Who Is Sam Elliott's Wife? All About Actress Katharine Ross (2025)

Sam Elliott and his wife Katharine Ross have been married for nearly four decades.

Their love story dates back to the late 1960s, when Ross starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Elliott had a small background role. While he admired her from afar on set, they didn't truly connect for another decade when they both appeared in 1978's The Legacy. When Ross split from her then-husband shortly after, Elliott made his move — and the pair have been together ever since.

The couple got married in 1984 and welcomed their daughter, Cleo Rose Elliott, just a few months later. Since then, Elliott and Ross have continued to work together, both on-screen and behind the scenes. Looking back at their relationship, the A Star is Born actor says that they have both always put in the work it takes to keep their marriage successful.

"I think really what it boils down to is we love each other, and we work at it. And I think more importantly than anything, it takes wanting to be married," he told NPR in 2017. "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."

So, who is Sam Elliott's wife? Here's everything to know about Katharine Ross.

She was born and raised in Hollywood, California

Ross was born on Jan. 29, 1940, in Los Angeles. Although her parents were not in the entertainment industry, she spent some of her childhood in Hollywood before the family moved to Walnut Creek, a neighborhood near San Francisco Bay Area. She went on to graduate from Las Lomas High School in 1957.

She began her acting career while she was in college

It wasn't until Ross was attending Santa Rosa Junior College that she discovered her interest in acting. After appearing in the school's production of The King and I, she decided she wanted to seriously pursue a career in entertainment. At the end of the school year, Ross officially dropped out and applied to The Actors Workshop in San Francisco. She worked and studied there for three years, during which she earned quite a few minor television roles.

"I was queen of the screen tests. Daily runs from San Francisco to L.A. and back in time for the Workshop's curtain time," Ross told Life Magazine in 1968. "I played a whole string of hit-and-run drivers: an innocent hit-and-run driver, a hardened hit-and-run driver, a well-to-do, snotty teenage hit-and-run driver. On Gunsmoke, I was a sympathetic crippled clubfoot."

She got her big break when she appeared in The Graduate

After landing numerous small parts, Ross signed a deal with Universal, and in 1966, she was cast in her first starring role in the movie Games. While working on the film, she learned that director Mike Nichols was interested in casting her in The Graduate. The movie ended up becoming her big break and earned her both an Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.

She is very passionate about riding horses

Ross has spent much of her life riding horses, falling in love with the sport when she was just 7 years old. Since then, she's had the opportunity to appear in several films where she got to ride horses on screen, including Rodeo Girl and The Legacy.

"My own horse was the first thing I bought after I did my first movie, Shenandoah," Ross told Cowboys & Indians magazine. "[Being horseback] kind of takes you away from your problems or whatever is bothering you. I feel very fortunate that I can get away into nature and take a great ride, and always come back feeling much better than when I started out."

She was married four times before meeting Elliott

Ross first tied the knot in 1960, marrying her college boyfriend, Joel Fabiani. The pair were only married for two years before they filed for divorce. In 1964, Ross married John Marion, and their union lasted until 1967. She was then married to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid cinematographer Conrad Hall from 1969 to 1973. A year later, she married Gaetano "Tom" Lisi, whom she had met on the set of The Stepford Wives. However, the former couple went their separate ways in 1979.

The fifth time appears to have been the charm for Ross as she and Elliott have now been married for nearly 40 years. It is The Big Lebowski star's first marriage.

She and Elliott first crossed paths on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Elliott first saw Ross while they were working on their 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. At the time, Ross was pursuing a relationship with Hall, the film's cinematographer, and Elliott was just a background extra in the film, so he decided not to approach her. He later told The Oklahoman that all he could do was "just watch Katharine come and go."

"My wife, Katharine Ross, and I both worked on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but 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," Elliott told AARP The Magazine in 2015.

She and Elliott reunited while filming The Legacy and wed in 1984

The pair went their separate ways after filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and didn't reunite for almost a decade. It wasn't until they both appeared in 1978's Gothic horror movie The Legacy that they actually interacted. While the duo played love interests on-screen, their relationship developed behind the scenes. As for what attracted Ross to Elliott, she says it was a combination of his distinctive baritone and rugged good looks.

"Probably all that and more," she told The Mercury News. "We were working together and one thing led to another. And here we are."

After Ross split from her then-husband Lisi in 1979, she pursued a relationship with Elliott. The couple went on to officially tie the knot in May 1984.

She and Elliott share one daughter

Just four months after getting married, Ross and Elliott welcomed their daughter, Cleo Rose Elliott, on Sept. 17, 1984.

Cleo pursued a career in the entertainment industry as a musician. She released her debut album No More Lies in 2008, and continues to make music today, as evidenced by her Instagram. While she may not have followed in her parents' acting footsteps, she has their full support, and in fact, they prefer it this way.

"My parents are totally supportive of this," she told The Malibu Times of her music career. "They're just happy I don't want to be an actor."

Over the years, she's accompanied her parents to several red carpet events, including the 2018 premiere of her dad's film A Star is Born as well as the 2019 Academy Awards.

She and Elliott have costarred in numerous projects together

Elliott and Ross didn't stop appearing on screen together after their roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Legacy. The couple have continued to work together, starring in numerous projects like television films Travis McGee, Houston: The Legend of Texas and Conagher, the latter of which Elliott called "one of the highlights of my career" while speaking to The Oklahoman. Most recently, they appeared in 2017's The Hero, where Elliott portrayed an aging Western film star while Ross played his ex-wife.

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