Ali MacGraw’s Journey: From Hollywood Stardom to a Simple Life in Tesuque

AFTER becoming a megastar from a string of hits like “Love Story,” “The Getaway” and “Goodbye, Columbus,” New York-born Ali MacGraw found true happiness far from Hollywood’s bright lights — in the tiny town of Tesuque, N.M. “You know, I’m a strange old bird at this point,” says Ali, 85. “I’m very involved with the community. I have a life that makes me happy. At long last I am beginning to feel comfortable that I am wearing the right costume — my own skin.” It wasn’t always that way.

Growing up in a home of alcoholics, she tried from a young age to be a people pleaser. “I was so crazy about being popular that I would go to outrageous lengths to be sure that every single person in a room liked me,” says the actress, whose last credit came nearly 30 years ago for “Glam” in 1997.

Her commercial artist parents introduced her and her brother, Dick, to the arts. And after college, Ali escaped from her dad Richard’s explosive temper that made her “literally sick to my stomach with fear.”

Legendary producer Robert Evans discovered her working in the Big Apple and cast her opposite Richard Benjamin in 1969’s “Goodbye, Columbus.” Evans was also “”spoiling”” her, and they wed the same year. It was Ali’s second marriage after a short two-year onion with banker Robin Hoen.

Also in 1969, Evans approved the heart-touching “Love Story,” starring Ali and Ryan O’Neal. After the amazing success of the film, she grew dissatisfied with her marriage and was still wed to Evans when she met Steve McQueen, her co-star in 1972’s “The Getaway.”

Recalls Ali, “I knew I was going to get in some serious trouble with Steve.”

She divorced Evans and wed McQueen in 1973. At first, it was bliss, but the pair’s partying led to epic fights and cheating. They divorced in 1978, two years before McQueen died at age 50 in 1980.

Ali checked into the Betty Ford Center in 1985, became sober, and left Hollywood’s fame, fortune and glamour in the rearview mirror.

“I’m grateful I had all that, but I live a very different life now,” says Ali. “I don’t care at all about being seen in the latest piece of clothing or knowing the latest song. I don’t feel diminished by not knowing those things. I did it all and was looked at, and that was for another time.”