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Sam Elliott Met His Wife of 38 Years When She Was the ‘Leading Lady’ and Him a ‘Glorified Extra’
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Sam Elliott Met His Wife of 38 Years When She Was the ‘Leading Lady’ and Him a ‘Glorified Extra’

They worked together a decade later after their first meeting and that's when they hit it off and tied the knot.

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Emma McIntyre

Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 10, 2022. It has since been updated.

Sam Elliot and his wife Katharine Ross prove that true love exists.

The lovebirds have been together for nearly four decades and they are still blissfully in awe of each other, even after spending so much time together. 

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Their story is an example of how destiny works. Ross was married and divorced four times before she met Elliot. They met for the first time on the set of the 1969 Western drama Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.



 

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At that time, Elliot didn't even try to engage in a conversation with Ross, he revealed in 2015, during an interview with AARP The Magazine. "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 shared. 

However, Ross had piqued his interest, and he spent much of his time on set observing her and her co-stars perform. But that was the end of their interaction. They met again a decade later when they worked together again on the horror film The Legacy.

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This time, the two of them saw a lot more of each other while shooting for the film because they played a couple who were among a group of guests terrorized at a creepy English estate.

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Initially, they became friends, but it didn't take long for it to bloom into a relationship. Ross admitted that she was attracted to Elliot's baritone voice, mustache, and rugged good looks. "Probably all that and more. We were working together, and one thing led to another. And here we are," she said, per Country Living.

Ross and Elliot tied the knot in 1984. While it was Ross's fifth marriage, it was Elliot's first. They soon welcomed their daughter, Cleo Rose, the same year. 

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To remain married for such a long time is no easy feat, given that they are two different people with different opinions. It takes a lot of work to sustain a marriage. So, when asked what their secret is to their long-lasting relationship, Elliott said: "We have a common sensibility, but we also work at being together. You work past the [expletive]; you don't walk away from it. That's how relationships last."

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He also spoke about his marriage during an interview with NPR.

"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. 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. Katharine and I managed to make it work. And Cleo's right along the way with us," he said. 



 

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It really is refreshing to see couples last a long time, isn't it?

References:

https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/style-trends/info-2015/sam-elliott-celebrity-news.html

https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a43924/sam-elliot-katharine-ross-love-story/

https://www.npr.org/2017/06/29/534868595/sam-elliott-on-career-longevity-playing-tough-and-his-iconic-role-in-lebowski

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Emma McIntyre