Katharine Ross is a popular film and television actress best known to audiences for her iconic
role in the classic film The Graduate.
In that 1967 masterpiece from director Mike Nichols, Katharine played the character of
Elaine Robinson, who ended up stealing Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock’s affection
away from her seductive mother, played by Anne Bancroft.
Though Katharine’s role as Elaine in The Graduate remains her most iconic, the actress
is still working today and has appeared in well over twenty films.
She also looks great at the age of 82, though nothing beats pictures of the star in her
prime.
Join Facts Verse to see vintage photos of Katharine Ross that are still irresistible
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Katharine Ross’ Early Life Katharine Ross was born in Hollywood, California,
on January 29, 1940.
The future star’s father became a reporter working for the Associated Press during her
childhood, though he was a commander in the United States Navy at the time of her birth.
Though Katharine was born in Hollywood, her family moved to Virginia while she was still
very young and lived there for a time before moving back to California and settling down
in Walnut Creek, which is a city just outside of San Francisco.
It was here that Katharine came of age, graduating from a local high school in 1957.
Following her high-school graduation, Katharine Ross went on to attend Diablo Valley College,
located in the city of Pleasant Hill, California.
It was while attending this college that Katharine took her very first role in a film, though
it was merely a student film.
Katharine also began acting in some amateur productions around this time by way of the
Actor’s Workshop, and married her first husband in 1960.
That first husband was a college sweetheart by the name of Joel Fabiani, and Katharine
has been married four times since.
During Katharine’s early career, it has been said that the actress appeared nude several
times on the stage.
However, once she transitioned to Hollywood, she became slightly less willing to take her
clothes on.
The actress has appeared nude on film at least a couple times in her career, however, with
one of her more iconic nude appearances being in the 1978 feature The Betsy.
Following her early appearances on the stage, Katharine received a bit of a break when she
was cast to play a small role in an episode of the NBC legal drama Sam Benedict.
Katharine’s appearance on the show came in 1962, and roles on such notable programs
as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Gunsmoke would shortly follow.
How Katharine Ross Became a Hollywood Star After receiving a variety of notable television
roles, Katharine finally received her first role on the big screen with an appearance
in the 1965 civil-war movie Shenandoah.
The film starred Hollywood legend James Stewart in the leading role and became a modest box-office
success.
It would only be a few years after this big-screen debut that Katharine would receive the role
that would go on to make her a star.
That role, of course, would be the role of Elaine Robinson in the 1967 classic The Graduate,
alongside Dustin Hoffman.
The Graduate not only turned Katharine Ross into a star, but it also turned her into somewhat
of a sex symbol!
In the film, Katharine played the aforementioned character of Elaine Robinson, whose mother
attempts to seduce Dustin Hoffman’s character of Benjamin Braddock.
Elaine’s mother is Mrs. Robinson, as portrayed by notable actress Anne Bancroft.
Of course, Mrs. Robinson ends up being overall unsuccessful in her attempts to win over the
affections of Benjamin, with Benjamin choosing her daughter instead.
While audiences loved the film for its plot and performances, there was also the fact
of the matter that the film featured several original songs from folk duo Simon and Garfunkel
that have arguably grown to be even more iconic than the film itself, with those songs including
“Mrs. Robinson” and “The Sound of Silence”.
Katharine Ross’ character ended up winning the affection of Benjamin Braddock, and Katharine
herself ended up winning the affection of the audience.
While Katharine Ross’ role in The Graduate arguably remains her most iconic, the actress
continued working afterward and is still working today!
Following The Graduate, another notable role came Katharine’s way in 1969, when she was
cast as the titular character of the Sundance Kid’s girlfriend in the film Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid.
Of course, Robert Redford played the character of the Sundance Kid, and the actor made another
great on-screen love interest for Katharine after Dustin Hoffman.
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Katharine Played the Sundance Kid’s Girlfriend By the time Katharine Ross received her role
as the titular character of the Sundance Kid’s girlfriend in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid, the actress had already been married and divorced two times.
Katharine’s first husband was the aforementioned college sweetheart by the name of Joel Fabiani,
whom she married in the year of 1960 and then divorced only a short time later, in 1962.
Following Katharine’s divorce from her first husband, she went on to marry second husband
John Marion in 1964.
