Throwback Pics Of Sam Elliott & Wife Katharine Ross Highlight Their Lasting Love

Everything about how Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross met and fell in love reads like a romance that was always meant to be. For one thing, the first unreciprocated spark happened on the set of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" — Elliott's first role in a major movie — where Ross was the leading lady, in an ensemble that included Paul Newman and Robert Redford. As for Elliott, well, he was so far down the call sheet that his credit read "Card Player #2." Elliott didn't even try to talk to Ross. "She was the leading lady," he told AARP in 2015, after he'd already been married to Ross for 31 years. "I was a shadow on the wall, a glorified extra in a bar scene."

But isn't that how storybook romances always begin? Call it a Western "Princess Bride," except the farm boy spends a decade too tongue-tied to say "as you wish." Elliott and Ross properly reunited on the 1978 horror film "The Legacy," with Elliott once again falling for a co-star, this time his on-screen love interest. After Katharine Ross split from her fourth husband, the two started dating and tied the knot six years later in 1984, marking Ross' fifth trip down the aisle and Sam Elliott's first walking up it. After more than four decades, they're still going strong. The Mercury News once asked Ross why she fell for him. Was it his world-famous, gravelly voice? His gritty handsomeness? The iconic mustache that makes Sam Elliott, Sam Elliott? She coyly said: "Probably all that, and more."

Looking at throwback pics that show the two of them together across the years, we're inclined to believe that true love does exist, "and more" — that maybe there really is a person out there for everyone. Even the "glorified extra in the bar scene."

In 1983, when this photo of Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross was taken, the two were not married yet. After a decade of different roles in the business and Elliott's slow climb from "Card Player #2" to a leading man, the couple was ready to tie the knot. Now, what really catches the eye in this photo is Elliott's choice of attire, standing in loud contrast to Ross' serene white blazer and skirt. But if we ignore Elliott's number-printed shirt for a moment and look at the whole picture, this is actually setting up the theme for four decades of couple photos, standing exactly this close, with his arm always finding her.

This is December 1988, at the 48th Annual Golden Apple Awards, and the man who turned up in a shirt doing long division five years prior had been replaced by a husband in a sharp grey suit and a tasteful red tie. Katharine Ross matched Sam Elliott beat for beat in a tailored brown skirt suit, and the two together evoked the very image of Old Hollywood done right. In fact, this did something even better, showing that stylish late '80s polish when fashion was all about structure and clean tailoring, not to mention shoulder pads so wide you could set a drink on.

At the 47th Golden Globe Awards in 1990, Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross were holding hands and looking as inseparable as ever. Elliott cut a sharp figure in a classic black tuxedo and bow tie, while Ross went regal in a black jacket worn over a white blouse. The body language in this particular moment is revealing; Elliott and Ross' fingers are laced together tightly, but in a way that doesn't seem deliberate or practiced. They're just doing it without either seeming to think about the gesture, which makes the moment more genuine and intimate.

By the night of the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 10, 1995, Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross had been married for 11 years, and they arrived at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium looking like the whole event was just cutting into quality time they'd rather spend together alone. Elliott had been nominated for his role in "Buffalo Girls," and looking at how happy he is in this photo, one might think he'd already won. As for Ross, she's looking at him with her undivided attention, hands clasped in his, and beaming up at him with the kind of adoration that's hard to fake for the cameras. (Oh, and — who is this imposter and what has he done to Sam Elliott's mustache?)

Even when you fast-forward a decade to 2005 at the 2nd Annual Penfolds Gala, Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross were still each other's favorite person in the room. Elliott had gone all silver with a matching mustache and long hair, looking quite dashing in that black tux. But let's be honest, nobody is looking at the tuxedo, nor Ross' elegant black gown for that matter. Whatever Elliott just said, it landed, because she is mid laugh and he's grinning like he knows he's not just won the moment but is also living his best life. It's the sort of connection that might make the rest of us look envious. The easy delight is still there, after more than two decades together.

For the final stop, we have Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross at the 5th Annual Critics' Choice Television Awards, where he won Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series for "Justified." But the photo of the night may not be him at the podium; it might be this one, tucked into the dinner table beside his wife, the two leaning in cheek-to-cheek, reminding us of celebrity couples who have aged gracefully, and proving that not even the slow march of time is powerful enough to wear down the spark. By May 2015, Elliott and Ross had been married for 31 years, and the easy closeness captured here looks no different than it did in the photo from 1983.