Sam Elliott’s Wife Katharine Ross Is an Oscar Nominee! Get to Know the Actor’s Longtime Spouse

After more than 35 years of marriage, it’s clear that Sam Elliott and his wife, Katharine Ross, are one of Hollywood’s most successful love stories. The A Star Is Born actor met his spouse after getting his start in the film industry.

Who Is Katharine Ross?

Like Sam, Katharine is an Academy Award nominee who has made quite a name for herself in Hollywood. She made her film debut in 1965’s Shenandoah and subsequently appeared in The Singing Nun, The Graduate, The Stepford Wives, Fools and more. She was married four times before her relationship with Sam.

In 1969, both Katharine and Sam appeared in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. At the time, she was married to her third husband, Conrad Hall. It wasn’t until years later that the two performers crossed paths again.

“I didn't dare try to talk to her then. She was the leading lady. I was a shadow on the wall, a glorified extra in a bar scene,” Sam told AARP in July 2015 of meeting his now-wife for the first time. "It wasn't until we made The Legacy [in 1978] that we actually interacted. We have a common sensibility, but we also work at being together. You work past the s–t; you don't walk away from it. That's how relationships last.”

While making The Legacy, Katharine was married to her fourth husband, Gaetano Lisi. After their divorce in 1979, she moved on with Sam and they gave their love a real shot. The 1883 actor and the Home Before Dark actress got married in 1984.

Years after walking down the aisle, Sam revealed the secret to his lasting marriage.

“I think really what it boils down to is we love each other, and we work at it,” he told NPR in June 2017. “And I think more importantly than anything, it takes wanting to be married. The two things that I wanted in my life were to have a movie career and to be married, to have a family. And it's an embarrassment of riches that I've got both.”

In 2017, the longtime lovebirds shared the screen again in The Hero, where they played a divorced couple.

"I think we just like making movies and having that creative experience together is the best," Sam told The Los Angeles Times in November 2016. "It's just fun. It's a whole different kind of energy to go home with someone you're working with rather than go home to somebody who isn't working. It's a totally positive experience."

Do Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross Have Any Kids?

A few months after tying the knot, Sam and Katharine welcomed their first child together, daughter Cleo Rose Elliott, on September 17, 1984. Their only child is a musician and vocalist for the Uncle Becky Band. Cleo is thankful to have had her parents in her corner from the very beginning of her music career.

“My parents are totally supportive of this,” she told The Malibu Times in December 2008. “They’re just happy I don’t want to be an actor.”

Cleo has also accompanied her parents to several red carpet events over the years, including the 2013 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the 2018 premiere of A Star Is Born in Los Angeles and the 91st Annual Academy Awards in 2019.