With the stunningly fast rate with which many Hollywood stars seem to exchange their partners and enjoy multi marriages, you would be forgiven for thinking everyone in tinseltown engages in serial matrimony. On the contrary, there are quite a few in the industry who seem to have avoided the curse of Hollywood short-term-marriage syndrome and remained with the same partner for longer than 5 years and stayed married for many years.
Here are the stars that have, through thick and thin, stuck together for 25 or more years!
1. Denzel & Pauletta Washington (32 Years)
This handsome Academy Award winning actor — who hasn’t aged much since People named him Sexiest Man Alive in 1996 — met his future wife, Pauletta Pearson, on the set of the television film Wilma in 1977. They were married on June 25, 1983.
2. Billy & Janice Crystal (45 Years)
It makes sense that the funniest man alive can keep his wife happy for 42 long years while sharing the same bedroom, bathroom and toothpaste? Janice probably couldn’t stop laughing long enough to say the word divorce. “The reason we are together,” is because she puts lead in my shoes and doesn’t let me fly off the earth. And it’s always been that way.”
3. Tom & Lois Bergeron (33 Years)
Tom and Lois have been waltzing together since 1982. The Dancing With the Stars host and his lovely wife have two children together.
4. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick (26 years)
She’s The Closer. He’s the baby-faced star of FOX’s The Following, along with dozens—hundreds? thousands?—of movies like Footloose, Apollo 13, and Mystic River.
The couple met: while filming the play Lemon Sky for PBS in the late ‘80s. Sedgwick wasn’t too fond of Bacon at first. She recalls“He wasn’t very friendly, he had an attitude.” and he knew it “I was more into her than she was into me. I think she found me cocky and pretentious.” he said. He asked her out a few times. She eventually broke down, and they married months later.
5. Samuel L. Jackson & LaTanya Richardson (35 Years)
One of the most respected actors in Hollywood, Samuel L. Jackson’s films “have grossed more money in box office sales than any other actor in the history of Hollywood.” It seems his personal life has also seen some huge returns. Jackson married actress and sports channel producer LaTanya Richardson in 1980.
6. Ringo Starr & Barbara Bach (34 Years)
The Beatles drummer met his “Bond Girl” (The Spy Who Loved Me) on the set of Cavemanin 1980. When Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach survived a serious car accident, the two knew who they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with.
7. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne (32 years)
This rocker family have been married since July 4, 1982How you know them: She’s a rock manager and the bawdy, delightful co-host of The Talk. He’s the Prince of Darkness.
They met when Sharon’s father, Don Arden, was famously managing Black Sabbath and his 17-year-old daughter first met frontman Ozzy Osbourne in the early ‘70s. By 1979, Ozzy was a solo act, Sharon was his lover and manager, and the rest … is bat-biting, drug-and-alcohol-fueled, reality show history.
8. Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel (38 Years)
Suzanne met her future husband in 1969 when she was a “prize model” on the syndicated game show Anniversary Game starring Alan Hamel. The Three’s Company star married her Prince Charming in 1977, and he became her manager. Ms. Somers has been quoted as saying the two secrets to having a long marriage is “talk, talk, talk” and “great sex.”
9. Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber (28 Years)
Mark Harmon, who was named the “Sexiest Man Alive” back in 1986 by People, marriedMork & Mindy actress Pam Dawber in 1987. The NCIS star and his beautiful wife, who have two sons together, guard their privacy and won’t open up about their marriage or their family life, so it’s hard to articulate why their Hollywood marriage has stood the test of time (and to find pictures of them together). Maybe they just love each other very, very much. Yep, that’s it.
10. David McCallum and Katherine Carpenter (48 Years)
David McCallum, who starred in the 1960s TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and has been playing Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on the television series NCIS since 2003. McCallum married Katherine Carpenter in 1967 and they have been living happily ever after.
