Want to know the best Ali MacGraw movies? How about the worst Ali MacGraw movies? Curious about Ali MacGraw box office grosses or which Ali MacGraw movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ali MacGraw movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Ali MacGraw (1939-) is an Oscar® nominated American actress. MacGraw first gained attention with her role in the film Goodbye, Columbus (1969), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She gained an international profile for her role in the film Love Story (1970), Her IMDb page shows 15 acting credits from 1968 to 1997. This page will rank Ali MacGraw movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences, and get some award recognition.
Ali MacGraw Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Ali MacGraw Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.
- Sort Ali MacGraw movies by her co-stars
- Sort Ali MacGraw movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Ali MacGraw movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Ali MacGraw movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Ali MacGraw movie received.
- Sort Ali MacGraw movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Ali MacGraw
1. Elizabeth Alice MacGraw was born in Pound Ridge, New York in 1939. (of Melrose Place fame).
2. Before turning to acting, Ali MacGraw spent six years working at Harper’s Bazaar magazine as a photographic assistant to fashion maven Diana Vreeland. She worked at Vogue magazine as a fashion model, and as a photographer’s stylist.
3. Paramount Production head Robert Evans (Ali’s second husband) was developing several high profile projects for her when she filed for divorce. The roles she walked away from to marry lover Steve McQueen (Ali’s 3rd husband) were Daisy in The Great Gatsby (1974) and Evelyn in Chinatown (1974).
4. Ali MacGraw’s salary for the mega-blockbuster Love Story (1970)?……$22,000 in 1970 money or $145,000 in current money.
5. Ali MacGraw and Gloria Steinem were roommates in New York City.
Check out Ali MacGraw’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
I’ve seen 2 Ali MacGraw films – The Getaway and Convoy. Both are favorites.
I’ve never watched Love Story though I know the storyline and the famous theme music by Francis Lai. I am surprised to see that Ali was already in her 30s when she played that role, I assumed she was quite young, late teens or early 20s in that film.
I remember seeing Convoy at the cinema with a bunch of friends. I was probably disappointed Burt Reynolds wasn’t the lead but I still enjoyed it.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve….thanks for the thoughts on Ali MacGraw. At this point, I think I know which movies you avoid….so I am NOT surprised you have not seen Love Story. I am thinking the success of Smokey and the Bandit is what got Convoy made. I think I have seen most of it, but not enough to claim I saw it. I remember Ernest Borgnine not being such a nice guy. Thanks for the vote up and the comment.
I have seen 2 Ali McGraw movies. The Getaway is a favourite. Goodbye Columbus is not a favourite. I have not been doing well on these recent pages.
Hey Flora. In this case….2 is 25% of her career. I like her in The Getaway. I have not seen Goodbye Columbus….but I want to. Richard Benjamin will one day get an UMR page. I liked him as a director…but that career seemed to fade fast. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
“If reviews are any indication, Ali MacGraw certainly ranks as one of the worst actresses in Hollywood. No matter what character she played, she pouted and grimaced petulantly like a spoiled child. Even, Kim Novak, in her day, had more variety.” – Rating The Movie Stars Book 1983.
Ali MacGraw 3 Star Performances According to Rating The Movie Stars
1969’s Goodbye Columbus
A bit harsh. Though a check of his book….Rating The Movie Stars does rank Ali MacGraw 406th of 410 subjects. But she made the book….so there was some star wattage there.
ADDIYIONAL TRIVIA
Ali divorced Robert Evans in 1972 and I recall her saying that one of the things that brought their relationship to a head was his obsessions. 1972 was of course the year of The Godfather and Paramount and Evans has been obsessed with the movie throughout its production.
Ali complained that she was fed up with “Godfather for breakfast- Godfather for dinner- and Godfather for tea.” However before he died Evans praised her for being a great friend to him for the 40 years post-divorce.
The 81year-old Ali has a current net worth of $6 million which is not bad considering her sparse acting career and the fact that she has not acted on either the big screen or TV since 2009 when she played herself in a production called Split Eastate [no details available from my sources]
Despite her ultimately very disappointing career Ali was all the rage in those golden years 1969-72 and as Gene Hackman said in Best Shot [aka Hoosier] some people would “kill for just a moment of fame” so in my opinion Ali deserves this new page. For moviegoers of my generation she is part of a glorious nostalgic past period at the cinema.
