Love Story’s Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal Reunite at Harvard Over 45 Years After Iconic Film

Love means never having to say you’re sorry—even after more than 45 years. 

In a beautiful twist of timing, the lead stars of the 1970 romantic drama Love Story reunited on the campus that first brought their beloved characters together. 

The 7-time Academy Award nominated film consumed the hearts of all who saw it with the teary-eyed saga of Harvard University students Oliver Barrett (played by blond heartthrob Ryan O’Neal) and Jenny Cavelleri (Hollywood newcomer Ali MacGraw), who eventually cross paths on the campus, but lead opposite lives.

Cavalleri, a working-class music scholar, quickly piques the interest of Barrett, an athlete and heir to a wealthy alumni family fortune. They fall in love, they wed, but when they try to have a baby, the 24-year-old couple learns (SPOILER ALERT) that Jenny is dying from cancer.  

More than four decades later, the film’s leading stars have crossed paths once again on their old stomping grounds. 

The 74-year-old O’Neal and 76-year-old McGraw will act together again as the lead stars of the touring play, Love Letters. The script follows two friends who are married to significant others, but keep in touch through the mail. 

With a week of performances in Boston, the pair spared some time to reminisce in Cambridge and spoke before university students about the lives they’ve lead since their blockbuster characters first hit the big screen—including personal battles with addiction and cancer.

While O’Neal suffered the loss of great love Farrah Fawcett from cancer in 2009, he was also diagnosed with leukemia and prostate cancer in 2001 and 2012. McGraw faced alcohol addiction and spoke of her treatment at the Betty Ford Center in her recent autobiography, Moving Pictures.

The actors kept their visit light-hearted, however, taking a spin in a convertible similar to the one they famously rode in as a couple in the film. 

It’s clearly been quite a whirlwind life for these two stars—and now at over 70 years old, they seem to have come full circle.

Now, that‘s a love story for the ages. 

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