Ali MacGraw became a Hollywood superstar overnight. But just as quickly as she rose to fame, she disappeared from show business altogether.
Today, the 84-year-old actress has settled down in a remote and tiny town, and she’s aging gracefully with her grey hair.
Ali MacGraw
Ali MacGraw – born Elizabeth Alice MacGraw – was born on April 1, 1939, in Pound Ridge, New York, USA. Her mother, Frances, was an artist and worked at a school in Paris, later settling in Greenwich Village. She married Richard MacGraw, who was also an artist. In 1939, Ali was born.
Ali’s father Richard supposedly had issues from his own childhood which made him a little bit different from others.
He had survived a terrible childhood in an orphanage, running away at the age of 16 to go to sea. He would later study at an art school in Munich, Germany.
“Daddy was frightened and really, really angry. He never forgave his real parents for giving him up,” Ali explained, saying said her father’s adult life was spent “suppressing the rage that covered all his hurt.”
Ali MacGraw – childhood
Money was short for their family, too. Frances and Richard, together with Ali and her brother, Richard Jr, had to move into a house on a Pound Ridge wilderness preserve which they shared with an elderly couple.
“There were no doors; we shared the kitchen and bathroom with them,” Ali said. “It was utter lack of privacy. It was horrible.”
Mom Francis worked with several commercial-art assignments and supported the family. At the same time, Richard had a hard time selling his paintings, and as a result became very frustrated. Ali’s brother Richard became a victim for his anger 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.”
Ali was the daughter of artists, and she knew that she, too, wanted to go into a creative line of work as she got older. She earned a scholarship at the prep school Rosemary Hall, and in 1956, she moved to study at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
By the age of 22, Ali MacGraw moved to New York and got her first job as an assistant editor at Harper’s Bazaar, working with photographers as an assistant.
Fashion work in New York
Fashion editor Diana Vreeland hired Ali as, what she recalls as, a “flunkie”. Ever seen the film The Devil Wears Prada? Well, it was pretty much that.
“It was ‘Girl! Get me a pencil!’,” MacGraw recalled.
The future Hollywood celebrity worked her job as an assistant for several months. Then, about six months in, fashion photographer Melvin Sokolsky noticed her beautiful looks, and Ali MacGraw was hired as a stylist,and given a better salary. She’d end up staying in that position 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 great as a stylist. But soon, she was asked to work in front of the cameras as a model. It didn’t take long before she was on magazine covers all over the world, even appearing in television commercials. For thing led to another, and Ali tumbled headfirst into the profession of acting.
She had been sketched nude by Salvador Dali a couple of years earlier. But when the surrealist artist started sucking her toes, MacGraw decided that she’d rather be an actress than a model.
Ali MacGraw – films
Ali went straight from an unknown stylist and into the world of cinema, and boy, did she do it with a bang.
She was untutored in the art of film, which gave her acting another dimension. Her natural beauty was stunning, and the audience loved her.
Following a small role in A Lovely Way to Die (1968), she was asked to star in the 1969 film Goodbye, Columbus. It turned out to be a great call, with MacGraw receiving a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. The following year, she got her big international breakthrough with a role that would pretty much sum up her career.
Ali MacGraw had received a script from her agent. She’d read it and wept twice because of how much she loved it. She decided she really wanted a part in it, and got herself a meeting with the film’s producer Robert Evans – who at the time was Paramount Picture’s head of production – at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge. Not only did Evans think she was perfect for the part in the movie Love Story, he absolutely fell in love with her.
MacGraw – playing the role of Jenny – acted alongside Ryan O’Neal in the movie Love Story. The American romantic drama film, in which Ali played a working-class college student, became a smash hit.
Love Story hit the cinemas in 1970, and wow did the audience cherish it. It became the No. 1 film in the United States, and at the time, it was the sixth highest grossing movie in history in the US and Canada.
Award-winning actress
MacGraw earned an Academy Award nomination for her role, and the film itself earned her another win and five Academy Award Nominations. She also won herself a second Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.
Film producer Robert Evans not only loved her on screen, he had fallen in love with her in real life, and that love was reciprocated. In 1969, the couple tied the knot, and two years later, they welcomed their son, Josh Evans.
Ali MacGraw was the hot new star of the 1970s, but her private life and marriage with Evans would soon come to an end. Steve McQueen had visited their home to ask her to star alongside him in The Getaway, and the two Hollywood stars clicked right away.
