--- name: "Ali MacGraw" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ali-macgraw" roles: ["Actor"] born: "1 April 1939" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T05:30:34.820141+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ali MacGraw Actor. Born 1 April 1939 in Pound Ridge, New York, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 1 April 1939, Pound Ridge, New York, USA - **Also known as:** Elizabeth Alice MacGraw, Elizabeth Alice "Ali" MacGraw, علی مک‌گراو - **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe (1 won) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_MacGraw, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q229983, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0532298/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/46597 ## Fi1m on Ali MacGraw > Ali MacGraw had one note, and for a few years it was the note the films wanted: a quick, rude, unimpressed woman who tells the rich boy he is stupid. Asked for anything else she was out of her depth, as she has said herself. Early in *Love Story* (1970), Jennifer Cavilleri sizes up the rich boy and calls him Preppie. Then she tells him he is stupid. Ali MacGraw plays her rude, quick and unimpressed, and she is the only person in the film who seems to have come from anywhere in particular. Everyone else is an outline. MacGraw has been called a poor actress for most of fifty years, and we would put it differently: she had one note, and for a few years it was the note the films wanted. She came to it late and from the side. Thirty when she made her debut, in *Goodbye, Columbus* (1969), she had spent her twenties in fashion, as a model and stylist, with no acting school behind her. Then *Love Story*, and then *The Getaway* (1972), opposite Steve McQueen, which pushed her toward action pictures and was followed by five years off screen. She came back for *Convoy* (1978), her second film for Sam Peckinpah, was funny in Sidney Lumet's *Just Tell Me What You Want* (1980), and spent much of the 1980s on television, in *The Winds of War* (1983) and *Dynasty*. By the 1990s she had more or less stopped. The parts, when they suited her, were variations on Jenny: clever, spirited girls without much money, set against men with a great deal of it. She was good at being unimpressed, and she was easy with her leading men, O'Neal and McQueen. What she could not do was the big scene. From *Goodbye, Columbus* on, reviewers found her stiff when a part asked for feeling, and by *Dynasty* she looked out of her depth, a verdict she has since agreed with more readily than any critic. She has said she thinks of herself as a pop star rather than a trained performer, and that is fair and not unkind. Pop stars are not asked to act; they are asked to be there, and she was. What got to us in *Love Story* was not the ending, which the film announces at the start and holds you to, but the way she says Preppie, as though she has already decided he will let her down and is rather looking forward to it. That is a real person, and the film has no other. She knew exactly what she had been part of. 'Love means never having to say you're sorry. With that absurd lie, millions of boxes of Kleenex were sold, and a number of careers were launched. Including mine.' See *Love Story* for her mouth and Lai's piano. The rest is for the curious, and she would probably tell you the same. ## Biography Ali MacGraw is an American actress. Born Elizabeth Alice MacGraw on 1 April 1939 in Pound Ridge, New York, she studied art history at Wellesley College before working in fashion magazines and as a model. She made her feature-film debut in *Goodbye, Columbus* (1969) and rose to prominence as Jennifer Cavilleri opposite Ryan O'Neal in *Love Story* (1970). For the role she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. MacGraw's other screen credits include *The Getaway* (1972), *Convoy* (1978), *Players* (1979) and the television miniseries *The Winds of War* (1983). She has also appeared in *Dynasty* (1985). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, goldenglobes.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Love Story* (1970), Fi1m 57, as Jennifer Cavilleri — [page](https://film.one/film/love-story.md) ## Complete filmography (18) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *One Gay, One Straight: Complicated Marriages* (2008), as Narrator - *Glam* (1998), as Lynn Travers - *Natural Causes* (1994), as Fran Jakes - *Gunsmoke: The Long Ride* (1993), as Jane Merkel - *Survive the Savage Sea* (1992), as Claire Carpenter - *Joan Rivers and Friends Salute Heidi Abromowitz* (1988), as Ali McGraw - *Broken Rainbow* (1985), Production Consultant - *Murder Elite* (1985), as Diane Baker - *China Rose* (1983), as Rose Arrow - *The Winds of War* (1983), series, as Natalie Jastrow - *Dynasty* (1981), series, as Lady Ashley Mitchell - *Just Tell Me What You Want* (1980), as Bones Burton - *Players* (1979), as Nicole - *Convoy* (1978), as Melissa - *The Getaway* (1972), as Carol McCoy - *Love Story* (1970), as Jennifer Cavilleri — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/love-story.md) - *Goodbye, Columbus* (1969), as Brenda Patimkin - *A Lovely Way to Die* (1968), as Melody (uncredited) ## Gallery - ![Ali MacGraw](https://film.one/media/person/1244239/gallery-05a826d4c980.jpg) Ali MacGraw — National General Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Ali_MacGraw_-_1972.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Ali MacGraw](https://film.one/media/person/1244239/gallery-ab38ae33920a.jpg) Ali MacGraw — Image via TMDB - ![Ali MacGraw](https://film.one/media/person/1244239/gallery-6bc46c794836.jpg) Ali MacGraw — Image via TMDB - ![Ali MacGraw](https://film.one/media/person/1244239/gallery-11d101909346.jpg) Ali MacGraw — Image via TMDB - ![Ali MacGraw](https://film.one/media/person/1244239/gallery-1d322becc8a9.jpg) Ali MacGraw — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1971: Best Actress (nominated), for *Love Story* ### Golden Globes — 1 won - 1971: Golden Globe Awards (won), for *Love Story* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ali-macgraw