Katharine Juliet Ross was born on January 29, 1940, in Hollywood/Los Angeles, California, which means Katharine Ross’s age today is 86. She is best known for playing Elaine Robinson opposite Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967) and Etta Place opposite Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
Over a career spanning more than five decades, Katharine Ross built a reputation as one of the defining leading ladies of late-1960s and 1970s American cinema, earning an Academy Award nomination, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards along the way. Today, questions about Katharine Ross’s age often come up alongside curiosity about her marriage to actor Sam Elliott and her long, varied filmography — both of which this article covers in detail.
Early Life and Family
Understanding Katharine Ross age background helps explain the poise and authenticity she later brought to the screen, particularly in Western roles.
- Birthplace and birth family: Ross was born in Los Angeles (some sources say Hollywood specifically) to Dudley Tyng Ross, a U.S. Navy officer who had also worked as a reporter for the Associated Press, and Katherine Hall Ross.
- A military household: Because her father was on active naval duty, the family relocated several times during her childhood — first to Virginia, then to Palo Alto, California.
- Settling in Walnut Creek: The family eventually put down roots in Walnut Creek, outside San Francisco, where Ross spent most of her formative years. This Northern California upbringing, with its access to horses and the outdoors, is often cited as the source of the natural, easy comfort she projected in Western films later in her career.
- An early love of horses: Ross was a keen, capable rider from a young age, long before she considered acting — a skill that became a professional asset once Westerns became a mainstay of her filmography.
- A private public figure: Unlike many Hollywood biographies, detailed information about siblings or extended family has not been widely published, and Ross herself has kept much of her personal life away from the press throughout her career.
Family Background Summary
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Full birth name | Katharine Juliet Ross |
| Date of birth | January 29, 1940 |
| Birthplace | Hollywood/Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Father | Dudley Tyng Ross — U.S. Navy officer, former Associated Press reporter |
| Mother | Katherine Hall Ross |
| Childhood locations | Virginia; Palo Alto, CA; Walnut Creek, CA |
| Notable early interest | Horseback riding |
Education
Ross’s academic path was less about formal training and more about the accidental discovery of acting — a discovery that, given Katharine Ross’s age at the time (still a teenager and young adult), shaped the rest of her career.
- High school: She graduated from Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek in 1957, at around age 17.
- College start: She enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College in the Bay Area.
- The spark for acting: Ross has said she fell in love with performing after being cast as one of the wives in a college production of The King and I.
- Leaving college for training: That experience led her to drop out of Santa Rosa to pursue acting more seriously; she also spent time at Diablo Valley College, where she appeared in her first-ever onscreen work, a student film.
- Formal acting training: Rather than completing a traditional degree, Ross moved to San Francisco and trained at the Actor’s Workshop, working initially as an understudy in stage productions while auditioning for other roles.
- No traditional graduation: Because she left junior college to pursue acting, there isn’t a “graduation age” in the conventional sense — her real turning point came in her late teens and early twenties, when stage work in San Francisco led directly into television and film auditions.
Career
Katharine Ross’s career took shape gradually through television work before exploding into film stardom in the late 1960s. Tracking her career alongside Katharine Ross’s age at each stage shows just how quickly her breakthrough arrived once it began.
- Early television westerns: Much of Ross’s early paid acting work came in TV Westerns, a genre that would define a large part of her career and take full advantage of her horsemanship and natural screen presence.
- TV debut: She made her television debut in an episode of Sam Benedict in 1962, when she was 22.
- Film debut: Her first film role came in the Civil War drama Shenandoah (1965), starring James Stewart.
- Breakthrough year: 1967 was the turning point — she co-starred with James Caan and Simone Signoret in Games, and, in the same year, landed the role that would define her career: Elaine Robinson in The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman. She was 27 at the time.
- Oscar recognition: Her performance in The Graduate earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, along with a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: In 1969, at age 29, she played Etta Place opposite Paul Newman and Robert Redford, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for the role.
- 1970s work: She continued steadily through the decade, including a striking, offbeat performance in The Stepford Wives (1975) and a second Golden Globe win for Voyage of the Damned (1976).
- Later films and TV: She appeared in The Swarm (1978), The Legacy (1978) — where she met her future husband Sam Elliott — The Final Countdown (1980), and various television movies including Murder by Natural Causes (1979) and Murder in Texas (1981).
- Career honors: In 1990, she won a Golden Boot Award recognizing her contributions to the Western genre.