11. Tom Selleck and Jillie Mack (28 Years)
Best known for his portrayal of private investigator Thomas Magnum on the television series Magnum P.I., spilled the beans to Good Housekeeping about why his marriage is so successful: “Hopefully you marry someone who you not only love, but who you like as well. I just still enjoy my wife’s company enormously. She’s hilariously funny, and we make a point, no matter how busy we are, to stop and spend time together. We make sure we sit down and enjoy a nice long dinner.”
12. Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest (30 years)
She’s a TV and movie star, as well as the spokeswoman for Activia yogurt. He’s the brilliant director of improvised comedies like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.
Years before their official first date, Curtis saw a picture of Guest in Rolling Stone—dressed like this, promoting This is Spinal Tap—and said to a friend, “I’m going to marry that man.” She cold-called him, and he never called back. Months later, they locked eyes at a Hollywood restaurant called Hugo’s. He phoned the next day, and they walked the aisle less than six months later.
13. Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan (26 years)
He’s played Marty McFly in the movie series Back To The Future, Alex P. Keaton, and many more all-American wiseasses. She’s a film and TV actress whose most notable role was playing Fox’s girlfriend on Family Ties. They’re both heavily involved in funding research for Parkinson’s Disease, which Fox has been battling since 1991. They met on Family Ties—but nothing happened at first. The couple told Oprah:
POLLAN: It wasn’t that I wasn’t attracted to him—I was just dating someone else.
FOX: And it wasn’t that I wasn’t attracted to her—the guy she was dating was just bigger than me.
14. Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross (31 Years)
Elliott, who played card player #2 in the opening scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, is Ross’s fourth husband. They started dating in 1978 when they both starred in The Legacy and did not marry until 1984. Elliott once explained why their marriage works: “I think you’ve got to work at it [marriage], and I think (it’s) the fact that we’re in love and that we’re both outdoor types and love animals and like growing stuff in the yard. I think we were lucky to find each other. It’s been a good one.” Katharine’s take: “We have a deal. Unless we’re working together, we don’t work at the same time.”
15. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson (25 years)
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson married in 1988 after meeting on the set of his television show Bosom Buddies (1980), and the couple have two sons, Chester and Truman. With a marriage more than two decades long and still going strong, they are thought of by many as the celebrity world’s perfect couple.
16. Steven and Maureen Van Zandt (31 Years)
The most famous member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band — who also played the stone-faced Silvio Dante on The Sopranos — married actress Maureen Santoro on December 31, 1983.
17. Meryl Streep and Don Gummer (37 Years)
The woman who has been called the greatest actress of our generation seems to have a handle on her personal life as well as her prolific career. Streep and Gummer, who have four children, met through her brother, Harry. Streep’s marriage secret: “Goodwill and willingness to bend — and to shut up every once in a while. There’s no road map on how to raise a family: it’s always an enormous negotiation. But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can’t imagine eschewing one for the other.”
18. Christopher and Georgianne Walken (46 Years)
I have no idea why I’m shocked that actor Christopher Walken has been married for 43 years. I wasn’t even sure he was married until I looked it up. His wife, Georgianne, is a casting director responsible for casting such television shows as The Sopranos andEntourage. They’ve flown under the radar for so long but perhaps they should come out of hiding. It would be so refreshing for them to share their secret of marital bliss.
19.Keith Richards and Patti Hansen (31 years)
20 Sir Michael and Lady Shakira Caine (43 years)
With a little investigation however, Michael found that Shakira wasn’t Brazilian as he had originally thought but Indian and that she actually lived only a few kilometres away from him. Michael wasted no time, got her telephone number and asked her out.
He must have received a positive response because the couple were married on January 8, 1973. She was 25 and he was 40, and some questioned how much they had in common. But the marriage is said to be one of the strongest in show business and has certainly proved the critics wrong.
Tom says that isn’t his wife…
Shouldn’t you add Bonnie Bartlett and William Daniels? Married since ’51
Thank you for the tip.