# Love Story (1970 film)
**Love Story** is a 1970 American romantic drama directed by [Arthur Hiller](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-hiller), written by Erich Segal, and starring [Ali MacGraw](https://www.edgepedia.org/ali-macgraw) and [Ryan O'Neal](https://www.edgepedia.org/ryan-oneal) as Harvard students from opposite backgrounds who marry against family resistance and then face the wife's terminal illness. Released by Paramount Pictures on 16 December 1970, it was the highest-grossing film of its year and received seven Academy Award nominations, winning one for Francis Lai's musical score.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) • [2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Love-Story-%281970%29) • [3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839459737-031/pdf?licenseType=open-access)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | New York opening 16 December 1970; Los Angeles opening 25 December 1970; distributed by Paramount Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) |
| Running time / rating | 100 minutes; rated GP on original release, PG on later re-release[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) • [2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Love-Story-%281970%29) |
| Budget and gross | $2.26 million budget; $106,397,186 domestic and $136,397,186 worldwide box office[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) • [2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Love-Story-%281970%29) |
| Awards | Seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; one win, Francis Lai for Music (Original Score)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) |
| Source novel | Erich Segal's novel, published by Harper & Row ahead of the film; Signet's paperback printing exceeded five million copies by December 1970[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) |
| Signature line | "Love means never having to say you're sorry," ranked #13 on AFI's "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes" list[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) |
| Principal cast | Ali MacGraw (Jennifer Cavilleri), Ryan O'Neal (Oliver Barrett IV), John Marley (Phil), Ray Milland (Oliver Barrett III), Tommy Lee Jones (Hank)[5](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/love-story) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
The film opens with its ending. A voiceover by Oliver Barrett IV asks, "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart, and Bach, the Beatles, and me?" The story then recounts, largely in flashback, how Oliver, a Harvard hockey player from a wealthy Boston family, met Jennifer Cavilleri, a Radcliffe music student working in the library to pay her tuition.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649)
The couple marries despite Oliver's father threatening to disinherit him. After law school the pair moves to New York, where Oliver joins a prestigious firm and they plan a family; Jennifer is then diagnosed with a fatal illness, and Oliver borrows $5,000 from his estranged father for her medical care without explaining why.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) The famous line is spoken by Jennifer during an argument earlier in the film; in the production it was delivered by Ali MacGraw on the front steps of a Victorian boarding house at 119 [Oxford Street](https://www.edgepedia.org/oxford-street) in [Cambridge, Massachusetts](https://www.edgepedia.org/cambridge-massachusetts), which stood in for the couple's first home.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525)
## From screenplay to bestseller
The unusual publishing history is central to the film's identity. Erich Segal wrote and sold *Love Story* as a screenplay, then turned it into a short novel published by Harper & Row, with a condensation in *Ladies' Home Journal*, before the film reached theaters.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) Sources date the novel's publication differently: the AFI Catalog gives 4 February 1969, while a WBUR account says it hit bookshelves on [Valentine's Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/valentines-day) 1970 and sold more copies than any novel that year.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) • [6](https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/03/29/love-story-hockey-cleary-bertagna) Either way it preceded the film, and the film critic [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael), writing in *The New Yorker*, called it the first novelization of a movie to reach the top of the American best-seller lists.[7](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/12/26/the-current-cinema-22) By December 1970 the Signet paperback printing had exceeded five million copies.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525)
Casting followed the property. [Robert Evans](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-evans), Paramount's worldwide production vice president, told the *Los Angeles Times* in May 1969 that he had bought Segal's screenplay with his girlfriend Ali MacGraw "in mind" for the leading role.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) According to Vincent Canby of *The New York Times*, Segal had originally written Jenny as a poor Jewish girl from the Bronx, but Paramount executives changed the character to an Italian girl from [Rhode Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/rhode-island).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649)
## Production
[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on 18 November 1969 in Boston and ran into [January 1970](https://www.edgepedia.org/january-1970), with additional scenes filmed in March 1970.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) The production used Harvard Yard, the Donald C. Watson ice rink in Allston, and nearby [Radcliffe College](https://www.edgepedia.org/radcliffe-college); college students filled the rink stands as background actors. Harvard hockey coach and Olympic gold medalist William Cleary stunt-doubled for Ryan O'Neal and served as a technical advisor; he had asked the producers for half of one percent of the revenues, was refused, and settled for a contribution to Friends of Harvard Hockey and new blazers for the team.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) • [6](https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/03/29/love-story-hockey-cleary-bertagna)
