Sam Elliott is well-known not only for his movies and the legendary parts he has landed, but also for his enduring marriage, which is unusual in Hollywood.

They’ve been married for almost four decades, and the love between Elliott and actress Katharine Ross is unmatched.

The actor turned 79 on August 9, so in honor of his special day, let’s examine the unlikely beginnings of his and his wife’s happily ever after.

Elliott’s early acting roles were mostly bit parts or as an extra in films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

He met his future wife, Katharine Ross, on the set of this picture. However, he initially believed he stood no prospect of success with her. I didn’t have the nerve to approach her at the time. She played the primary female role. In 2015, he admitted to AARP, “I was a shadow on the wall, a glorified extra in a bar scene.”

In 1987, while filming The Legacy, the two actors reconnected and fell in love. Ross was still married to her fourth husband when she wed Elliott in 1984, but they later divorced. In the same year, a daughter was born to them.

They were on their honeymoon in Hawaii in 1985 when Elliott got a call from his agent about a part in the film Mask. According to The New York Times, Ross called the agent and assured him that she would get her husband back for the audition.

When Ross said “I do” to Elliott for the fifth time, she wasn’t sure if the marriage would last, but after 39 years, she knows she made the right choice.

The star of Molly and Lawless John adds, “Common sensibility, but we also work at being together,” when asked what makes their marriage last. You push through the crap and don’t give up. That’s the secret to a long-lasting romance, says AARP’s magazine.

According to Elliott, the two have found each other “through mutual love and a mutual respect,” and Ross is “a pretty stable girl who has been around the block.”

Perseverance is what matters most: “There are peaks and valleys like everything else, but you have to push on.”

Elliott has expressed an interest in relocating the pair to “La La Land” in the future, and currently they split their time between their residences in California and Oregon.
They finally got to play husband and wife onscreen in two different movies (The Hero and Love Letters), fulfilling a lifelong goal for the couple.

Sam Elliott, may you celebrate many more birthdays.