- Later-career work: Ross voiced a role in American Dad! in 2016, and in 2017 — at age 77 — she starred alongside her husband Sam Elliott in the comedy-drama The Hero. She has also written a children’s book, Grover Grover Come on Over!
Career Timeline
| Year | Milestone | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | High school graduation | Graduated Las Lomas High School, Walnut Creek |
| 1962 | Television debut | Appeared in an episode of Sam Benedict |
| 1965 | Film debut | Shenandoah, starring James Stewart |
| 1967 | Breakthrough | Games and The Graduate; Oscar nomination, Golden Globe win |
| 1969 | Major hit | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; BAFTA Award |
| 1975 | Cult favorite | The Stepford Wives |
| 1976 | Second Golden Globe | Voyage of the Damned |
| 1978 | Met future husband | The Legacy, co-starring Sam Elliott |
| 1990 | Career honor | Golden Boot Award for Western genre contributions |
| 2017 | Later-career highlight | The Hero, opposite Sam Elliott |
Relationships and Family Life
Ross’s personal life, much like her career, has been long and well-documented, with five marriages over the decades.
- First marriage: She married college sweetheart Joel Fabiani in 1960; the marriage ended in divorce in 1962.
- Second marriage: She married John Marion in 1964, divorcing in 1967.
- Third marriage: She married acclaimed cinematographer Conrad L. Hall in 1969; they divorced in 1974.
- Fourth marriage: She married Gaetano “Tom” Lisi in 1974, divorcing in 1979.
- Fifth marriage — Sam Elliott: Ross met actor Sam Elliott while filming The Legacy (1978), and the two married in 1984. Their marriage has lasted more than four decades, making it by far her longest — a fact often highlighted alongside discussions of Katharine Ross’s age, since the couple has aged in the public eye together and occasionally worked together on screen, including in The Hero (2017).
- Family: Ross and Elliott have one daughter together, Cleo Rose Elliott, born in 1984, who has pursued a career in music.
- Public perception: Ross has generally maintained a low public profile relative to her level of fame, giving relatively few interviews in later decades and largely avoiding tabloid controversy.
Net Worth
Because Ross has been a private figure for much of her career, precise financial details are not publicly documented. Widely cited celebrity-finance estimates put her net worth in the range of $20 million, though — as with most celebrity net worth figures — this should be treated as an approximation rather than a confirmed figure, since it isn’t sourced from any official financial disclosure.
| Category | Estimated Details |
|---|---|
| Estimated net worth | Approximately $20 million (unverified estimate) |
| Primary income source | Decades of film and television acting income |
| Secondary income | Author royalties (children’s book), television appearances |
| Notable career earnings | Multiple major studio films from the late 1960s through 1980s |
| Verification status | Not officially disclosed; based on third-party estimates |
Other Ventures
- Authorship: Ross wrote a children’s book, Grover Grover Come on Over!, expanding her creative work beyond acting.
- Limited public/digital presence: Unlike many contemporary celebrities, Ross has not maintained an active social media presence, consistent with her generally private approach to fame.
- Occasional public appearances: She has appeared at industry retrospectives and award events tied to her Western film legacy, such as the Golden Boot Awards.
- On-screen collaborations with Sam Elliott: Beyond The Legacy and The Hero, her professional life has occasionally intersected with her husband’s acting career, giving audiences rare glimpses of the couple together on screen.
Charitable Work
There is limited publicly available, verifiable information about specific philanthropic initiatives or charitable organizations formally associated with Katharine Ross. Rather than speculate, it’s worth noting that many actors of her generation supported causes privately without public campaigns, and no confirmed record of her charitable activities appears in mainstream biographical sources at this time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Katharine Ross in 2026? Katharine Ross was born on January 29, 1940, which makes her 86 years old in 2026.
Who is Katharine Ross married to? Katharine Ross is married to actor Sam Elliott. The couple wed in 1984 after meeting on the set of The Legacy in 1978, making it her fifth and longest-lasting marriage.
What is Katharine Ross’s net worth? Her net worth is commonly estimated at around $20 million, though this figure comes from third-party celebrity-finance sites rather than an official disclosure.
What does Katharine Ross do for a living? Ross is a retired American actress, best known for The Graduate (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). She has also written a children’s book.
Does Katharine Ross have any children? Yes. She has one daughter, Cleo Rose Elliott, born in 1984, with her husband Sam Elliott.