New York locations included [Central Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-park), Mount Sinai Medical Center's Klingenstein Pavilion, and [Fordham University](https://www.edgepedia.org/fordham-university), whose exterior stood in for the Harvard rink; the Barrett mansion was filmed at an estate in Old Westbury, Long Island. The final additional scenes were shot in [Newport Beach, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/newport-beach-california), doubling Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Paramount's ninety-seven-year-old founder Adolph Zukor visited on the last day of shooting.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) The film was Tommy Lee Jones's first feature; he had graduated from Harvard several months before filming began.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649)
## Reception and awards
The film was a commercial phenomenon. Against a budget of $2.26 million it earned $106.4 million domestically and $136.4 million worldwide, with 78 percent of its gross from the domestic market, and trade papers reported record-breaking business in its first weeks.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525) • [2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Love-Story-%281970%29) It was selected for the 1971 Royal Command Performance attended by Queen Elizabeth in London.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649)
At the Academy Awards it received seven nominations: Best Picture; Directing (Arthur Hiller); Actor (Ryan O'Neal); Actress (Ali MacGraw); Actor in a Supporting Role (John Marley); Writing (Erich Segal); and Music (Original Score), which Francis Lai won, the film's only Oscar.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) It also won five Golden Globes from seven nominations, according to Metacritic's awards summary.[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/love-story/)
Critical opinion divided. Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times critic who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, found Segal's prose style off-putting but judged the film "infinitely better than the book," crediting Hiller's direction with adding color, character, and detail without substantially changing the story.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/love-story-1970) Vincent Canby in *The New York Times* called it a beautiful romantic fantasy anchored by lovely performances from MacGraw and O'Neal.[10](https://film.one/film/love-story) Later assessments have been cooler: an aggregate of eight reviews gives a critics' score of 54, with three positive, two mixed, and three negative, and the split runs along the calendar, with critics writing in 1970 mostly favorable and later critics mostly not.[11](https://film.one/film/love-story/reviews) Metacritic's five-review Metascore, drawn from more favorable selections, stands at 84.[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/love-story/)
## Legacy
The film's cultural footprint outlasted its mixed later reviews. AFI ranked it #9 on its "100 Years...100 Passions" list of greatest screen romances, and the line "Love means never having to say you're sorry" placed #13 on "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649) Francis Lai's title melody became one of the most recognizable film themes, and the film's success made stars of its two leads while popularizing an "Ivy-League look" modeled on MacGraw's clothing.[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839459737-031/pdf?licenseType=open-access) The name Jennifer became one of the most popular names for American baby girls in the decade after release.[12](https://www.uplopen.com/en/books/3770/files/eabd128d-6c13-4b8b-b2a6-8a097b930254.pdf)
For its fiftieth anniversary in 2020, Paramount restored the film from a 4K film transfer and issued it in the Paramount Presents collector's line with a commentary by Arthur Hiller and a Filmmaker Focus by the film historian Leonard Maltin.[5](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/love-story) • [13](https://www.discdish.com/2021/02/08/blu-ray-release-love-story-1970/) The film also established the template of the illness-based young romance that Hollywood producers returned to repeatedly in later decades.[14](https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1777339/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
## References
1. [Love Story (1970), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/20649)
2. [Love Story (1970) – Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Love-Story-%281970%29)
3. [Heike Paul, "Love Story (1970)," Lexicon of Global Melodrama, transcript Verlag, 2022](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839459737-031/pdf?licenseType=open-access)
4. [Love Story (1970), AFI Catalog, history and production pages](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20649-LOVE-STORY?cp=1&pos=2&sid=1f839703-c7d3-47af-b66a-eaab9436de25&sr=0.016268525)
5. [Love Story, Paramount Pictures official page](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/love-story)
6. [The Hockey Legends Who Made Their Mark On 'Love Story', WBUR Only A Game (2019)](https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/03/29/love-story-hockey-cleary-bertagna)
7. [Pauline Kael, "Epic and Crumbcrusher," The New Yorker, 19 December 1970](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/12/26/the-current-cinema-22)
8. [Love Story Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/love-story/)
9. [Roger Ebert, "Love Story" review, Chicago Sun-Times, 1 January 1970](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/love-story-1970)
10. [Love Story (1970) review, Fi1m (quoting Vincent Canby, The New York Times)](https://film.one/film/love-story)
11. [Love Story (1970) — all 8 critics' reviews, Fi1m](https://film.one/film/love-story/reviews)
12. [Lexicon of Global Melodrama, open-access PDF](https://www.uplopen.com/en/books/3770/files/eabd128d-6c13-4b8b-b2a6-8a097b930254.pdf)
13. [Blu-ray Release: Love Story (1970), Disc Dish](https://www.discdish.com/2021/02/08/blu-ray-release-love-story-1970/)
14. [Celluloid Love, Stockholm University thesis on illness-based romances](https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1777339/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1970s › Released 1970 to 1974*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license