Hey Bob. Thanks for the additional trivia. I imagine, if I was Robert Evans, and I had The Godfather in my backpocket…I might, just might be talking about it pretty regularly. I just do not think had the same appeal as Steve McQueen.I agree…$6 million is a good total…especially since she was almost broke in the early 1980s. Good Hoosiers quote…I dare say she had a few hours of fame…versus just a moment. As always, your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Congrats on discovering this one early….we have a double page for tomorrow…..so I was getting a head start.
Thanks for the replies. Despite what Joel says I will always remember Ali in Love Story. Prior to 1970 we tended to have sporadic blockbusters like Ben Hur and Sound of Music but they were regarded as “special event” movies and often were released at high ticket prices. I paid double the normal price for Chuck’s 10 Commandments for example.
We were of course used to “weepies” such as Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life but what took even the pundits aback was that a simple ‘soppy’ flick like Love Story was such a blockbuster that [given that Variety didn’t adjust for inflation] Love Story for a while got into Variety’s Top 10 all-time movie “Rental Champs”. Indeed one critic at the time described Love Story as “the wonder of the age and Ali and Ryan were the toast of the movie world for a time.
Since those days some movie historians have dubbed the 1970s “the era of the blockbuster” when BIG movies became an annual event . In the 70s alone we had Love Story/Airport/Godpop/Exorcist/Sting/Jaws/Star Wars/Grease/Superman 1978 and a number of others; and Airport and Love Story which were released respectively in May and Dec 70 – no swearing superheroes in our stocking THAT Christmas! – started the trend.
Of those two movies Love Story was the higher grosser so as Martin Scorsese would say “IT is the marker.” and indeed half a century later despite all the blockbusters that have come since Love Story is still 44th all-time highest domestic grosser when adjusted for inflation according to you awesome $100 million movies page.
Therefore Ali [and Ryan] could historically be said to be among the pathfinders for the blockbuster to be a modern ‘way of life’ in cinemas. Hirsch may well be right if a bit hyperbolic about her acting limitations; but she had a reasonable personality and was exceptionally nice -and sexy – to look at. HE of all people should have known that the gods don’t give everybody all the gifts in EVERY department! Anyway take care.
Hey Bob. Thanks for the additional information on Ali MacGraw. Interesting thoughts on the success of Love Story when it came out. The line “Love means you never have to say your sorry” line is one I heard all the time growing up. Between Love Story, The Getaway and Convoy (seen parts of it) she seemed like one of the biggest stars making movies….at least to a pre-teen Cogerson. Love Story will be in the Top 100 of adjusted box office hits of all-time for a very very long time….it it is still 44th….then it might take another 50 years before it would even have to worry about dropping out of the Top 100. Good stuff as always.
The term One Hit Wonder has long been a familiar one within the record industry and of course refers to a recording artist who has only ever had just one serious musical chart hit. Ali could be said to be a 3-hit wonder: Love Story, Goodbye Columbus and The Getaway and that was just about it regarding big screen stardom.
She did though appear in a number of television productions between 1983 and 2009 including (1) the miniseries Winds of War alongside Mitchum (2) 14 episodes of Dynasty; and two TV movies.
Also she had an uncredited role in Kirk Douglas’ 1968 A Lovely Way to Die. MacGraw made her Broadway theatre debut in New York City in 2006 as a dysfunctional matriarch in the drama Festen (The Celebration).
In their heyday she and Ryan O’Neal were regarded as being among the “beautiful people” and indeed in 1991 People magazine selected her as one of their “50 Most Beautiful people in the World”
However I saw a TV documentary about a year ago in which Ali and Ryan jointly and nostalgically revisited after nearly half a century the location where they had made Love Story and the beautiful people were no more: in their place were an obese elderly couple.
They were though in good spirits and clearly were getting on well together. In 2016 in fact MacGraw had reunited with Love Story co-star Ryan O’Neal in a staging of A.R. Gurney’s play Love Letters.
Hey Bob. I agree…she was a 3 hit wonder. Growing up I was well aware of her. I was actually pretty surprised when I saw that she had not really made many movies. She got some pretty bad reviews for her performance in Winds of War…but it was a ratings monster. As for her and O’Neal….time is undeafeted….lol. Good information on Love Letters…I had not heard about that. Good stuff as always.