ancestry. Her maternal grandparents, Maurice Klein and Pauline Donner, were Jewish emigrants from Hungary. MacGraw's mother did not disclose her Jewish heritage to MacGraw's father, instead professing ignorance about it. Ali has described her father as "violent" and "bigoted".
Admits that she only did Dynasty (1981) for the money.

[on Steve McQueen] One thing about Steve, he didn't like the women in his life to have balls.
[on the surprise success of Love Story (1970), her second starring role] If you're a baby about the media, as I was, you can't imagine what it's like when the great approval machine shines its beam on you, when every time you cross the street someone comes out of a manhole to talk about your haircut. I've since learned that surviving stardom depends on doing the work to find out who you are so that you don't define yourself by what people say about you. But nothing can prepare you for that kind of avalanche. The mistake is to take it for the end of the story.
I have seen a number of younger men, but it's not a conscious thing. Often it's difficult for a man over 40 to deal with the amount of independence that most women of my generation are enjoying. Nowadays I spend a lot of time by myself. I've spent a lot of time hanging out with Mr. Wrongs, but it beat that desperate Saturday night thing. 99% of Saturday nights, I'm in this house, eating some bizarre thing I whipped up, and reading.
I work as hard as anybody I know.
I'm much more famous than I am rich, but I'm able to scale back my lifestyle. I know a lot of people who were where I was who can't imagine living any simpler, but I haven't got a lot of expensive wants.