This marriage wasn’t all that much more successful than Katharine’s first, with
her marriage to John only lasting until 1967.
Around the time of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s release, Katharine entered into a
marriage with third husband Conrad Hall.
This marriage prompted Katharine to enter into a period of semi-retirement.
This came in spite of the fact that the actress was being offered roles left and right due
to her recent starring turns in such notable films.
If Katharine Ross hadn’t entered into this period of semi-retirement following her entrance
into her marriage with third husband Conrad Hall, the actress might’ve went on to become
a bigger star than she is known as today.
However, this period of semi-retirement ended up halting a lot of the career momentum that
the actress had been building up until that point.
She still appeared in a few notable works during this period of semi-retirement, with
one of those works being 1974’s Chance and Violence.
The film saw her starring alongside notable Italian-French star Yves Montand.
Katharine Ross went on to divorce from third husband Conrad Hall in 1976, and she returned
to the entertainment industry full force by the end of the decade.
In 1975, she won a Saturn Award for Best Actress thanks to her appearance in the cult-classic
science-fiction film The Stepford Wives.
Katharine’s role in the picture is arguably her third most popular to this day, and there
are some who consider it to be even more iconic than her previous roles in the pictures The
Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!
The actress hasn’t gotten much awards recognition in her lifetime, so her Saturn Award is notable.
She Appeared in the Remake of Wait Until Dark In 1976, Katharine Ross reprised her Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid role in the film’s women-centric sequel, which was called Wanted:
The Sundance Women.
In 1980, she joined the cast of the 1980 film The Final Countdown, which also starred such
notable Hollywood luminaries as Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen.
Despite this notable appearance on the big screen at the start of the decade, Katharine
became best known for her roles in made-for-television features over the course of the ensuing 1980s.
One of the more notable of the many made-for-television features that Katharine starred in over the
course of the decade was the 1982 remake of Wait Until Dark, in which she was cast in
the role that had been initially popularized by Audrey Hepburn.
In 1984, Katharine Ross married fifth husband Sam Elliott, and the two are still together
to this day!
This makes Katharine’s marriage to Sam the most successful of her five marriages by far.
Following Katharine’s divorce from Conrad Hall and before her marriage to Sam Elliott,
Katharine had married a fourth time.
Katharine’s fourth husband was a man by the name of Gaetano Lisi, whom she had met
while he was working as a chauffeur on The Stepford Wives.
Katharine and Gaetano went on to tie the knot in 1974, but divorced before the 1970s were
up.
With four marriages under her belt, it’s a wonder that Katharine’s marriage to Sam
has been so successful!
The two have been together for nearly four decades and first came into contact with each
other on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Sam Elliott was too shy to talk to Katharine on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid, as Sam was far from being the big star at the time that he would go on to be.
When the two became reacquainted on the set of 1978’s The Legacy, they were much more
equal in terms of celebrity status and Sam wasn’t quite as shy about letting Katharine
know he how felt about her.
Katharine was still married to her fourth husband at the time, though she would divorce
from him a year later and then move on officially to Sam.
Katharine Found Success with Her Fifth Marriage!
Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott had a child the same year that they got married, with
that child being named Cleo.
In 2011, Katharine accused the now-adult Cleo of attempting to murder her with a pair of
scissors, which prompted the actress to get a restraining order against her own daughter.
Thankfully, it appears that Katharine and her daughter have been able to put these troubles
behind them, as they appeared together at the 2019 Academy Awards.
In recent years, Katharine has branched out into writing children’s books and has even
returned to the stage alongside her husband.
Katharine and Sam have starred in a few theatrical productions together, including production
of Love Letters in 2015.
Some of Katharine’s more recent work on film includes a notable appearance in the
2001 cult classic Donnie Darko, in which she played the titular character’s therapist.
A more recent appearance was in the 2019 comedy Attachments.
With all of the contributions that the actress had made to the entertainment industry, she
is worth $5 million today.
The actress is also still turning heads with her rare public appearances at the age of
82.
Katharine Ross remains best known for her roles in The Graduate, Butch Cassidy, and
the Sundance Kid, and The Stepford Wives, but those are only three of the many, many
films that she has appeared in over the course of her career.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Katharine Ross was said to have
made several nude appearances on the stage before the start of her Hollywood career and
that she was married four times before finally finding success in her love life with fifth
husband Sam Elliott?
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