Shortly after a starring turn in Arthur Hiller’s 1970 classic Love Story opposite Ryan O’Neal made her a Hollywood phenomenon, Ali MacGraw found her place in Malibu. She mostly loved a small home, something close to the water with its fresh ocean air and easy access to Pacific Coast Highway. MacGraw shared a stunning home on the sand during much of the mid- to late 1970s while married to screen icon Steve McQueen. But even after they split, MacGraw stayed on the coast and never planned on leaving. That changed when a catastrophic fire ripped through Malibu in 1993, destroying her modest rental in the Rambla Pacifico neighborhood, taking with it all of her belongings, save for two dogs and a cat rescued by a friend of her only son, Josh Evans, from a marriage to producing legend Robert Evans. It proved to be a life-altering disaster that ultimately led her to a forever home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the devastation of fires, lessons learned from losing everything and her hopes for how L.A. steps out of the wreckage: “The more people behave with kindness and generosity, the better off we will be.”
Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Call Off Grammy Week Events as Cancelations Mount Following Deadly L.A. Wildfires
Every morning at 7 a.m., I would walk my two dogs with a friend and her two dogs, and then I would go off to Santa Monica, about 12 minutes away, for a yoga class. On our walk, I said, “Oh God, I smell smoke.” We looked up and there was a very dark cloud of smoke to the south, not in Malibu. I figured I would take my class, come home and drive my two cats and dogs up to Oxnard, away from whatever was burning, no big deal. I obviously didn’t throw anything in the car…