Katharine RossBirth Place: Hollywood, California, USA Date of Birth: January 29, 1940 Heritage: American Contact Katharine Ross | 
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The Graduate Background: Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning American actress and writer hailed from Hollywood Katherine Ross was thrust into the spotlight playing Elaine Robinson, the object of Benjamin Braddock's (Dustin Hoffman) romantic obsession in “The Graduate” (1967), directed by Mike Nichols. For her bravura performance, the then up-and-coming performer was handed her first Golden Globe Award and a nomination at Oscar. A promising star of the mid-to-late 1960s, Ross continued to gain plaudits by receiving two BAFTA awards for her work in the films “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (both 1969), and a Golden Scroll award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in “The Stepford Wives” (1975). She picked up her next Golden Globe Award from “Voyage of the Damned” (1976), in which she offered notable scene-stealing turn as Jewish refugees' hooker daughter. However, her budding stardom seemed to decrease after the misfire “The Legacy” (1979), her first project with actor Sam Elliott, her future husband. By the time the couple got married in the mid 1980s, Ross' career took an improvement. They even jointly won a Western Heritage award for their collaboration in the made-for-TV film “Conagher” (1991), which they starred and wrote together. Ross' more recent film projects include “Home Before Dark” (1997), “Donnie Darko” (2001) and “Eye of the Dolphin” (2007). Apart from her film and television work, Ross is known as the writer of the children books “My Favorite Things” and “Little Ballerina.” Ross has spent her life outside the limelight with her husband of over two decades, Sam Elliott, and their daughter, Cleo Rose Elliott. Her love life once also linked to cinematographer Conrad L. Hall (together the late 1960s to early 1970s), who worked with Ross in the films “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
Childhood and Family: Katharine Juliet Ross was born in Hollywood, California, on January 29, 1940, when her father was in the Navy. Her family later settled in Walnut Creek, California, east of San Francisco. Since the late 1960s, Katherine has resided in Malibu, California. She attended Santa Rosa College in Santa Rosa, California and was trained at the San Francisco Workshop. In 1984, Katherine was married to the film and TV actor of Sacramento, California native Sam Elliott (born on August 9, 1944). They welcomed their first child together, daughter Cleo Rose Elliott, in 1985.
Career: Katharine Ross joined San Fransisco Workshop in 1962, and then appeared in a stage production of “The Devil's Discipl” at The Balcony Theater before emerging as a TV actress. She debuted as Teresa Parrelli on an episode of the NBC series “Sam Benedict” (1962) and followed the performance with a series of guest shoots in series like “The Lieutenant” (1963), “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (1963), “Arrest and Trial” (1964), “Gunsmoke” (1964, 1965) and “Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre” (1965). Her first film role arrived in 1965 when director Andrew V. McLaglen tapped her to portray the daughter-in-law of James Stewart on “Shenandoah,” a Western film which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Sound. Following a few more guest stints and appearances in such movies as Debbie Reynolds' “The Singing Nun” (1966) and the Curtis Harrington-helmed “Games” (1967), opposite James Caan and Simone Signoret, Ross attracted wide public with her Academy Award-nominated performance as Elaine Robinson on director Mike Nichols' “The Graduate” (1967). As a college student who finds out that her mother (played by Anne Bancroft) and boyfriend (played by Dustin Hoffman) have had an affair, she also won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer-Female and a Golden Laurel for Female Supporting Performance, as well as received a nomination at BAFTA for Best Newcomer. Ross' subsequent movie performances further cemented her status as a promising star. In the action/adventure “Hellfighters” (1968), she memorably portrayed the daughter of John Wayne, Tish Buckman, while her role as Lola, Willie Boy's (played by Robert Blake) love interest, on “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here” won the actress a BAFTA for Best Actress in 1971. The latter film marked the blacklisted director Abraham Polonsky first project in 21 years. Ross worked again with “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here” costar Robert Redford for George Roy Hill's “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (also 1969), which saw her being cast in perhaps her best known role as the country-bred schoolteacher Etta Place. Also costarring with Paul Newman, she took home another BAFTA in 1971 for Best Actress. Although many of her following film projects were in sub-standard features, Ross maintained to give impact on most of her performances. In 1972, she costarred with Tom Smothers and John Astin as a anonymous woman who falls for tap-dancing magician in Brian De Palma's “Get to Know Your Rabbit” (1972) an was standout as a murder suspect in the modern mystery “They Only Kill Their Masters” (1972), opposite James Garner. Ross netted the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films' Golden Scroll for her starring role as Joanna Ingalls Eberhart, a suburban housewife who discovers an awful secret about her community, on the sci-fi horror film “The Stepford Wives” (1975), helmed by Brian Forbes. The talented performer fared better as the prostitute daughter of Jewish refugees, Mira Hauser, on the drama film “Voyage of the Damned,” starring Faye Dunaway and Oskar Werner. The role brought Ross a 1977 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Supporting Role. Still in 1976, Ross recreated her role as Etta Place for the ABC television film “ Wanted: The Sundance Woman,” and appeared as Rosa Mastrangelo in the French/British miniseries “Roots of the Mafia.” She returned to the big screen in 1978 with roles in “The Betsy,” opposite acting legend Sir Laurence Olivier, “The Swarm,” with Michael Caine, and the misfire “The Legacy,” along side future husband Sam Elliott. She closed out the decade by starring as the faithless wife on the made-for-TV film “Murder by Natural Causes” (1979). After supporting Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen in 1980's “The Final Countdown,” in which she portrayed the secretary to an American Senator in the 1940s, Ross focused her acting career on television. She rejoined Elliot for the NBC miniseries “Murder in Texas” (1981), playing the second wife of a Houston plastic surgeon who may have been involved in the death of his first wife, starred as Susy Hendrix in the TV film version of “Wait Until Dark” (1982), based on a play by Frederick Knott, and teamed up with Tom Selleck and (again) Elliott for the Western telepic “The Shadow Riders” (1982). From 1985 to 1987, she played the regular role of Francesca 'Frankie' Scott Colby Hamilton Langdon on the ABC primetime soap opera “The Colbys.” Returning to film after 1986's “Red Headed Stranger,” Ross undertook the costarring role of Grace Hines, opposite John Beck, in the independent drama “A Climate for Killing” in 1991, but subsequently revisited TV with the TNT film “Conagher” (1991), based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. Ross and her husband costarred and co-wrote the project and jointly netted Western Heritage's Bronze Wrangler for Television Feature Film in 1992. She then disappeared from public eye for several years until she was cast as a flimsy aunt named Rose in the festival screened “Home Before Dark” (1997). In 2001, Ross delivered a strong portrayal as the title character's psychiatrist in the cult film “Donnie Darko,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal. She followed it up with a costarring role in the festival darling “Don't Let Go” in 2002 and a feature part in the unsold TV pilot “Capital City” in 2004. Her latest film, the indie-drama “Eye of the Dolphin,” was released in the U.S on August 24, 2007. Previously, it had been screened at several festivals, including the 2006 Bahamas International Film Festival in Bahamas and the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival in the U.S.
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