“I looked in those blue eyes, and my knees started knocking,” MacGraw recalled. “I became obsessed.”
MacGraw and McQueen had an affair, and she soon left Evans to live with the actor in Malibu, along with her son Josh.
“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
But after a while, Ali realized that Steve McQueen had his own problems. Following his father abandoning his mother, a then-14-year-old Steve was sent to a school for delinquent children. MacGraw said he never trusted women after that.
(Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
He didn’t like that she worked and had her own career. For a while, Ali stayed home to raise their sons. But her husband’s demands were something Ali simply couldn’t accept in the long run.
Not only that, but he’d explode if she even looked at another man. He also wanted her to sign a prenuptial agreement, promising not to ask for anything if they’d divorce. She abided by the agreement when they did divorce in 1978.
“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 was the start of a pretty dark time in MacGraw’s life. She arrived on set to shoot the 1978 film Convoy both drunk and high, which prompted her to quit drugs.
Disney Legend Passes Away At 95
Richard M. Sherman, renowned for producing songs for iconic films like “Mary Poppins,” handed absent at the age of 95 on Saturday. The celebrated songwriter, who frequently collaborated with his brother Robert B. Sherman, succumbed to an age-associated disease at Cedars-Sinai Professional medical Center in Los Angeles, as announced by Disney.
A funeral is scheduled for Friday, May 31, at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver Metropolis, California. Richard leaves powering his spouse, Elizabeth Gluck, whom he married in 1957. They had two youngsters collectively, Gregory and Victoria, and he also had a daughter, Lynda, from a previous relationship to Corrine Newman.
During his illustrious job, Sherman garnered various accolades, which include two Oscars and a few Grammy Awards. His perform, usually in partnership with his brother Robert, left an indelible mark on the leisure industry.\
Disney CEO Bob Iger paid tribute, stating, “Richard Sherman was the embodiment of what it suggests to be a Disney Legend, making beloved classics that have grow to be a cherished part of the soundtrack of our lives. From films like ‘Mary Poppins’ and ‘The Jungle Book’ to attractions like ‘It’s a Small Earth,’ the audio of the Sherman Brothers has captured the hearts of generations.”
Pete Docter, Chief Imaginative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios, also expressed his admiration: “You really do not get music like ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ without having a real adore of lifestyle, which Richard handed on to all people fortunate sufficient to be close to him. Even in his 90s, he experienced additional strength and enthusiasm than any one, and I normally remaining renewed by Richard’s infectious joy for lifetime.”
Film historian Leonard Maltin shared his views, noting, “The Sherman brothers have been qualified optimists who uncovered a fantastic patron in Walt Disney. Their music experienced an upbeat outlook that spilled over into Richard’s everyday living, which was not without its problems and worries.”
Richard Sherman was born on June 12, 1928, in New York City. He and his brother followed in their father’s footsteps, who was also a songwriter. In 1937, the spouse and children moved to Beverly Hills, where Richard attended Beverly Hills Superior University, learning a variety of instruments like the piano and flute. He graduated in 1946, undertaking for the duration of the ceremony with classmate Andre Previn, who later gained 4 Oscars.
In 1953, Richard was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving in the Army Band until 1955. He attended Bard University in New York, majoring in tunes. Soon after graduation, Richard and Robert started producing tunes collectively, founding their new music publishing enterprise, the Audio Planet Corporation, in 1958. Their song “Tall Paul,” sung by Annette Funicello, achieved the top 10, catching Walt Disney’s consideration. The Sherman brothers were subsequently employed as songwriters for the Walt Disney Firm.
In 1964, “Mary Poppins,” starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, premiered with music by the Sherman brothers. The pursuing yr, they gained two Oscars for Best Score and Most effective Unique Song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” The legendary monitor “It’s a Smaller Environment (Right after All)” was also penned by them and showcased at the New York Entire world Good in 1964.
Richard’s other main movie scores involved “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (1968), “The Aristocats” (1970), “The Jungle Book” (1967), and “Charlotte’s Web” (1973). Throughout his vocation, he was nominated for nine Oscars, successful two, and acquired 3 Grammy Awards. In 2005, the Sherman brothers were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and named Disney Legends in 1990.
Richard also contributed to stage musicals these types of as “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Mary Poppins,” “A Spoonful of Sherman,” and “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” Their songs prolonged over and above film, like the track “You’re Sixteen,” sung by Johnny Burnette in 1960 and afterwards coated by Ringo Starr in 1973.
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