Katharine Ross

Ross has been married five times. In 1960, she married fellow acting student Joel Fabiani, with the marriage ending in divorce in 1962. Her second marriage was to John Marion from 1964 until their divorce in 1967. After completing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, she married the film's cinematographer, Conrad Hall, in 1969, and they divorced in 1973. She married Gaetano Lisi in 1974 after meeting on the set of The Stepford Wives, divorcing in 1979.

Ross first crossed paths with actor Sam Elliott on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, though Elliott only had a small background part and they did not interact. The two reconnected and began dating while co-starring in the 1978 horror film The Legacy. They married on May 1, 1984, and welcomed their daughter, Cleo Rose Elliott, in September 1984.

Ross was born in Los Angeles, California, to Katherine Washburn and Dudley Tyng Ross, a naval officer who had also worked as an Associated Press reporter. Her family lived in Virginia and Palo Alto before settling in Walnut Creek, California. Ross became an avid horse rider during childhood and graduated from Las Lomas High School in 1957.

While studying at Santa Rosa Junior College, Ross took an interest in acting after appearing in a production of The King and I. She subsequently moved to San Francisco and joined the Actor's Workshop, training and performing there for three years. To support herself, she traveled to Los Angeles for television roles, making her small-screen debut in a 1962 episode of Sam Benedict and appearing in series such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke.

Ross made her feature film debut in the 1965 Civil War drama Shenandoah opposite James Stewart. Following supporting roles in The Singing Nun and Mister Buddwing, she starred in the thriller Games (1967) alongside Simone Signoret and James Caan. At Signoret's recommendation, director Mike Nichols cast Ross as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 comedy-drama The Graduate. Her performance opposite Dustin Hoffman brought major critical recognition, earning her a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1969, Ross starred as schoolteacher Etta Place in the Western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid alongside Paul Newman and Robert Redford. That same year, she played Lola opposite Redford and Robert Blake in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. For her performances in both films, Ross won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

In 1975, Ross starred in the science-fiction horror film The Stepford Wives, winning the Saturn Award for Best Actress. She earned a second Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1976 historical drama Voyage of the Damned, and later appeared in the disaster film The Swarm (1978) and the science-fiction release The Final Countdown (1980).

During the 1980s, Ross shifted much of her focus to television films and series, including starring as Francesca Scott Colby on the primetime soap opera The Colbys from 1985 to 1987. She also collaborated frequently with Sam Elliott, co-writing the teleplay and co-starring with him in the 1991 television film Conagher, as well as appearing alongside him in The Shadow Riders (1982), Houston: The Legend of Texas (1986), and the comedy-drama film The Hero (2017). Her other work includes playing therapist Dr. Lillian Thurman in the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko.