Acting is a fickle business where your career can end at any time.
Only a lucky few manage to stay relevant for more than a couple of years.
The truly fortunate (and talented) among them last much longer.
A few successful actors and actresses have managed to keep going for 5, 6, 7, 8, or even
9 decades.
They’ve been in enough movies and TV shows for multiple generations to know who they
are.
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Keep watching to learn about the stars with the longest acting careers in Hollywood (ranked).
Goldie Hawn Goldie Hawn has had a 56-year career.
Her first TV appearance was in 1967 on the show Good Morning World.
She’s appeared in several comedies including Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Butterflies
are Free, and There’s a Girl in My Soup.
She earned an Academy Award for the 1970 film Cactus Flower.
Goldie is best known for playing Judy Benjamin in Private Benjamin in 1980.
Her other famous movies include Death Becomes Her and The First Wives Club.
Goldie is now 76 years old.
A few of her most recent roles include the 2017 film Snatched and the 2018 film Christmas
Chronicles.
Kurt Russell Goldie Hawn’s husband Kurt Russel has also
had an impressive 60-year career.
He began as a child actor in the 1962 film Dennis the Menace.
He also appeared in the Elvis film It Happened at the World’s Fair the next year.
Kurt signed a contract with Disney and appeared in 3 films with the company, including Follow
Me Boys, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and The Barefoot Executive.
Elvis also brought him success again when he portrayed the singer in the 1979 film Elvis.
Kurt is 71 years old and continues to act.
He was in the Oscar-nominated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019.
Eva Marie Saint Eva Marie Saint began her career in 1947 with
the short film This is the Life.
She then landed a role in the 1946 show Campus Hooplah.
She played the lead female role in the 1954 film On the Waterfront and earned an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Eva’s most recent role was Katara in the 2014 TV show The Legend of Kora.
She’s had a 67-year-long career so far.
She’s now 93 years old and continues to act.
Anthony Hopkins Anthony Hopkins was a stage actor but made
his film debut in 1967 with 2 films; A Flea in Her Ear and The Lion in Winter.
He then racked up a long list of TV, film, and stage critics before catching the world’s
attention as Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.
Anthony is 84 years old and has been acting for at least 62 years.
He was even nominated for an Academy Award as recently as 2020 for The Two Popes.
Tippi Hedren Tippi Hedren is best known for starring in
Hitchcock films such as The Birds.
Her first official credit was the 1950 film The Petty Girl, and her most recent was the
2017 movie The Ghost and the Whale.
That means she’s been acting for over 67 years.
Tippi is now 88 years old and hasn’t retired.
She recently appeared in shows such as Raising Hope and Cougar Town and earned a voice role
in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Rita Moreno Rita Moreno made her Broadway debut at the
age of 13 in Skydrift.
She was still going by the name Rosita when she got her first movie role in the 1950 film
So Young, So Bad.
Her most famous role was Anita in West Side Story.
Throughout her 68-year career, she’s become one of only 12 actors to earn an EGOT with
an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Rita is 86 years old.
She still appears in modern comedies such as One Day at a Time, Jane the Virgin, and
Grace and Frankie.
Cloris Leachman Cloris Leachman first appeared on TV in 1948
on The Ford Theater Hour as Dora the Maid.
Her other early roles included Kiss Me Deadly, Lassie, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid.
Her most famous role came in 1970 when she began playing Phylis Lindstrom on The Mary
Tyler Moore Show.
It earned her 2 Emmy nominations and spawned a spin-off series called Phillis.
She earned her first Academy Award for her work on the 1972 movie The Last Picture Show.
Cloris also appeared in more modern TV shows in the later stages of her career.
They included Malcolm in the Middle, Raising Hope, American Gods, and Mad About You.
Cloris Leachman died on January 27, 2021.
She earned 8 Emmy awards throughout a career that lasted for over 70 years.
William Shatner William Shatner began acting on Broadway but
made his film debut with the 1958 film The Brothers Karamazov.
His first TV role came in 1965 on the show For the People.
That was also the year he accepted the role he became famous for; Captain James T. Kirk
on Star Trek.
He reappeared for the film in 1979.
William has acted in several other roles since then across the course of his 71-year-long
career.
They include Danny Crane in Boston Legal, a role that won him 2 Emmys, and movies such
as Devil’s Revenge and Creators: The Past.
George Hamilton George Hamilton debuted in the 1958 mini-series
The Veil.
He then appeared in films such as Crime and Punishment US in 1959 and Home from the Hill
in 1960.
He earned even more roles once he signed a contract with MGM.
He’s 83 years old now, and his 70-year career shows no signs of stopping.
He still appears as Spencer on American Housewife.
Jeff Bridges Jeff Bridges was only 8 when he landed his
first TV show.
His father ran Sea Hunt and let him join the cast in 1958.
Jeff didn’t get a lot of other notable roles until the 1971 film The Last Picture Show.
It launched his career, and he appeared in King Kong in 196, Winter Kills in 1979, Tron
in 1982, and The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1979.
One of his most recent movies was Bad Times at the El Royale in 2018.
He also appeared in the TV series The Old Man in 2022.
Jeff has been acting for 71 years.
He’s earned 6 nominations and 1 Academy Award over his long career.
Pat Carroll Pat Carroll’s recent death shook Disney
fans because she was famous for her portrayal of Ursula in The Little Mermaid.
What many didn’t know was that she’d already been working in Hollywood for 40 years before
that role came along.
Her final acting credit came in 2018 on an episode of Tangled: The Series.
She had a 75-year career before her death on July 30, 2022.
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Keep watching to learn about more stars with the longest acting careers in Hollywood.
Julie Andrews Julie Andrews began her acting career on stage.
She then moved on to movie.
Two of her most famous were Mary Poppins in 1964 and The Sound of Music in 1965.
She lost the singing voice that had made her a musical staple after an operation in 1997,
but it didn’t ruin her career.
She still appeared in several movies and TV shows, including The Princess Diaries and
Bridgerton.
Julie Andrews is currently 86 years old.
She’s been lighting up the stage and screen for 77 years.
Sir Bruce Forsyth The record for the longest TV career by a
male actor is held by Sir Bruce Forsyth.
He worked for 76 years from 1939-2015.
He debuted on TV in 1939 at 11 years old on the BBC show Come and Be Televised.
Bruce hosted Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1958.
His final TV role came on November 13, 2015.
He co-hosted a charity special called Children In Need, Strictly Come Dancing.
Betty White Betty White held the Guinness World Record
for the Longest TV Career for an Entertainer at 82 years.
She began by producing and starring in her own show, Life with Elizabeth, in 1953.
That led to other shows such as Petticoat Junction, That’s Life, and The United States
Steel Hour.
Betty got several other career-defining roles after that.
Playing Sue Ann Nivens on The Marry Tyler Moore Show earned her 2 Emmys.
Her most memorable role, Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, earned her a 3rd.
A few of the last shows and movies she starred in included The Bold and The Beautiful, The
Proposal, COmmunity, and You Again.
One of her last was Hot in Cleveland.
The TV world mourned when Betty White died on December 31, 2021.
Dercy Goncalves Dercy Goncalves is the only actress who can
touch Betty’s record with an 86-year-long career.
She was born in Brazil on June 26, 1907.
She ran away from home to join a theater troupe in 1922.
She acted in theater and film until 2008, then reappeared at the age of 101.
Dercy Goncalves died on July 19, 2008.
Everyone in her country honored her, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Mickey Rooney Joe Yule Jr. was born on September 23, 1920.
He began acting as part of his parent’s vaudeville act when he was only 17 months
old and then appeared in the 1926 short film Not to Be Trusted.
Mickey managed to keep his career alive for 90 years after that.
He was known for playing Santa Claus in at least 3 different Rankin Bass stop-motion
films.
His final appearance was Mr. Louis in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 2016.
Norman Llyod Norman Lloyd was the oldest living actor in
Hollywood at 105 years old but died on May 11, 2021.
He began his acting career in the 1930s and did plenty of theater and joined the Federal
Theater Project.
His official film debut came with the 1942 film Saboteur.
He continued to work until his death and joined the cast of Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age.
That gives him an impressively long career of at least 90 years.
Who’s your favorite classic actor or actress?
Let us know in the comments below.
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