Sam Elliott's Wife Had Several Marriages Before They Wed

Sam Elliott's enduring marriage to Katharine Ross offers hope that relationships can work long-term, even in Hollywood. But Ross, a retired actor best known for "The Graduate" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," nearly became the rule rather than the exception before meeting the "Landman" star in 1978. Having tied the knot in 1984, Elliott and Ross' marriage may be going strong for more than four decades, but that was actually Ross' fifth time saying "I do."

Ross' first marriage was to Joel Fabiani, a fellow aspiring actor whom she met at Santa Rosa Junior College. They wed in 1960, but the marriage ended after just two years in 1962, before she made it big. It didn't take her long to move on, marrying John Marion in 1964. Her second marriage followed a similar path, ending three years later in 1967. That was the year "The Graduate" came out, and her career exploded. While working on "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Ross met cinematographer Conrad Hall, who was her third husband for four years between 1969 and 1973.

Ross' fourth marriage came just a year later and lasted five years. She met Tom Lisi while filming "The Stepford Wives" and tied the knot in 1974, ending the marriage in 1979. By then, she had already met Elliott, who, unlike herself, had never been married before. This time, she took things slowly. The two were in a relationship for several years before finally tying the knot. It took her some trial and error, but Ross found her one — and so did Elliott.

The relationship history of the "Landman" star's real-life partner may be unusual, but it proved to have no bearing on Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross' longtime marriage. Perhaps "The Big Lebowski" actor's biggest virtue was patience. While the two officially met while working on "The Legacy" in 1978, Elliott had crossed paths with his future wife a decade before on the set of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." But he knew better than to approach her back then.

After all, the popular Western marked Elliott's early start in Hollywood, while Ross was already reaching her peak. "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," he told the AARP in 2015. His chance came years later, proving to be perfect timing. Back during "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Ross had just met her third husband. In 1978, she was about to end her fourth marriage, so it worked out for the best. Ross was 38 then, and Elliott was 33.

They knew they had found their one and never looked back. Elliott doesn't think there's a profound secret behind his successful marriage other than his and Ross' desire to work at it. "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," he said on NPR's "Fresh Air" in 2017.